Both hinges completely failed

[lovenemesis]

My PineBook Pro, which assuming from an early batch due to preloading with Debian, also suffered from the failed mount of the hinge last week.
And I don't use the Pinebook Pro as daily driver.

   

It happened to the hinge that closed to the ESC part. The plastic mounts were shattered in pieces.
I guess I would need a spare part like this from PineStore to fix.

Unfortunately I was in an area outside the shipping coverage of PineStore. Perhaps this is a farewell coming so soon...

[wangyukunshan]

Sad to announce that both the hinges have completely failed on my Pinebook Pro. The plastic holding the brass inserts have broken into numerous tiny pieces. The plastic bits feel oily to the touch and extremely brittle. I guess I will repurpose my PBP into a headless machine.

I also encountered this situation and was thinking of a perfect solution.

[calinb]

Most of my threaded inserts have failed. It started from day-1 when my originally dead-on-arrival new PBP arrived back from warranty service for a dead screen. I think the screws were torqued too much, which stressed the plastic supports for the inserts.

It became critical when the hinges failed. I've painstakingly used JB Weld to rebuild the supports and bond the inserts back. The trick is to wait for the JB Weld to set well but still be flexible enough to make any final alignment adjustments with the screws in place. I put the screws barely threaded in place from the  with a dab on oil on the threads--threaded just enough to use the screws as alignment tools when the JB Weld has set to a firm but still somewhat flexible consistency.

It's a tough and tedious job and it required re-doing a few of the inserts for better alignment. I rework and prepare the plastic with a Dremel tool and several tiny carbide bits.

-Cal

[dachalife]

Okay, you guys made me paranoid about this, so I had to open it up and check; no problems.

Mine is from the 2022 batch though.

[KC9UDX]

Okay, you guys made me paranoid about this, so I had to open it up and check; no problems.

Mine is from the 2022 batch though.

My 2022 one (or was it 23?  I can't keep track) is getting really stiff.  I'm going to have to grease the hinges, very soon.  Oddly the 2020 and 2021 ones don't seem to have this problem (yet).

[dachalife]

What are you going to use?

[KC9UDX]

What are you going to use?

I've got some horologists' synthetic grease; I don't know what brand it is without digging it out, probably this weekend.  Or I might use Super Lube 41160.  I haven't decided yet.

[dachalife]

Thanks, I’m debating what to use as well.

[KC9UDX]

Welp, I spent two days servicing clocks, something very restorative to my sanity, which I rarely get to do. And it reminded me that I forgot to reply to this thread.

When I had opened my newest PBP (prolly less than one year old when I did, maybe in October?) I could not get the hinges apart, for there were some screws trapped in broken plastic, and I wasn't ambitious enough to try to fix it. So I squirted some unbranded horologist's oil from a cheap pen oiler on the hinges. It worked satisfactorily enough for my purposes, though someday I'll have to tear it apart and see what I can do to fix it.

The pen oiler was one from Timesavers. Their catalog may say what kind of oil it is, but probably not. It's the kind of oil you use only when you don't expect a severe condition, and just cross your fingers. I've never had anything fail from its use, so maybe it's better than I give it credit for; I have no idea.

[dachalife]

I went with some generic synthetic grease & it seems to be fine.