Replacing vintage computer case feet of any shape

If you have been messing around vintage computers long enough, you probably ended up in this situation more than once, where you buy a vintage machine and after general inspection you realize that it’s missing the feet, or they’re in catastrophic shape, or even worse off … They turned into sticky goo and you’re already spending the next hour cleaning up the mess it did on your table, your clothes and your hands …

Many computers use generic shaped feet or at least their layout is generous enough that you can simply replace them with off the shelf parts …

However many computers (especially laptops) have very odd shaped feet that you cannot simply replace with bog standard feet from the hardware store. Their shape is molded in the plastic, meaning you cannot just stick them in the original spots.

I recently had to deal with one such situation with a Lifetec LT42200 from the mid 2000s

As you can see the original foot is missing (all 4 were missing actually), and their odd oval shape with the overall rounded plastic didn’t allow me to just stick any off the shelf rubber feet. Moreover, this laptop being uncommon from a cheap brand from the mid 2000s made me uncertain I could find any replacements online (note : looking at it recently, I think I could have used feet for the HP 820G1 G2 840, but this doesn’t invalidate the whole process I’m showing here !).

However as the owner of a 3D printer, my first thought was just “let’s 3d print them !”. My first thought went towards TPU. However I quickly realized that the material was known to be very hard to print, and the material still seemed way too stiff as a replacement of computer feet …

So I kept looking around for better solutions, and then I realized that maybe I could completely change my approach … Instead of 3D printing the feet .. I could 3d print a negative shape of them and put *something* in the hole that would become the foot !

After more research, I found the exact material I needed ! It’s called “Sugru”

As you can see it comes in many colors (including white and black). It’s normally meant to be molded by hand … but if I can mold it in my own hands, why can’t I just mold it in a plastic cast ! And after drying for many hours, it’s supposed to have the consistency of rubber.

One thing to consider though is that it’s really sticky and it’s meant to stick to the surfaces you put it against. After searching a little more, I stumbled across someone’s comment saying that it didn’t stick to cellophane (I didn’t screenshot that post. Whoever you are, thank you!). I am still not sure it would stick to PLA, but considering the asperities of the material I didn’t want to risk it.

Now that I have the idea and the materials, I just need to 3d print the right cast ! So first I 3d printed a foot just to be sure I had the right shape

Now that I confirmed I had the right shape, let’s just make the negative of it, and let’s make something that can make 4 at once (the laptop had all of its 4 missing feet)

I didn’t take pictures of the rest of the process … However being my first attempt, I did make a couple of mistakes : I had too much sugru for these 4 feet, so it was just overflowing the holes. And my initial plan was to just put some weight above it, but I needed a flat surface, which I did … however with the excess of sugru, it had nowhere to go other than in-between the flat surface and the cast, so in the end it made a big mess I had to cut with some cutter. My second attempt (which comes right after) was a lot better.

Still, I consider this first try a big success ! The texture is almost perfect, the shape is perfect, if you didn’t know they had been rebuilt DIY you wouldn’t be able to tell !

Now for my second try … I have a beautiful Inwin A500 case, but ever since I bought it, it was rattling because of a missing foot … Moreover the rest of them dried out and were just out of shape after so many years

So … learning from my past mistakes, this time I put a little more efforts in my process. No more weight put from above, this time I’ll design a cover from the start, and I’ll use screw holes to secure the plate and apply the right amount of pressure. And to avoid causing a mess, I’ll simply put a hole in the center where the excess sugru can escape, which I’ll just need to snip off at the end.

Now that the cast and cover are ready, time to do the same … put a sheet of cellophane above the cast, prepare the sugru by hand and push it into the cast, take a second sheet of cellophane, and put it above the sugru, and finally screw the whole contraption tight.

And now we wait …

After 24h of drying, here’s the result !

Well it still did spill out a little … but I can assure you it’s a LOT better than the last time. I think I should have added more screw holes and maybe also shape the cover itself to be also part of the cast. But still the amount of cutting necessary was very little and a lot more manageable.

And now it is time to stick them into place

Looks good doesn’t it ? Now sure the original ones were white … but I don’t think it matters on a beige case, you aren’t really meant to see them anyways. Now sure that Inwin case would have definitely benefited from bog standard off the shelf feet … but I wanted an excuse to make my second try 🙂

And now the case is rock stable and doesn’t rattle anymore, which is all I needed.
Still, I’m sure this technique is be very handy for people needing to restore more obscure machines that used very exotic shapes.

Thank you for reading this post, and feel free to share your techniques or your feedback below !