# Anyone Have Suggestions for Converting Oberon Corners to Velcro?



## crebel (Jan 15, 2009)

I have a K1 Forest Oberon with corners. It was ordered with velcro but came with corners and I didn't want to take the time to return it and I don't want to sell it and order a new one because now it "feels like mine", if that makes any sense! I have used it for over a month and it is great, but I really like the pictures on all the other threads of skinned Kindles without the corners covering any of the design.

I am a fairly "crafty" person, but I am worried about ruining the Oberon if I cut off the corners to make way for velcro. So, does anyone have suggestions? Do you think industrial strength velcro is strong enough to put over the corners instead of removing them? For those that have velcro, where do you think the best placement would be? If I have to remove the Kindle to get to the back, will it pull off the back skin or should I remove the back skin before velcro? Does velcro make it too difficult to get to the WN buttons of the back of a K1 (I never use the top right corner loop so I can just pull it forward to get to the back buttons now)? Any thoughts before I attempt this would be appreciated.

Chris


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## Graydog (Feb 18, 2009)

Call Oberon.  I'm sure you will get a lot of advice here, but really expert advice is what you need and the best place to get that is at the source.  Oberon's customer service is great and I expect they will make every effort to help -- especially since your problem is the result of their mistake.  If I were you I would inquire about the possibility of the conversion being done there.


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## Meemo (Oct 27, 2008)

crebel said:


> I have a K1 Forest Oberon with corners. It was ordered with velcro but came with corners and I didn't want to take the time to return it and I don't want to sell it and order a new one because now it "feels like mine", if that makes any sense! I have used it for over a month and it is great, but I really like the pictures on all the other threads of skinned Kindles without the corners covering any of the design.
> 
> I am a fairly "crafty" person, but I am worried about ruining the Oberon if I cut off the corners to make way for velcro. So, does anyone have suggestions? Do you think industrial strength velcro is strong enough to put over the corners instead of removing them? For those that have velcro, where do you think the best placement would be? If I have to remove the Kindle to get to the back, will it pull off the back skin or should I remove the back skin before velcro? Does velcro make it too difficult to get to the WN buttons of the back of a K1 (I never use the top right corner loop so I can just pull it forward to get to the back buttons now)? Any thoughts before I attempt this would be appreciated.
> 
> Chris


Chris - I agree - I'd call Oberon first. It could be that if you have a shoe repair shop nearby, they might have the tools to make the removal of the corners possible. Not sure about putting the velcro on top of the corners, I think it would add bulk. But it could be that Oberon could send some of the velcro that they use to you so that you could place it where they do & the corners would be covered by the Kindle. It wouldn't be quite the same, since they sew the velcro into the cover, but I'm sure it would still work. I know they'll send replacement velcro if needed so that could potentially be a simple fix, and since they sent the wrong version I'm sure they'll be happy to work with you.

I have velcro on my K1 Oberon - I don't have any issues with turning the buttons on & off, it's far enough from the buttons . I put the velcro on the back of my K1 before I got a skin, so I just left the skin off the back. Don't know what happens with the skin if you put velcro on top of it (if it were me I'd just remove the skin before putting the velcro on). But the velcro does stay on the Kindle just fine when I've detached the Kindle to access the SD card. I'd put the velcro in the same place Oberon puts it - somewhere on their site there's a pic of the velcro placement on the cover.

By the way, I agree with you - I love the cornerless look, very clean & nice - I'm very happy with my velcro Oberon.


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## crebel (Jan 15, 2009)

Thanks for the advice Graydog and Meemo - I ended up away from the computer all day to head to Orthopedic Specialist with my adult son who somehow managed to get a compression fracture of T8-9 vetebrae!  He will be fine but may need surgery.  Anyway, that's why I didn't respond earlier.  I will give Oberon a call before taking any drastic measures - don't know why I didn't think of that myself since everyone talks about how helpful they are.  I have looked at their site to see their placement for velcro and it is good to know that it doesn't interfere with access and that you don't need to detach unless you have to remove the back for SD card or hard reset.


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## Ruby296 (Nov 1, 2008)

crebel said:


> Thanks for the advice Graydog and Meemo - I ended up away from the computer all day to head to Orthopedic Specialist with my adult son who somehow managed to get a compression fracture of T8-9 vetebrae! He will be fine but may need surgery. Anyway, that's why I didn't respond earlier. I will give Oberon a call before taking any drastic measures - don't know why I didn't think of that myself since everyone talks about how helpful they are. I have looked at their site to see their placement for velcro and it is good to know that it doesn't interfere with access and that you don't need to detach unless you have to remove the back for SD card or hard reset.


I'm sorry to hear about your son's injuries. I hope he's not in too much pain and that he has a quick recovery. I agree that Oberon's CS is top notch-I wrote to them earlier and got a response in less than 1/2 hr. Good luck w/your cover, but most of all with your son.


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## crebel (Jan 15, 2009)

Ruby296 said:


> I'm sorry to hear about your son's injuries. I hope he's not in too much pain and that he has a quick recovery. I agree that Oberon's CS is top notch-I wrote to them earlier and got a response in less than 1/2 hr. Good luck w/your cover, but most of all with your son.


They seem to be so helpful to everyone. That is kind of why I didn't want to bother them after keeping and using the cover for over a month, they are so busy getting all the new covers done (don't want to start an accessories board riot by slowing them down!) I imagine they would offer to "refurbish" it so I just have to decide if the "look" is worth it to be without it for awhile.

Off Topic: Thanks for the concern about my son! His wife believes it happened while letting a friend "walk" on his back to crack it when it was stiff after a day of work and crack is literally what happened- so word of warning to anyone who does this. The pain is what sent him to the ER, but he has pain med now and will be off work for a week or so to take it easy (he wants to borrow my Kindle - fat chance, guess my mother's love isn't as strong as I thought - but I did take him a stack of DTBs) with a bunch of restrictions. If he starts healing well in the next couple of weeks no surgery will be necessary.


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## MonaSW (Nov 16, 2008)

crebel said:


> Off Topic: Thanks for the concern about my son! His wife believes it happened while letting a friend "walk" on his back to crack it when it was stiff after a day of work and crack is literally what happened- so word of warning to anyone who does this. The pain is what sent him to the ER, but he has pain med now and will be off work for a week or so to take it easy (he wants to borrow my Kindle - fat chance, guess my mother's love isn't as strong as I thought - but I did take him a stack of DTBs) with a bunch of restrictions. If he starts healing well in the next couple of weeks no surgery will be necessary.


I am praying he heals up fine, back surgery is pretty major. I've seen someone walk on someone else's back, and it just made me cringe.

What I would worry about trying to convert the straps cover to a Velcro cover is that cutting the straps might loosen the stitching - starting a whole 'nother problem.


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## crebel (Jan 15, 2009)

MonaSW said:


> I am praying he heals up fine, back surgery is pretty major. I've seen someone walk on someone else's back, and it just made me cringe.
> 
> What I would worry about trying to convert the straps cover to a Velcro cover is that cutting the straps might loosen the stitching  - starting a whole 'nother problem.


That is why my original thought was just to flatten the straps against the back cover and adhere the velcro over them. If it ends up making it too bulky I think I could take the velcro off and revert to the original corners. Heavy sigh - I probably am not brave enough to risk damaging the Oberon. Thanks for the prayers for my son - the potential surgery does not sound like fun (involves inflating a tube around the vetebrae and then filling it with "cement" ), but I have faith he will recover quickly.


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## VictoriaP (Mar 1, 2009)

crebel said:


> That is why my original thought was just to flatten the straps against the back cover and adhere the velcro over them. If it ends up making it too bulky I think I could take the velcro off and revert to the original corners. Heavy sigh - I probably am not brave enough to risk damaging the Oberon. Thanks for the prayers for my son - the potential surgery does not sound like fun (involves inflating a tube around the vetebrae and then filling it with "cement" ), but I have faith he will recover quickly.


That surgery sounds horrid! Happy healthy vibes coming his way.

As for the Oberon--I'd actually not put the velcro over the corners, but rather just tape them down with black gaffers tape. You can always remove that & it leaves little to no residue, but it's easily as strong as duct tape. It's very cloth like, so I don't think it would be too obnoxiously noticeable. I'd be worried that the velcro over the corners might prove hard to remove later without damaging the corner pieces, and that they'd be less secure since the there's a natural gap between the corner loop & the black backing leather. Then I'd put the velcro in a little closer to the center than the edges, solidly on the backing leather. If that makes any sense!

Looking at mine (for the K2) right now, the two inside corners could easily be taped down, and the upper right bungee could just be removed. It's the lower right corner that's the hardest to flatten down & still have it look reasonably nice. I'd guess the K1 version would be similar enough to have the same issues.

I do really think you might be best off selling the cover to someone here & ordering exactly what you actually want though.


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## crebel (Jan 15, 2009)

VictoriaP said:


> As for the Oberon--I'd actually not put the velcro over the corners, but rather just tape them down with black gaffers tape. You can always remove that & it leaves little to no residue, but it's easily as strong as duct tape. It's very cloth like, so I don't think it would be too obnoxiously noticeable. I'd be worried that the velcro over the corners might prove hard to remove later without damaging the corner pieces, and that they'd be less secure since the there's a natural gap between the corner loop & the black backing leather. Then I'd put the velcro in a little closer to the center than the edges, solidly on the backing leather. If that makes any sense!
> 
> I do really think you might be best off selling the cover to someone here & ordering exactly what you actually want though.


    Ahhh, panic attack!!! No, no no!!! It's mine, mine, mine!!! Whew, sorry, I can't bear to think of parting with it now, but the idea of the gaffers tape to flatten and cover the corners to protect them for future use is a great idea - Thanks!


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## Kathy (Nov 5, 2008)

I think the gaffers tape sounds like a good idea. Hope your son's back heals. Back surgery is not fun.


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## Ruby296 (Nov 1, 2008)

crebel said:


> They seem to be so helpful to everyone. That is kind of why I didn't want to bother them after keeping and using the cover for over a month, they are so busy getting all the new covers done (don't want to start an accessories board riot by slowing them down!) I imagine they would offer to "refurbish" it so I just have to decide if the "look" is worth it to be without it for awhile.
> 
> Off Topic: Thanks for the concern about my son! His wife believes it happened while letting a friend "walk" on his back to crack it when it was stiff after a day of work and crack is literally what happened- so word of warning to anyone who does this. The pain is what sent him to the ER, but he has pain med now and will be off work for a week or so to take it easy (he wants to borrow my Kindle - fat chance, guess my mother's love isn't as strong as I thought - but I did take him a stack of DTBs) with a bunch of restrictions. If he starts healing well in the next couple of weeks no surgery will be necessary.


Yikes on "walking" on your son's back! I hope that the rest and the med will heal him so that he doesn't have to have surgery. My DH has had countless surgeries on his and it's no fun at all. I wouldn't let my Kindle go either, so I hear you on that! Keep us posted on what you decide to do with your cover.


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