Cheap crap
Last year I bought a new suitcase for Swancon. It was by necessity cheap and nasty and acquired from Red Dot, but my previous cheap and nasty suitcase had also come from there and had survived several years' service, including a trip to Europe without me. I didn't mind; it sent postcards.
But the old suitcase had become alarmingly warped so I thought to acquire a replacement. A replacement was acquired, and I thought it was the same model as the old one. When I packed it with my Swancon fare it wasn't wildly heavy, but on only the second or third lift one of the two pins holding the handle to the case broke. Gaffer tape got us as far as the hotel, but that gave up shortly thereafter, leaving me to face 5 star luxury with an astonishingly cruddy piece of dysfunctional luggage and one less spoon. Fortunately the handle on the end worked fine and it still towed, but I was unimpressed. At least it distracted from the large army kit bag concealing a microwave oven which I was smuggling in so I could eat beige food at the con.
Swancon 2011 came and went, and we wrestled the blasted object home. I planned a repair attempt some time before Swancon 2012, but that was a long time off, and I needed a break from all thing Swanconesque. Actually I needed a break from all things in general.
I never forgot the suitcase repair as one of my pre-Swancon 2012 tasks however, and in the last few days I've started poking at the problem of effecting a repair. I'd established early on that I could just replace the failed pin with a nut+bolt+washer. I'd failed to establish early on--and have only just realised--that Step 1 "Remove failed fittings" would be nigh impossible.
Why would something that broke so easily be so damn indestructible? I've squeezed, prized, and banged. I've applied power tools, for heaven's sake. Small ones, I'll grant you, but to use bigger ones I'd need to disassemble the case more thoroughly... which I'm already trying to do. Argh. Next step: glue, and a deep sense of failure.
A new suitcase you say? *bitter laughter*
But the old suitcase had become alarmingly warped so I thought to acquire a replacement. A replacement was acquired, and I thought it was the same model as the old one. When I packed it with my Swancon fare it wasn't wildly heavy, but on only the second or third lift one of the two pins holding the handle to the case broke. Gaffer tape got us as far as the hotel, but that gave up shortly thereafter, leaving me to face 5 star luxury with an astonishingly cruddy piece of dysfunctional luggage and one less spoon. Fortunately the handle on the end worked fine and it still towed, but I was unimpressed. At least it distracted from the large army kit bag concealing a microwave oven which I was smuggling in so I could eat beige food at the con.
Swancon 2011 came and went, and we wrestled the blasted object home. I planned a repair attempt some time before Swancon 2012, but that was a long time off, and I needed a break from all thing Swanconesque. Actually I needed a break from all things in general.
I never forgot the suitcase repair as one of my pre-Swancon 2012 tasks however, and in the last few days I've started poking at the problem of effecting a repair. I'd established early on that I could just replace the failed pin with a nut+bolt+washer. I'd failed to establish early on--and have only just realised--that Step 1 "Remove failed fittings" would be nigh impossible.
Why would something that broke so easily be so damn indestructible? I've squeezed, prized, and banged. I've applied power tools, for heaven's sake. Small ones, I'll grant you, but to use bigger ones I'd need to disassemble the case more thoroughly... which I'm already trying to do. Argh. Next step: glue, and a deep sense of failure.
A new suitcase you say? *bitter laughter*