How to Fix a Foldable Portable Neck Fan

This instructable explains how to fix nearly any foldable item.

Folding something allows storing it in a more convenient way. However, this creates a challenge: the fold is a weak point, and can break any time, resulting in a useless device.

I don't say this is necessary something some companies use this to sell more devices, but to lower costs they use the minimum quality of materials, and the plastic used, the thickness needed, and some force can break the point.

No problem! Here we'll see a couple of techniques, including materials selection and reinforcement, that will make this joint nearly indestructible.

In this case we'll see this foldable portable fan. It's very convenient, but as you'll see it needs some fix.

You will need:

• A small metallic plate. Ideally stainless steel, 1mm thick. 1 x 1 inch is enough (about 3 x 3 cm).
• Some contact glue.
• A zip tie (same colour as the device to fix, if possible).
• Metal cutter, or rotary tool with metal cut bit.
• Small file.
• Cutting pliers
• Small star screwdriver
• Hot glue gun and some hot glue stick.

Its better to disassemble the part that you're going to fix, so you can see better how the moving parts are related.

You also need to see that parts you add (the metal plate) has the right size: no too big or too small.

The shape made from the metal plate, needs to be long enough to hold form the general device's body. On that way, the plate will avoid unnecessary movements as the original plastic is broken.

In my case, the zone to reinforce was about 2cm, but I added another 1 cm to get hold onto the main body. We don't need to make it too long as, it won't give much strength to the joint, and it will look worse.

In this step, you need to give the shape to the metal part that you made. The idea is that it needs to have the exact shape to hold into the place it needs to be. Bigger and it won't stay, smaller and the mechanical tension will make it leave its place.

Use the file to get rid of any metal imperfection on the edges. Be careful as they can cut or puncture your fingers.

Add contact glue as the manufacturer indicates, to the surfaces that will be in contact.

In my case it's a thin layer at both parts to join, leave them 3-5 minutes to until the glue surface doesn't stick to the finger.

Then join both parts together strongly for a moment, and add hot glue at both extremes at least, so they can't move apart. The hot glue will hold the parts until the contact glue curates, that is about 24 hours for mine. I didn't add too much, so the hot glue remains there, and give strong performance to the fix.

Now you can assemble the whole device and see how it works. If the joint doesn't work perfectly, check if there is too much hot glue (remove the excess), or the metal part added is too big: cut and file what hinder the movement.

After some days, the metal plate got loose, probably because it was not well curated when used again.

So to reinforce the structure:

1. Clean the parts, add contact glue and hot glue again.
2. Then I add a zip tie to hod the metal plate to the body.
3. Pay extra attention to the orientation of the zip tie head, so it doesn't contact the neck of the person using the portable fan.
4. Cut the excess of zip tie. Also file the zip tie tail end, so it doesn't harm if it touches the skin.

I hope this helps you to fix things like this, and don't forget to leave a comment to know your troughs about this fix. Thanks!