Source
r/fixit•
LexGoyle

Broken plastic post molded into the casing of a game controller

I was fixing up an old Nintendo 64 game controller and as I was cleaning the plastic shell of the controller after having it soak in some water and bit of dish soap one of the pegs broke off at the base.

I tried some two part epoxy that was lying around and after a few hours I put the case back together. All well and good until it came time to stick the screw back in that post is supposed to hold in. It just twisted off.

Any ideas on how I can repair this thing so it's not going to just twist off when I screw it back together? Didn't even take much torque at all to break the bond.

Photo is here

Posted May 4, 2016, 6:31 AM UTC · edited

16
GeneralCnemistry•

Drill the hole all the way through and use a long machine screw and a nut?

1
LexGoyleOP•

I had considered that but that would impede on the use of the controller itself. Which sucks because that could be done in a few minutes.

1
alleycat2-14•

I have repaired dozens of these on other devices. There is no surface area to hold the post. So yes, go ahead and epoxy it again or use super glue. Either on is just holding it temporarily for the main fix. It looks like you have lots of room around the post that is open. Take a hot melt glue gun and gradually build up the base around the post maybe out half an inch or so. That's not critical. Make sure you have good contact with the pose all the way around. It takes several passes because the glue wants to settle at the bottom. You can rotate the piece as the glue sets to achieve what you want. For added strength I have a small burring tool that I use to rough up the plastic for even better adhesion. I don't think this extra step is warranted here. This is a simple fix and 100% successful.

1
LexGoyleOP•

Sounds like a good idea. Didn't think of using a hot glue gun to help out. I'll give it a spin. :)

1
alleycat2-14•

Your repaired post will be the strongest one in there. You might go ahead and reinforce the others too. Make sure there is no interference with anything.

1
LexGoyleOP•

Alrighty. So first pass didn't work out even with 24 hours for the epoxy to cure and hot glue to reinforce. However, I repeated this by doing layers of epoxy which did take some time but it built up more surface area and was finally able to screw this back together without a problem.

Thanks a ton for the advice. Definitely a learning experience and a new skill under my belt. :)

1