Conversation

Most complex superglue surgery in my life. Mending a cracked leg sleeve on a tripod. Had to glue 3 shards (still imperfect) and get glue in crack in front, then apply a g clamp while it dries, since it’s in tension and would pull apart.
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This won’t be perfect but should solve the soft play in one leg that makes leveling hard. Should hopefully get telescope alignment work better. Plan B, call maker for replacement sleeve. Plan C, 3d print one 😱.
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I’m making myself do more repair/maintenance these days partly because I think the world needs to return to a repair over replace ethos, partly for fun (replacing the sleeve is the best move here, and replacing the tripod is probably what’s actually possible)
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Gluing a complex fracture in a plastic structural component is simply not something the world economy wants consumer humans to do. This thing is made in China and getting the part probably means an hour in the phone and months waiting for it to be shipped across the world. Silly.
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In a better world, 3d printable CAD files would be available to any buyer. The most environment friendly solution here is 3d printing this at home. You’d fix the problem without shipping a small package from China OR sending an otherwise perfectly fine tripod to the landfill.
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Replying to
Industry optimized for minimum TCO over maximal lifespan and minimal lifecycle environmental cost. Will need a gradual shift to wabi sabi aesthetics over likenewism.
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Update on this saga. Much as David predicted, the superglue didn’t hold. But rather than try the epoxy plus whipping solution he suggested, I decided to just... ask for the spare part.
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Replying to @vgr
Superglue alone is not going to hold. Strongly suggest "whipping" with heavy nylon thread for permanent clamping, compression, additional tensile strength, and overcoating with epoxy, lacquer, varnish etc.
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After swapping it out, and examining the old leg, I realized why: the leg and sleep are kinda an irreversible assembly.
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I’m not even sure how it goes on 🤔 Any guesses? Only thing I can think of is some sort of long tool that inserts the pin from the other end of the tube.
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The telescoping mid-leg sleeve has the same fastening system as dies the foot, which I now notice has a crack too.
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Anyway, alls well that ends well and I now own a spare telescoping stainless steel leg. Which I need to use in a new project. Suggestions welcome.
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TIL: pop rivets
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Replying to @vgr
This fastener is called a "pop rivet" or "blind rivet". It can be inserted into a hole that you have no access to the back side of. The pop rivet tool then pulls the "nail" of the rivet, which causes the rivet to deform and pull the head and back side together.
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Interesting, so they *could* have sent me just a new sleeve, but I’d have had to use a drill (which I own) and rivet tool (which I don’t) to finish the repair, which makes the tradeoff more complex.
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Replying to @vgr
So you drill out the soft aluminum part, and replace the rivet. They are sacrificial, but very, very cheap.
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I’d have saved some steel tubing and plastic but I’d have to have access to more tooling and possessed/learned an extra skill (pop-riveting). Think I’ll work out the dollar and carbon math here. Interesting problem.
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