Epoxied tight as a drum

[Larry Sabo]

A customer brought me a nice Dell 17" i5 laptop in for DC jack repair. Said he had it repaired once but it broke again. It seems the corner had been damaged so the other "tech" repaired it -- with lots of epoxy. There's epoxy everywhere and absolutely no way to open the thing without removing the bottom and top cover with a Dremell tool. Ugh! A shame; back it goes.

 

[Kitten Kong]

Ouch!.

No other words required here Larry..

 

[Diggs]

That said - What's the preferred method for bonding a loose charging jack (modular, not one soldered to the MB)? I had a Toshiba with the same problem this weekend. I tend to favor thick CA (cyanoacrylate-super glue). Bonds to anything, can be "kicked" to harden instantly and can be debonded (with gamma-Butyrolactone) if needed with just a drop or two.

 

[Larry Sabo]

Bonds to anything, can be "kicked" to harden instantly and can be debonded (with gamma-Butyrolactone) if needed with just a drop or two.

Thanks for that, although I'm not sure how one would get GB into contact with the epoxy where it's thoroughly buried, as in this case. I have no objection to the judicious use of epoxy, except if it will prevent future repairs ... as in this case. It could be that there was no acceptable option, e.g., the plastic required to screw the top and bottom covers was destroyed and the owner elected to have it epoxied rather that invest in new top and bottom covers and the associated labour cost. However, I doubt that was the case.

 

[Diggs]

Thanks for that, although I'm not sure how one would get GB into contact with the epoxy where it's thoroughly buried, as in this case.

Unfortunately the de-bonder just works on the CA. I know of nothing that would de-bond or soften 2-part epoxy once cured.

 

[Krynn72]

the plastic required to screw the top and bottom covers was destroyed and the owner elected to have it epoxied rather that invest in new top and bottom covers and the associated labour cost. However, I doubt that was the case.

This probably was the case actually. Some of those parts can be expensive or hard to find. Could be that the repairer suggested it and the customer just assumed they knew best. I've epoxied a hinge down before, but I just did it to the base, so the top could still come off. Not ideal, but no replacement part was available (was some obscure Sony Vaio laptop). Just told the customer it was a stop gap solution until they could replace the computer entirely.

 

[NYJimbo]

I've done hundreds of epoxy repair jobs on laptops, you do not ever epoxy the machine like this. LOL.

 

[cypress]

Ouch!.

No other words required here Larry..

My thoughts exactly.

 

[cam w]

A customer brought me a nice Dell 17" i5 laptop in for DC jack repair. Said he had it repaired once but it broke again. It seems the corner had been damaged so the other "tech" repaired it -- with lots of epoxy. There's epoxy everywhere and absolutely no way to open the thing without removing the bottom and top cover with a Dremell tool. Ugh! A shame; back it goes.
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Damn that's quite a mess!