Wen, Agent of Chaos; "Oh, if I just had [fitb]"

[unixronin]

So I'm in the other room, trying to get the cranky and unreliable G3 Mac to boot, a process which involves lifting the monitor off and removing the case cover because the last time I had it open, Wen broke the case-front power switch.  Shortly after removing and reseating everything removable and reseatable, which fixed it last time it did this non-booting schtick, I hear sounds of dismay from the office, and stick my head around the corner to find that Wen has gotten onto my chair and logged me out by randomly banging on the keyboard.  (She has a great future in QA if she continues to display this ability to just inexplicably break things.)

[Sigh.]

The broken switch is, technically, a broken plunger-that-actuates-the-switch, and it's an example of one of the reasons I have always disliked Macs.  Having almost everything able to snap in and out of the case without tools is great, sure, but you can take it too far, you know . . . and hey!  Guess what, Steve Jobs!  Polystyrene plastic is NOT A SUITABLE MATERIAL FOR SPRINGS!  If this little plastic plunger had a nickel's cents worth of spring steel instead of a bloody PLASTIC SPRING, it most likely wouldn't have broken.

---

Speaking of spring steel . . . if I had just such a little tiny sliver of spring steel, I could fix this switch.  I'm trying to think right now where I could lay my hands on such a thing.  How many times have you been in the position of having something broken, or maybe you're trying to build something, and you think, "You know, I could fix/complete this in five minutes, if I could just lay my hands on [FITB]," where the blank is a little strip of spring steel, or a foot and a half of .40"-ID .025"-wall stainless steel tube, or a square foot of .05" T8080 alloy sheet, or a chunk of 2" Delrin rod, or . . . . ?

Annoying, isn't it?

It almost makes me wonder if, in a place with enough geeks, one couldn't make a living just running a warehouse full of all kinds of these assorted Bits Of Vital Stuff that you can never find at hardware stores.  Maybe with a small machine shop to custom-machine one-off bits for people, or let'em rent the shop for an hour and machine their own.  But maybe I'm just more inclined than most people to whip out tools and fabricate custom parts on the spot from available materials.

Well, my train of thought just ran down, so . . . .

Comments

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Would a coil spring work? Try taking apart a ball-point pen...

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Nope, can't make a coil spring work in this application. It needs to be a leaf spring about, oh, my eyeball says 2.5" by about 0.16".

What you need -

[persimmon.livejournal.com]

is a culch pile.

This is where you put all the mechanical bits and pieces that have no immediate home - and indeed, no apparent use - until they mature into the inevitable "come in handy some time" moment. Half a pair of hinges, the last three screws or bolts from the flatpack build-it-yourself thing, O-rings that don't fit anything, the other bit of the corner fitting, the inexplicable piece left over after you reassemble whatever you were fixing, and you don't know where it came from but yet the thing is working, so let's not go back in there, but you don't want to throw it out either ...

In the workshop that used to be the garage, Pesi has unnumbered piles of culch, in separate little drawers whose labels bear only a passing resemblance to their contents - but ask him for something, he'll go out there and return, triumphantly, with whatever it is. Between that and a crawl space that will reach critical mass in another four boxes, I don't think we can ever move.

Re: What you need -

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Oh, I have that. I have all kinds of odd little bits and pieces. The collection does not, unfortunately, include a suitable piece of spring steel.

Re: What you need -

[persimmon.livejournal.com]

Which is a considerable floob, in this instance.

However, I predict a great future for Wen: you could rent her to people who claim that their product is childproof - if she can break it, they have to start over, but if she can't, they can use the slogan "Tested By Wen", for a large fee, of course, recoverable by them as their sales soar upwards.

Re: What you need -

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

heh. I like this idea. :)

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

You could also use thin tempered brass.

Or a piece of street sweeper bristle.

So, does the thing we're discussing contact the two pieces with both points touching one side, and the middle of the arch on the other, and act with the ends sliding as the button is depressed, or with one end of the arch held immobile, and the plunger pushing down on the other end of the arch?

-Ogre

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Or a strip of beryllium copper, or .....

It operates in the former, sliding-ends mode. The problem is Wen tried to pry the plunger out of the case and, in so doing, broke off one leaf of the spring.

[smileswhf.livejournal.com]

I have an original beige G3 sitting in my bedroom waiting to go wherever computers go to die. If you run out of ideas, I will scavange parts and send them to you. BTW, I meant to reply to your last reply but I've been sick as a dog since friday afternoon. Just wanted you to know I wasn't blowing you off. =)

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear you were sick. Being sick is no fun, and I know how badly it can sap your energy and motivation to do anything...
I have an offer of a replacement switch plunger elsewhere, if I can't come up with materials to repair the existing one with. I don't know if that's a part that's interchangeable from a beige-G3 case anyway .... weren't they towers? Ours is a Power Mac 7300 (desktop case) with a Sonnet G3 card in it. I think there's something intermittent in this machine anyway ... I just can't figure out what.