A600 case fix (broken plastic clip under the floppy)

[emuola]

Been restoring my A600 for the whole year now (caps, Furia, floppy etc.) and it's near ready now The only problem is the broken plastic "clip", which keeps the case closed (pun intended...) near the floppy. As there are only screws in the front of the case, the case is a few millimeters open near the floppy :/ By far the stupidest case design ever, if you ask me...

Has someone invented a clever fix for that broken plastic clip (I presume, I'm not the only one...), or do I just have to find a suitable place for an additional bolt/screw and drill a hole?

All ideas are welcome

[Jope]

Some guys have designed 3d printable clips for the german C64 breadbins. The new clips are glued in the middle of the original broken clips. Something similar might be possible, even though there is a lot less room in the A600 case.

[Amiga1992]

This case isreally very poorly designed.
Even if you glue some clips there, they will break again. I glued the old clip as soon as I broke it many times until I gave up.

Problem seems to be that the area where those clips are creates a lot of force. The other side has a screw, at least.
It feels like the floppy drive doens't quite ever fit right. Even if you apply pressure in that area, you will see it is hard to keep it flush. But if you remove the floppy drive, it becomes easier.

I've been meaning to find a solution to all these broken clips, but am yet to do anything. Whatever I end up doing will not be pretty, but it should be functional.

[supaduper]

I modelled some new ones from a broken A600 case many moons ago and the trick is to make them twice the width of the original ones for strength also use gel superglue not the liquid type,
And just put them in the middle of the two original case clips as its a slot in the top case and so alignment is not hit or miss

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by supaduper

Attachment 55669

Attachment 55670

Good job! However, these are not the hinges the OP is talking about, he is talking about the ones on the sides, which are subject to considerably bigger amounts of force than the back ones (the case always feels like it's pulling out from that point)

[supaduper]

Originally Posted by Akira

Good job! However, these are not the hinges the OP is talking about, he is talking about the ones on the sides, which are subject to considerably bigger amounts of force than the back ones (the case always feels like it's pulling out from that point)

Yes they are fragile the side case clips, but I made them them thicker like the ones above and they work great too. And obviously if ever opening the case I know that you must pry the sides carefully

[Amiga1992]

Even if you remember to pry, chances of breaking them are high. It's really just a bad design.

Personally what I will probably end up doing is making some holes to put metal hinges to keep it all together.

[turrican9]

I just ignore these broken hinges. I know if I try to glue they will just come loose again sooner or later. Really, I dont think they are that important. The case holds together good enough without these hinges.

And yeah, the Amiga 600 was cheaply designed from day 1. Comparing it to the build quality of an Amiga 500 is like night and day. However, the Amiga 600 is very practical from a retro perspective. Internal accelerators, Internal IDE, PCMCIA and takes up very little space compared to my Amiga 500 + ACA 500.

[hyami]

My solution to this issue was glueing pieces of wood (but you could ofcourse use plastic as well) in the upper part of the case and drilled holes in the lower part of the case. Now I use small screws to keep it together. It works pretty well.

[emuola]

Ok, thanks for the ideas I think I'll try the "piece of wood + screws" approach I'll report during the weekend

[Amiga1992]

YEah that is a good idea, similar to what I thought I'd do but with metal hinges.

[kipper2k]

i think one of the better ways to fix this is to 3d print a hinge for top and bottom case so that you close the right side first and hook the lower case onto the top and then it will lock itself in position, use epoxy glue to hold the pieces in place

Yeah i know you need a 3d printer but you can use plastic blocks and file something yourself. Time spent repairing it is directly proportional to how much it is pissing you off If someone wants to make a .stl file i can give it a print

[ElectroBlaster]

I had an A600 years ago whilst still living with my parents. The same thing with the clips, snapped off when I attempted to pull the top half of the case.

At the time I managed to drill two holes into the case, that lined up with the side of the disk drive, the screw holes on the sides rather than the bottom.

At the time I knew it was not right, but when screwed in nothing moved after that.

There are better ways of fixing such problems these days
3D printers really do open up so many possibilities.

[TjLaZer]

leave it off, case closes ok without it.

[Retrofan]

Originally Posted by emuola

Ok, thanks for the ideas I think I'll try the "piece of wood + screws" approach I'll report during the weekend

I think you better cut and use nylon from a nylon block like this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/1-2-x-2-Nat...19.m1438.l2649

[Amiga4000]

Have any of you ever tried this stuff called Sugru? I have used it hundreds of times repairing broken laptop cases (especially around DC jacks)! This stuff is amazing - seriously!

https://sugru.com/

[emuola]

Originally Posted by Amiga4000

Have any of you ever tried this stuff called Sugru? I have used it hundreds of times repairing broken laptop cases (especially around DC jacks)! This stuff is amazing - seriously!

https://sugru.com/

Da*n, that stuff looks like a winner. This is what I've tried so far:

Drill a 2,5mm hole on the underside of the case like this:

https://cloud.uwasa.fi/index.php/s/DzWeC6Iz9odVKI1

Here's what it looks like, when there's a screw in place:

https://cloud.uwasa.fi/index.php/s/qZodbxyy9UY1zAS

And here's how it looks like with the 19mm screw:

https://cloud.uwasa.fi/index.php/s/KQb91RnXwDLRyZp

The challenge is to have suitable material "fastened" to the inner side of the upper half of the case, so that the screw can attach to it.

I tried with basic hot glue, but it does not like to be screwed (pun intended...). Plastic padding chemical metal would be my next choice, but it seems the Sugru stuff would be much easier to use.

Any ideas/comments?

[emuola]

Got myself some Sugru yesterday. Just made a "pile of goo" of it and slammed it into the corner of the case. Let's see how it turns out in 24h. Then it's time for some screwing around

[ElectroBlaster]

Any updates? how did it go? I am going to get some of this sugru stuff to fix an A1500 front panel. Hoping I can build this stuff around some sheared off mounting posts after using a bit of superglue to get them positioned correctly.

Previous owner tried using epoxy and whilst it did work, the job was slap-dash and rushed with every single post off centre or tilted over

[emuola]

Originally Posted by ElectroBlaster

Any updates? how did it go? I am going to get some of this sugru stuff to fix an A1500 front panel. Hoping I can build this stuff around some sheared off mounting posts after using a bit of superglue to get them positioned correctly.

Previous owner tried using epoxy and whilst it did work, the job was slap-dash and rushed with every single post off centre or tilted over

Sorry, totally forgot to update the thread. Typical of me :/ I managed to get the case ok with the sugru. The screw actually fastened really tight, so it seems to be ok. There's still a little gap between the case edges, but I guess the only way would be to have a "nut" glued inside the case and have a bolt instead of the screw. The case is so tight (especially due to the floppy drive), so that "forcing" the case to close just by tightening the screw would require enormous levels of "grip" inside the case (between the screw/sugru/something else. I'm happy though