Hi!
I have fixed the springs. They are long again! All 4 of them.
I simply unrolled them from the axis, with a pair of plyers, until they
had their original size. (they have 1 turn)
Then I greased the little rolls on the axis.
Some were too tight, so they were loosened a bit, bending with a
screwdriver.
Finally the legs were secured with a simple washer.
Result: a smooth moving screen and no more risk of a punctured cable.
Regarding the fact that the spring-legs were originally secured with a
plain screw, indicates that the springs on the axis should not be too
tight. There should be some resistance, but not too much.
When, over time, the greese dissapears and/or looses its
characteristics, resistance builds up and pulls the leg a bit . The roll
rolls itself up on the axis, each time the lid is opened and closed.
Because of this, the resistance gets even bigger and bigger and the leg
is pulled with more force, until eventually it springs loose.
Applying grease should be be enough to keep them smooth, really.
If the roll-up process has already started, it would be good to unroll
the spring in their original size. (1 turn)
So Emate owners be warned: when the screen needs more force to open and
close,
you're in for a punctured cable risk.
So in that case, inspect your hinge springs.
Simon.
On Sunday, October 6, 2002, at 07:12 AM, joelsciamma_at_compuserve.com
wrote:
>> I found one hinge spring leg was loose again, but this time the other
>> (long) leg. So now I had 2 short legs on one hinge!
>> There are no traces of breaking on the legs. This gave me an idea on
>> how
>> the legs could get short: Over time the spring rolls-up on the axis of
>> the screen-lid.( Caused by lack of grease and wear on the axis?)
>> So not a production fault, some emate are suffering from, but something
>> that can happen to all emates over time.
>
> A really interesting observation! I have never seen any evidence of
> breakage
> so assumed the legs might have been short to start with but this could
> well
> be the problem.
>
> Either way the best thing is to try and firmly clamp the legs of the
> spring
> so they cannot move again and I have had good results using the "creased
> washer" solution. Is this what you did or was it just the plain washer?
>
> If you have a pic of your repair that would be very useful.
>
> Ideally, the triangular clamp option described in my fix should be used
> to
> prevent any further movement but they are tricky to make. I might
> investigate producing a batch of these after some experiments.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Joel.
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