[TRACKING] FW12 cracking issue

And again I am thinking if I should switch from grey to lavendar…

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Lavender is quite pretty.

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I’d like to think I’ve been rougher on my gray FW 12 than anyone so far, lol. No issues so far.

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My lavender 12 has that around one of the screws also; I’ve had it a little over a week, so I sort of feel like it’s a moulding issue and not actually stress cracking. I’m no expert, of course.

Edit: I feel like I should mention this is very hard to see, and I wouldn’t have noticed without it being pointed out.

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I think yours is on the opposite side (unless the photo is mirrored) but it does look very much similar to mine.

I agree it’s probably the molds in that case

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Nope, photo isn’t mirrored.

That’s weird, Mine doesn’t have one on that side. :thinking:

They might have more than one mould; guessing though.

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I wonder if it’s related to hinge stress points that are attached to the lid and chassis. (i.e. the hinge has to attached to something by screws)

And if so, it might be related to hinge strength QC tolerance. (with some hinges strong than others, requiring more force to open and close the FL12)

Or, pressure points of the screws? (torque / over-tightened?)

Abs is naturally a somewhat off white ivory looking color, to make that black or blue takes relatively little pigment, to make it white or light gray takes a ton of pigment (like signifficant portion of the total volume/mass).

White 3d printing abs filament is known to have quite different material properties than most other colors.

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I’m emailing support about it now, I’ll update soon.

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Exactly same cracks around the two front facing screws here on black FW12… Laptop is two weeks old and normal daily use… Will observe how they develop…

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Interesting, If you feel like taking some pictures I’d be curious to see.

Makes me think there’s some inconsistency in the plastic cases they’re making resulting in some laptops being weaker. They obviously wouldn’t catch it in QC because it doesn’t show up until a bit of normal use has occurred.

Though, wouldn’t that come up if stress testing a random sample from every batch…?

Maybe, I’m not sure how they stress test them though.

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I posted a reply hours ago, but again, it was flagged for moderator approval. I just said welcome to the community to @peter_pantraining and said that if the marks seemed identical, it was probably a quirk of the mold, rather than stress cracking. But we’ll see what support says.

Would be really interesting to have some pictures of brand new devices, if they have those marks also.

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There is still a post pending, but I think I’m done with this thread for now. Hopefully this potential plastic mystery gets sorted out. But everything I post gets held for moderator review, for some reason.

The thing is, while I can’t say for sure about the ones at the display hinges, the ones near the front screws are in just about the most rigid spot of the entire chassis. I can’t imagine that spot flexing enough to cause a crease/crack like that.

Here’s a pic of what mine looks like in that spot inside, with the speaker removed. There is a little metal plate, multiple re-enforcing ribs, plus the battery and the speaker are all right there, not to mention the vertical sides of the chassis. Even with almost everything removed, it is still pretty rigid at that spot.

I’m not even sure what kind of normal use would stress that spot over time enough to crease/crack the plastic.

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Totally agree, no way the front is flexing enough to stress it.

I’m more worried about the ones near the hinges because those tend to actually bulge out and are much more pronounced on my laptop.

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