Imitation 2600 joysticks

[christo930]

On 11/13/2021 at 3:52 PM, insertclevernamehere said:

I got a Retron 77 back in May.  I've not used the console or the Trooper joystick that came with it much, preferring to play on original hardware.  Probably used the Trooper a little more than the R77 as I sometimes use it with my 6 switch woodie.  It's still in pristine condition or at least was.  I made a quick lane change while playing Dodge 'Em a few nights ago and SNAP, the stick broke right off.  I superglued it together and left it to cure for a couple of days, half expecting it to break off again, but even I was surprised at just how quickly it broke a 2nd time.  It broke again in less than a minute of playing Pitfall.  Not impressed with its robustness at all. I cannot recommend this flimsy product to anyone.

 

 

 

 

NOTHING. no glue, no epoxy, no melted plastic will hold.  But if you have a decent sized nail, drill out both the handle and the bottom of the mechanism so that a nail with the head cut off will fit in it (like rebar) and then epoxy it and make sure to get epoxy in both holes.  You MUST be precise when drilling the hole.  In fact, you might want to glue it together first. The hole must be in the same physical location on both pieces. 

 

I don't know if I am explaining this well.  Imagine you had a pencil without a led.  Then you snapped it in half.  Instead of just wood-gluing the pencil back together, you took a nail that was the width of a pencil lead and then jammed and glued the nail into one half of the pencil where the lead goes so that 1/2 the nail is sticking out of the broken end. Then you put some glue inside the hole of the other end and then pushed the pencil pieces back together so that the nail is now in both parts of the pencil and the pencil is glued back together.  The pencil will now be as strong as the nail because it is reinforced on the inside with the nail just like how rebar is inside concrete giving it strength in the direction the concrete does not have natural strength.

 

No amount of glue or epoxy is ever going to hold and it's just a waste of money to try and it will be a pain to get it all off.  Though I have never done this on a joystick, I have done it with other things and have never had it fail.  Just make sure the nail goes deep into both parts. As deep as possible.

[insertclevernamehere]

49 minutes ago, christo930 said:

 

 

NOTHING. no glue, no epoxy, no melted plastic will hold.  But if you have a decent sized nail, drill out both the handle and the bottom of the mechanism so that a nail with the head cut off will fit in it (like rebar) and then epoxy it and make sure to get epoxy in both holes.  You MUST be precise when drilling the hole.  In fact, you might want to glue it together first. The hole must be in the same physical location on both pieces. 

 

I don't know if I am explaining this well.  Imagine you had a pencil without a led.  Then you snapped it in half.  Instead of just wood-gluing the pencil back together, you took a nail that was the width of a pencil lead and then jammed and glued the nail into one half of the pencil where the lead goes so that 1/2 the nail is sticking out of the broken end. Then you put some glue inside the hole of the other end and then pushed the pencil pieces back together so that the nail is now in both parts of the pencil and the pencil is glued back together.  The pencil will now be as strong as the nail because it is reinforced on the inside with the nail just like how rebar is inside concrete giving it strength in the direction the concrete does not have natural strength.

 

No amount of glue or epoxy is ever going to hold and it's just a waste of money to try and it will be a pain to get it all off.  Though I have never done this on a joystick, I have done it with other things and have never had it fail.  Just make sure the nail goes deep into both parts. As deep as possible.

Oooooooookay.  I might give it a go if there's no other way of rescuing what's left.  Have you tried this?  Am I not going to break anything in the base if I drill down as far as I can go?  Sounds kind of dodgey but I have a drill and plenty of nails and the controller is useless now anyway. All I'll waste is time if it doesn't work.

 

 

[christo930]

49 minutes ago, insertclevernamehere said:

Oooooooookay.  I might give it a go if there's no other way of rescuing what's left.  Have you tried this?  Am I not going to break anything in the base if I drill down as far as I can go?  Sounds kind of dodgey but I have a drill and plenty of nails and the controller is useless now anyway. All I'll waste is time if it doesn't work.

 

 

You should disassemble the joystick first.  I would not try drilling to seperate holes because the holes might not ever line up.  I would take it apart, glue the 2 pieces of the jostick together.  Once they are together, then I would drill the hole (from the bottom, which means it does have to be disassembled).  This way, the holes will line up with each other.  Then use a nail or really any other length of metal and put it into the joystick and make sure there is epoxy on that nail and preferable inside the joystick.

 

Like I said, I have never attempted to fix a joysitck this way.  But I have fixed a lot of plastics and I know from experience doing so that if you don't reinforce it in some way (I have used this method and never had it fail) , no amount of glue or epoxy will ever hold, especially if any force is applied perpendicular to the joint (perpendicular force is the only force that this joint will ever see).  Nothing really sticks well to plastic, even if it is heavily textured.  But by using a nail as reinforcement, the forces will not be applied solely to the glue, but to the nail or other piece of metal itself.