Neat tip/find

Kurt_ · Post by **Kurt_** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 4:34 pm

Well, I'm sure not every electronic device has these, and I'm also sure that I'm not the first to discover or use this.

While gutting/salvaging parts from a donated LCD Panel, I discovered that the screws were secured into matching metal screw posts. Kind of like nuts to bolts, only these were sized for electronics, and essentially jammed in to plastic cylinders attached to the case.

So I took a sacrificial screw and some pliers, and got myself about 15 matching screw/post sets, all I need to do is superglue them to a case or to a new post. It took maybe 10 minutes to accomplish, most of which was threading the bent screw in to the post.

I post this because I'm sure lots of you have old electronics rotting away that serve no purpose. They may have something like this inside, and it beats the hell out of a nylon rod as far as structural support goes.

(I might turn the LCD into a light box in the future, as it's useless for much else. It's not broken, it's just from a Pentium 2/3 laptop. Any other suggestions?)

cennar · Post by **cennar** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 8:01 pm

lesson go get nuts and screws to mount better.

themadhacker · Post by **themadhacker** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 9:15 pm

I've salvaged some screw posts out of old electronics before, and have actually been considering using them in my retro duo portable.

Post by **bicostp** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 9:29 pm

Motherboard standoffs work well, too.

Mario · Post by **Mario** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 11:32 pm

I've already ripped screwposts out of my N64's body for my N64 portable; they're holding the mobo in right now. 'Gonna do the same thing for the controls, too.

It makes everything easily removable. Just screw the posts onto the board, hold it where you want it, and add glue.

timmeh87 · Post by **timmeh87** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 6:35 am

Good point. I always considered the plastic total garbage (many of these standoffs are just molded into the plastic with plastic threads), I never thought of doing it with a threaded metal insert...

Of course if you are designing what it connects into (the case and stuff) you could probably just make it so that a normal nut with some epoxy works fine.

You could even just glue nuts flat to the inside of case... some mechanical dude told me that a screw only needs three turns for maximum holding power or something... probably more of a rule of thumb. but yeah.

cennar · Post by **cennar** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 9:26 am

buddy you should use every bit of the left over case if you can. A huge junk pile can be sorted out to cool parts you just wanted off cases and bits of wire you know. I think I used a GC controller in like at least 6 difrent projects. The posts or what ever are just that too. when you think about it. Sorry I took this quick last time. Man nice tip. what else can come off a case besides switches and things. I supose the more square ones can do things too. OH yes that NEC laptop I was modding to hell had nes ports and a nes vent off real nes's I found junked. Nes are pritty gray boxes. yeah Vents any thing off the surface is a great touch when franken modding. I think my next case because so much might be donated I'll have to focus on a quality thing though.

Kurt_ · Post by **Kurt_** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 2:03 pm

Well, I was going to take the friction hinges too, but they were more like normal hinges, as they were from a pentium 2, and were beyond repair.

I took the speaker grids, the latch assembly, and some flat plastic film with two buttons in it as well.

I always gut stuff for parts before chucking it. If I didn't have so much styrene still, I'd save the flat piece of plastic, too.