During a retro gaming session that got a little too vigorous, I managed to snap off the joystick from my Gravis Gamepad.

I was disappointed but also excited at the same time. Time for a new project!

I’d always wondered when this would happen as these little guys aren’t very strong, being made entirely of plastic.

My idea involved drilling out a hole in the joystick to allow me to insert a new (metal) thread in there to replace the plastic. This will also result in a much stronger joystick that shouldn’t break quite so easily.

I went down to the hardware store (with my little broken piece to make sure I got the correct threads) and ended up with this-

Hole all drilled out-

And, tapped to the correct thread-

I figured I’d add a little super glue to keep it from unthreading from the joystick when you want to unscrew it from the gamepad (the replacement piece I got had a hole for an allen wrench on the end, so I was able to screw it into the joystick before the glue dried too quickly)-

And the end result!-

Good as new (but stronger)! So far, it hasn’t broken again!

E