After several business trips and the trip to Spain, midway through our trip to Greece, the handles on Neil’s and my carryon luggage stopped working. Depressing the button to lower or pull up the handles did nothing. They were just stuck in the lowest position. Neil and Lara tried a quick fix while we were in Greece, unfortunately, it didn’t work.
I took one suitcase apart to see if I could isolate the problem.This wasn’t possible with some basic tools. I had to use this kit that I bought for Neil many years ago.One of the arms on the button piece is broken, so pressing the button wasn’t retracting the metal stoppers in the poles so the poles could slide up and down.I took apart the second suitcase, and found exactly the same problem.
At this point, I had two consultants to help with the best way to fix the issue. Neil suggested epoxy with some sort of stabilizer to help provide strength. Lara showed me how to use the epoxy, as she’s a pro user from fixing various things.
After some trial and error, I decided to use a popsicle stick for the stabilizer.I just had to cut it down to length and height.Preparing to epoxy the pieces together. This Gorilla Epoxy is totally awesome! The dispenser made it easy to squeeze out the right amounts of both components. Then it’s just mix and apply.I filled as much of the spaces as possible with the epoxy.Next day, the epoxy had cured and it was time to assemble the handles.
Amazing!
Too late for my HEYS carry on bag, I could not retract the handle in May and totally removed it so now it must be carried on.