Blink-a-Gear Robot Repair

[David Kirk]

I've bought two robo-wreck Blink-a-Gears in the past few years with the intention of fixing at least one up. The tops of the legs are broken around the metal rod that holds them in place, and on which they rock. This is up inside and shows not at all. I can't make something to glue in without taking the legs all apart, which involves metal work I can't do. Is it possible to re-build the broken plastic around that joint with epoxy goo? Apparently the plastic wasn't very strong to begin with, so I wonder if epoxy resin putty would be any weaker? Has anyone tried this sort of thing? I also wondered if there's something with a fiberglass component that would increase the strength and holding capacity to the rest of the leg. Help! THEN, the big red pinion has a short molded plastic shaft that broke into little fragments when I pulled the gear off. Any notions on a fix for that? Would it be allright to simply glue that gear to the shaft?

[Robot Fool]

David I'm not the one who has experienced a

successful repair on something this delicate

and prone to breakage. The minds with all the

answers and ideas on this board could best help you

and your broken Blink -a - Gears get back into running

condition, if you provided a few good photos of your

present situation

David you wrote..."I can't make something to glue in

without taking the legs all apart, which involves

metal work I can't do."

Does this mean you can't open up the robot

for a better look at the problem ?

David you described.."THEN, the big red pinion has a short

molded plastic shaft that broke into little fragments

when I pulled the gear off. Any notions on a fix for that?

Would it be allright to simply glue that gear to the shaft? "

David , if the broken piece plays no functional part , eliminate it ,

and glue it to the shaft

- sounds fine to me.

John Riggs will perhaps provide a house call for these

twins that can't walk.

There seems to be a few robots built fragile...

Roto robot and some other Howikawa with

the plastic legs but metal bodies. Why does such

a large robot like Blink - a - Gear and his brother

Wheel - a - Gear rely on this type of design ?

Davids twins clearly prove that this is a bad

leg design.

Robot Fool

[SH MIKE]

What breaks is the top of the leg that holds the metal shaft to it.

What you can try is to drill small holes on either side of the break and then fit metal from a big paper clip into the hole and around the shaft and into the other hole on the other side of the break.

Glue both end of the metal clip part in the plastic.

This will reinforce the plastic and provide movement for the legs.

It shouldn't show when the body halves are in place.

You don't need to fill in anything either.

These legs are available from Classic Tin Toys.

[robothut]

With out pictures it is hard to help, and I fear that discriptions of what to do would be hard to put down in words. but I will give it shot based on what I think you are saying. The gear that fell apart, is it one of the visible gears in the chest? Is it the one that drives all the other gears? if so then yes you can glue it to the shaft but if it is one of the other gears then it must turn freely and can not be glued.

The leg pivet joint problem can best be repaired buy makeing new pivet parts for the shaft out of plastic and glue them to the robot plastic, this will beef up the origional plastic and provide a new pivet point. You might need to use a dremmel tool with a grinder bit to round off the crimp on the end of the pivet shaft so that you can remove the leg and fit the new plastic part, its been many years since I last fixed a blink o gear or a wheel O gear, so I don't recal if you need to do this or not. Epoxi putty will work to make new strong joint parts but make sure the pivet shaft can still turn free, the epoxie may not stick well to the smooth plastic so you might test some in a out of the way place to see how well it sticks to the leg plastic first.

[Hap Hazard]

Concerning the broken tops of the legs, I had the same problem on one leg. So I took the robot apart and using the good leg and a two part silicon molding putty, built a partial mold from the good leg. Then I transferred the mold to the broken leg and filled it with black casting resin. It worked great for me. I even used the same mold later and fixed another blink a gear I bought.

If you are interested to try it let me know, I could dig out the mold for you David

[Dr.Needles]

On July 8, 2004 at 6:34 PM, Hap Hazard said:

Concerning the broken tops of the legs, I had the same problem on one leg. So I took the robot apart and using the good leg and a two part silicon molding putty, built a partial mold from the good leg. Then I transferred the mold to the broken leg and filled it with black casting resin. It worked great for me. I even used the same mold later and fixed another blink a gear I bought.

 

If you are interested to try it let me know, I could dig out the mold for you David

Hello HapHazard,

I am new to alphadrome and just days ago purchased a nice Blink-A-Gear robot on ebay that has one, possibly two broken legs in the same area you experienced.  Your remedy certainly sounds successfull and may try that route myself.

I was also wondering just how difficult it was dissasembling this particular robot to access the legs.

Any tips or advice?

Thanks so much!

David M. (Dr Needles)

[David Kirk]

Goodness, this was a long time ago and I'd forgotten about it. I'm afraid my patients are still in tubs in the basement, waiting for treatment. Funny, I was thinking about your broken legs and trying to come up with solutions, entirely forgetting that I've got the same thing to deal with.

I just visited the Blink-A-Gear tub. It is a puzzle. That plastic is really under-built. At the moment, it looks to me if you drilled a neat hole down through a 1/4 pr 5/16 maple dowel, and could figure a way to neatly cut away the plastic sleeves so you could glue the dowel in, you might have a chance. Maybe plastic tube would be better if there is such an animal and you could find a glue that's compatible. Hap Hazard's suggestion sounds much better than mine and he tried it and it worked!