Heavy sixer joystick plastic repair?

[Anthony Caban]

  So, I have 4 original cx10 heavy sixer joysticks, and all 4 of these things are pretty much MINT! I mean, everything works on all of them and cosmetically, they are about perfect! None of the yellow paint has worn away at all, and all 4 of them actually still have the metal Atari hex plates in tact! They look brand new!!   The problem is, inside of the sticks, the plastic posts that the 4 screws anchor into (the female end), the threading inside the plastic is totally stripped on all 4 screw posts inside all 4 joysticks!!  Apparently Somebody that doesn't even know how to use a damn screwdriver got into these beauties and butchered the hell out of the poor things!!    Does anybody know a proper way to permanently fix these so I will be able to use them if I choose to, and I will still be able to open and close them in case they ever need to be serviced?? It's heartbreaking that these things actually  look this good and they are not even usable!! Just Heartbreaking!!!! 

[alex_79]

@Nathan Strum showed a technique to fix this issue in a recent blog post:

 

[Anthony Caban]

Thanks For The Information! I think this may work, I just have to get the wax before I can try it.  How is the fix that You did with this method holding out?

[alex_79]

I didn't try it myself, you might ask Nathan about it, but he did the repair recently, so I think it's a bit early to know how it holds up in the long term.

It's worth trying anyway.

[+Stephen Moss]

On 10/30/2020 at 5:55 PM, Anthony Caban said:

The problem is, inside of the sticks, the plastic posts that the 4 screws anchor into (the female end), the threading inside the plastic is totally stripped on all 4 screw posts inside all 4 joysticks!! 

I may be wrong I ma fairly certain they start as just plain holes and self taping screws cut the thread the first time they are inserted. Depending on how much plastic remains you could just try using a self tapper that is the the next size up, i.e. go up from 3mm to 4mm although you may have to widen the holes a little to accommodate the wider screw. 

 

Another possibility is that if the post being screwed into is a lot longer than the screws originally being use then use longer screws of the same thread so they byte into a previously unused section of the plastic where they will grip (you might need to drill out the extra hole depth). 

 

Trying to fill the holes with something like epoxy or hot glue is an option but it is not always easy to fill small holes completely as surface tension just keeps a little a the top (open) end. Consequently you might want to consider drilling it out a little, i.e. if currently 3mm drill out to 4mm then glue in a 3mm piece of plastic (or possibly PTFE) dowel (or 4.5mm and 4,mm dowel), then when set, drill a pilot hole into that to screw into.

 

However, there is no guarantee that these will work and when inserting bigger screws or drilling out old plastic that may have become brittle there is always the risk of it shattering 

[bah]

I don't have a CX-10 in front of me but you could try seeing if the hole is deep enough to use a slightly longer screw.  Measure the hole depth with a toothpick.  Compare that to the length of screw that sticks through the mating assembly.  The difference is how much longer the screw could be.  If you are careful, you could also drill the hole depth slightly deeper.

 

Nathans blog is exactly what I do on metal parts.  His plastic case top should also be fine.  your joystick maybe not so.  I say this only because of the twisting, prying motion the joystick must survive just to do its job.

 

The 3d printing community also has problems with threads pulling out.  You can buy small internally threaded inserts that have machine screw threads cut inside.  Install by drilling the original hole out larger to press fit the insert.  Now mate the parts together with a machine screw.  This is a strong fix but requires some special parts and know how.