How can something with no moving parts rattle?

uniqueclone · Post by **uniqueclone** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 7:54 pm

This post may be regarded as rather pointless by some, but I've just noticed something decidedly odd about my Aria drive cage. I'm not complaining, really (although this could be related to the annoying noise coming from the optical drive a few moments ago), but I am bemused.

I have the drive cage here, (empty, obviously!), and when I hold it in two hands and move it around in the air, it rattles. Only a very little, but . . .

Are you going to laugh at me? I think someone is. It's just so inexplicable, I had to tell someone. None of the screws are loose, the metal isn't bent - it sounds like .. a grain of rice, in a matchbox.

If it was a very small grain of rice, and the matchbox was made of aluminium.

[F]bernZ · Post by **[F]bernZ** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 8:50 pm

It might be that your hand is actually vibrating. Some people's hands aren't very still, and even if you move it with two hands there's still the odd shake that you don't feel, but instead gets transferred to the cage.

PopCorn · Post by **PopCorn** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 8:51 pm

*laughs*

..... doest it still have the rivets on it... if it does that could be rattleing..... btw what forces made you wanna wave a drive cage in the air?

Qwertyiopisme · Post by **Qwertyiopisme** » Fri Jan 05, 2007 2:13 am

That doesn't sound all too impossible, probably the sound arises from a region where the sheet is joined to itself (to form a closed loop). Try pinching down on that area and shake it and see if it's gone. To get rid of it permanently you could either try to open the seam up and put in some hot-glue or something else that would dampen vibrations or clamp it down with some bolts.

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Fri Jan 05, 2007 3:26 am

I've got one of those cages around here somewhere.....pulled from my Aria.

It's a big aluminum structure, made of several pieces, riveted together into one big chunk. I would suspect you're hearing the effects of one or more rivets that are slightly loose...not loose enough to feel, but loose enough to cause the joined sections to move slightly when the whole cage is disturbed. The two aluminum pieces are shifting enough against one another to cause the sounds you hear. IMHO

uniqueclone · Post by **uniqueclone** » Fri Jan 05, 2007 7:30 pm

And the prize goes to . . .

PopCorn!

There were some loose rivets, and the little bits of metal inside the rivet-thingies were moving back and forth. I couldn't actually see it happening, but when I poked them with a dressmakers pin they moved.

I fixed them with a little dab of household glue in each hole

Thanks for the advice guys! (And thanks for not telling me I had a screw loose.. hehe... Sorry, that's such a lame pun, I couldn't resist.)

Chris Chan · Post by **Chris Chan** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 6:12 am

Yup, you had a rivet loose, not a screw.