I finally got around to permanently fixing BEC4568.
I ground down the post, enough to slide a 3/8” OD stainless steel tube over the plastic shaft. I got the tube at a hardware/hobby store. They had it in brass too.
The length of the shaft will need to be about 45mm. I say about because it’s not super critical. You can be a bit sloppy here, just don’t make it a whole lot shorter.
Whats critical here is the hole for the pin. I used a 3/32” drill bit and it was about 40mm from the bottom.
I didn’t take a picture of the ground down plastic post, but because I am not perfect, there were plenty of ridges and imperfections along the shaft that the glue is going to love sticking into.
I tried running a narrow steel brush through the tube, but that didn’t seem to rough anything up. I had a conical Dremel attachment that fit inside the ID of the tube and I was able to scuff it up very well.
I soaked both pieces in some cleaner/degreaser left over from a POR15 project I did a few years ago and I was ready to go!
I ended up using a plastic welding epoxy, but now that the project is done, I think I should have just gone with an epoxy that specializes in bonding to metal, even though this particular plastic epoxy claims it works with metal too. As mentioned before, there are enough ridges and gaps for the epoxy to fill such that any cured epoxy would be able to grab and hold. It’s the bond to the metal that is critical here. Hopefully the dremel did enough scuffing to let this epoxy bite into it permanently.
Now I’m letting this thing cure out for 24 hours before I see if I can separate it with my hands. If I can’t, I’ll be satisfied and it will become my new permanent latch!
