Sometimes harder means more brittle. Notbreally aware of a plastic hardener. There are hardeners that are combined with types of urethane or whatever, but don't think they'll serve as a general purpose hardener. The chemistry just works out that way when combined.

Off the top of my head I can't even remember what a socket 4 is. Sounds like a 486 or overdrive. You may want to give some thought to fabricating parts you can't reinforce. The ultimate cure for obsolescence.

clownwolf wrote on 2024-07-25, 01:14:

Socket 4 coolers seems to be extinct, so I used a socket 8 cooler that can be modified to fit socket 4. Since I had to manually […]
Show full quote

Socket 4 coolers seems to be extinct, so I used a socket 8 cooler that can be modified to fit socket 4. Since I had to manually reshape the metal bar to fit, I am afraid the pressure is off and the small plastic tabs are going to fly off.

I am looking for a way to reinforce the plastic tabs. Does anyone have an idea what would work best? epoxy, super glue, other?

edit: Just to be clear, I dont want to permanently attach the metal bar to the plastic. I want to harden the plastic on its own, and then attach the heatsink.

The attachment 20240724_181053.jpg is no longer available

Can't really think of much to reinforce such a tiny plastic tab. I would try and take some tension out of the metal holddown before trying anything with the socket itself. If it feels like you need to put too much pressure on it to engage the tab bend it the other way a little (but go in very small increments because if you take too much tension out of it it will be hard to get back to a proper tension) Anyway getting another metal spring/holddown will be easier than fixing a socket.

So you're not going to be able to change the shear strength (or hardness) of those tabs as that's a material property inherent to whatever plastic was used to create the socket. Your best bet if you're concerned about the tabs being sheared off would be to try to distribute the load across the entire area of the tab face and/or move the clip of the heat sink as close to the socket as possible to reduce the cantilever. Do you notice any signs of fatigue in the corners of the tabs such as whitening or material distortion?

There's also the question of if you're ever going to overcome the static friction between the tab and clip, causing the clip to go flying off.

Thermally conductive silicone rubber adhesive, bonding strength and thermal conductivity effect are very good, there is no need to use metal strips to fix after bonding, but it is difficult to separate the heat sink and processor, and it needs to be heated with a heat gun to be difficult to remove.

If you think it's worth the risk, you may use the idea form this topic for broken socket tab restoration: Socket 370 repair, restoring a missing tab Drill small holes through the tab, put in some small steel rods and glue them with epoxy resin. I've done this once to almost torn-off socket tab on a mobo with socket 7 and the reinforced tab still holds well.

Another approach is to utilize the perimeter of the socket. It is preferred that this be done out of a single chunk of metal, preferably steel. Obtain such a piece somewhat larger then the socket. The thickness will be the thickness of the tab (vertical). Scribe out a square/rectangle on this plate ever so slightly smaller then the socket's dimension. Proceed to drill 4 holes near the corners, but far enough away so as not to.ruin the profiles. Then saw out a square hole, again don't ruin the profile. Then file and fit it the best you can to match the outside of the socket's perimeter. Then epoxy that to the socket. The tab will then be steel and should never ever break.

You don't need to worry about performing a fix like this until the tab breaks off altogether.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Based on what I have right now, I think I might try the metal piece reinforcement method.

I will carve off a tiny trench across the tab and socket, bury in a small piece of a needle, and super-glue it in place.

OR

I can just wait until the inevitable day it breaks off before I start meddling with it.

I'd embed the needle in 2 part epoxy, using metallized tape as a retention dam.

(Metal guttering tape, cut into a thin strip just tall enough to extend above the tab, wrapped around the tab. Needle inside a groove in the tab, as suggested, but then backfilled with the epoxy. Wait 20 min, remove metallized tape, sand gently, vacuum any debris.)

clownwolf wrote on 2024-07-27, 05:10:

I can just wait until the inevitable day it breaks off before I start meddling with it.

The picture in your first post is a little off-focus and blurry, but I think your plastic socket tab is pretty fine (no cracks or chipped small plastic pieces) and needs no interventions until it's one piece with the socket base. Don't "fix" it, if it's not broken 😀

Maybe it's a better idea to slightly counter-bend the metal retention bracket of the cooler, thus reducing its pressure on the CPU and pull-up force on the plastic socket tabs.

Looks like the plastic is fine and the problem is that the metal bracket is the wrong one. Why not get a different bracket or shorten that one? Or you could forget about brackets and just gorilla glue the heatsink to the CPU.

For something that small you could maybe use "Double-Sided Thermal Conductive Adhesive Tape"- eg Akasa. Instead of using the tabs at all.