Comments on: Broken Laptop Hinges

By: J.R.

J.R. — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 14:23:00 +0000

I love duct tape. To date, I’ve made coasters, a wallet, and covered part of my unfortunate desk in it when I discovered that the foil covering comes off just way too easily. This last was not the brightest of moves, as I’ve found that duct tape as a surface coating is not terribly sturdy. I think I might try placemats, next….

By: Kara

Kara — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 14:21:00 +0000

The 3rd Annual Duct Tape Festival was this last weekend.

Avon, Ohio for those of you who wish to compete next year.

http://www.avonducttapefestival.com for more information

By: J.R.

J.R. — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 06:28:00 +0000

Hmm, you could also just bend a strip of metal and affix it to the bottom with some velcro or duct tape; flat against the bottom, the curve would come up to then support the monitor.

By: J.R.

J.R. — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 06:25:00 +0000

After looking at the drawing and the crude photos, I think this guy is really overengineering this problem. It seems to me that it wouldn't be too difficult to heat a small sheet of plastic and mold it to conform to your laptop at an angle. Then you let it harden and slip it on and off at will. The same could be done with clay, or heck, even a wooden block cut to fit at the angle. It's not really adjustable, but I for one almost always use my laptop with the screen at the same angle.

It occurs to me that as a temporary solution it should be possible to make a duct tape ribbon or something. You could take a section of duct tape and cut off a chunk out of each end, on opposite sides. You then fold it in half. Along most of the piece, no sticky would show, but at each end, you would have a square of stickiness, on opposite sides of the tape. You then stick one on the face of the monitor and snake it through the gap and stick the opposite sticky face on the bottom of the computer. I suppose you'd have to play around with it to get the laptop to really sit at the right angle. Closing it would just introduce slack, and be fine, and the lcd should open up to sit at the predetermined angle. Hm.

As an aside, I really enjoy typing on my laptop, but only because I've been doing it for a very long time. On it, I type around 90 or 100 wpm, but if I switch to a regular keyboard or something, it drops to like 20 or 30. So I think if you were forced to type on laptops exclusively, you'd end up regaining typing proficiency as you trained yourself on the new layout. You probably wouldn't like it for a while, though!

I hereby apologize for turning into commentzilla and stomping around. Rarrr!

By: Kara

Kara — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 04:14:00 +0000

I have never liked laptops. I type at a good speed on a typewriter (90+ words a minute) but a laptap reduced me to about 20. The keyboard is not tilted.

I was at a used computer shoppe a year or so ago and they had one model where the laptop was slanted (thicker at the hinges). This is what I want! But I dont know that anyone makes them any longer.

By: Cindy

Cindy — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 03:46:00 +0000

There’s just something about typing on a computer that has a string around the screen–not very conducive to creativity. But I’ll do it, and I think we’ll order those hinges very soon…

Thanks for helping me!