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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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In general the world needs to be a lot more in situ repairable. We’ve reached the extreme of mass production, process industry concentration and minimal initial unit cost economics.
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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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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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