HP Forum Archive 13

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Rubber Feet for Voyager Message #1 Posted by Bill Weinman on 27 June 2003, 8:12 p.m. Anyone know a source for rubber feet? I just got a nice old 12C (2441A86197) but one of its feet is missing. The other feet are badly worn, so I will have to replace them all or it will wobble. I would try to order them from HP but their web site is seriously dysfunctional. Anyway, if you know a source of rubber feet, please let me know. Thanks, --Bill

Re: Rubber Feet for Voyager Message #2 Posted by jose goncalves (Brasil) on 27 June 2003, 10:18 p.m., in response to message #1 by Bill Weinman Well, you looking for rubber feet for Voyagers, right ? I have the same problem, but with my Spices. Their feet look like if they were corroded. The rubber is not desintegrating, but looks like if it rotten. I understand that the feet for Spices are not the same as for the Voyagers, but may be someone can find the way for all of them. Let's have hope. Jose

Rubber Feet Message #3 Posted by Vieira, Luiz C. (Brazil) on 27 June 2003, 11:37 p.m., in response to message #2 by jose goncalves (Brasil) Hi José, folks; some months ago, Renato sent me a generous piece of hard, thick rubber. I tried to build some feet with it but I found it too thick. Anyway, that rubber was too good to be forgotten. So I decided to cut two new feet and "slice" the thicky rubber so I could get four feet from two cuts. Care and patience are needed to slice the rubber with a small cutter. Because it was a hard-type rubber, it is not too difficult to cut. And if you get two slices with the same thickness (as close as possible), they will be too close to the original Spice rubber feet thickness. I think that it will be too thick for a Voyager, but they can be used without troubles with Spices. Hey, Jose, when your other Woodstocks are ready to leave the International Hewlett-Packard Hospital, I'm adding four of these so you can test them and tell me about it, O.K.? I also have a two-sided adhesive tape that I have been using without trouble. In order to keep it "in place" when the rubber feet surface is not so regular (after being cut), I use superglue to homogenize it. The tape adheres easily in this case. Please, let me know when you send your "babes" for CICU (Calculator Intensive Care Unit) activities. BTW, is your HP41C doing fine? How did you like the HP22 internal handling? Best regards. Luiz C. Vieira - Brazil

Re: Rubber Feet Message #4 Posted by Trent Moseley on 27 June 2003, 11:58 p.m., in response to message #3 by Vieira, Luiz C. (Brazil) Luiz- You are so thoughtful and generous. tm

My pleasure! Also... (edited, with image) Message #5 Posted by Vieira, Luiz C. (Brazil) on 28 June 2003, 1:50 a.m., in response to message #4 by Trent Moseley Hello, Trent; I must admit your comments (and others as well) make me feel flattered and a bit embarrassed, if you understand me. I feel as if I do not deserve so much, because I also receive so much in here. Thank you; the sort of comments like yours encourage me to go further. I will prepare some images (scanned) to show how do I cut the rubber. May others be able to reproduce the procedure, too. (Off-Topic) You know, since I was eight I deal with plastic models for fun. I did not specialize myself because it's an expensive hobby if you want to specialize on it. Anyway, I got skills on dealing with plastic parts and when I need to, I rebuild and repair some of them, too. A couple of weeks ago I posted some images showing one Pioneer battery door I "carved" in a piece of plastic from a VHS tape case, the tape protective "shield". I still have the images and one of them I reproduced again right below. I'm mentioning this because I have an HP1100 Laserjet Printer I use to hardcopy everything I need, HP-calculators documents included, for sure. This printer is a bit old, more than 3 Y.O., and it counts about 11,500 pages already printed (three toners so far). As I am nosy and curious, I decided to service it and carefully removed everything I could to reach paper pulling parts and clean them. Unfortunately I broke the paper sensor, a moving plastic cam with a small and thin tab. I needed to disassemble even deeper parts to remove the cam. While carving it to insert extra tabs to reinforce the one that was broken, the axe also cracked. I glued it again and reinforced it with two plastic slices so I could go further. Shortening: after almost twenty hours I could finally test it again. It took me extra two hours because I forgot two screws that hold paper sensor assy and I had to disassemble it all again twice. I was not patient enough to generate images (scanned) of the plastic cam after rebuilt because I had to assemble it back in place to see if it was working. I'm posting this extra, O.T. text, because sometimes when original replacement is not available, maybe we should try a custom refurbishment. You know, I finished printing the 303-page HP71 User's Manual... with the repaired cam (hey, Doc; I'm becamming an HP71 user!). If I did not do that, I'd have a stuck HP laser printer. Oh, yes, now it pulls one paper sheet at a time, thanks God! Slicing thick rubber and cutting it to form a calculator feet is entertaining and useful. Sharing the experience is a personal achievement. Finding people like you who congratulates me for that is outstanding. Thanks a lot. Luiz C. Vieira - Brazil Edited: 28 June 2003, 2:13 a.m.

Re: Rubber Feet for Voyager Message #6 Posted by Renato on 29 June 2003, 12:09 a.m., in response to message #2 by jose goncalves (Brasil) Jose, Luiz, You both will get adequate rubber sheet for manufacturing voyager, spice and coconut rubber feet. I got it right this time. I also found a supplier of o-rings for card readers - plus some other itens. Luiz - expect some more surprises... Renato

Re: Rubber Feet for Voyager Message #7 Posted by David Smith on 28 June 2003, 2:31 p.m., in response to message #1 by Bill Weinman Try EPDM roofing membrane... it is 1/16" thick... the same as HP41 feet. You can find it at Home Depot in the garden center as pond liner. Only thing is it comes by the foot in 12-15 foot widths... about $1 a square foot. I got a few square inch scrap piece and made some nice feet out of it, but they are all gone to nice homes now.

Re: Rubber Feet for Voyager Message #8 Posted by jose goncalves (Brasil) on 29 June 2003, 9:34 a.m., in response to message #7 by David Smith Well, thank you for your suggestions. Now I have some trial solution to invest my time on. I notice that the Spice feet seem to be slightly thicker than the Voyagers'. I'll let you know about the results. Jose

Re: Rubber Feet for Voyager Message #9 Posted by OJM on 30 June 2003, 8:22 a.m., in response to message #1 by Bill Weinman I recall once seeing a posting to this forum suggesting that rubber cut from a bicycle inner tube would make very good material for Voyager calculator rubber feet.

Re: Rubber Feet for Voyager Message #10 Posted by Vieira, Luiz C. (Brazil) on 30 June 2003, 9:20 a.m., in response to message #9 by OJM Hi, OJM; I recall that this was suggested by Renato. Maybe someone else did it, but I remember him as pointing it out at least once. I tested the proposed technique and the thickness is fine for Voyagers, but the tube material was not good and I found no way to keep it in place: the two-sided adhesive tape I use when settling rubber feet never kept the bicycle tube's I used in place. It seems the tube I used has some sort of phenolic component that melts the adhesive. I believe some brands will fit fine. Best regards. Luiz C. Vieira - Brazil

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