Reconstructing a Foot

[Azmodon]

Fun story.

About seven months ago, one of the feet on my PB fell off. I don't know where it went, where it is now, and where it intends to be, but it's safe for me to assume that that foot is lost forever.

In my attempts to fix it, I have discovered that Apple cannot replace a two cent piece of plastic that rests under the actual rubber part of the foot. You can somewhat see it: it's the ring of white encircling the nubbin of grey. I do, however, have the nubbin part - Apple was more than happy to send that out to me.

Herein lies the problem: I can try to glue the nubbin to the chasis, but that would result in a still-wobbly computer. Instead, I hope to reconstruct out of everyday parts the type of base I need for this foot. My question is: what do you think would best fit? If you've encountered this problem before, how did you fix it?

 

[Doctor Q]

I'm not sure how to fix it, Azmodon, but I'm glad you are talking about a PowerBook foot. I saw your thread title and was worried you had a serious medical problem yourself!

 

[iMeowbot]

You're right, the only way to get a new case plug (that's the plastic ring thingy) is to buy the whole case bottom

Some possibilities:

- Watch the Marketplace and other places where dead Macs are parted out, maybe you'll get lucky and find an available case bottom or plug. That could get annoying fast.

- Get something like a paste or putty style epoxy and squeeze some into the holes to form your own replacement plug. If you're careful, you can get the height right. Or, you might hunt around in the junk drawer for metal washers and see if you can find something that's just the right thickness (avoid nylon, the super glue recommended for the feet won't stick to it well).

- Try a specialty hardware vendor like McMaster-Carr. Look at their selections of bumpers, and find something that's the same diameter as the metal indentation. The idea here would be to replace all the feet to get a non-wobbly PowerBook. Many bumpers have barbs that are intended to be pressed into drilled holes, but a razor blade would take care of that. The nice part of this arrangement is that you can get a whole bag of matching replacements fairly cheaply, and don't have to feel bad if any are knocked off in the future.

- buy a warped desk that matches the PowerBook's current footless contour. This solution will require you to remove the same foot on any notebooks you buy in the future, but you'll get points for individuality.

 

[Azmodon]

I've been getting by with a stack of post-its...

I'm tempted to just rip off the other foot (the front left foot, as opposed to the front right foot). I even tried - it's surprisingly difficult. But then I thought, "Hey, maybe that might screw it up even more." Would it? I mean, the fans empty the hot air generated by my mac in the back near the monitor, right? So popping a foot off wouldn't inhibit air flow, nor would it halt air intake, especially since there aren't any holes on the bottom of a PB.

So frustrating >.< Of all the problems I anticipated in switching to Mac, I assure you this was not on my mind.