plastic top edge to SP3

[Justin Adie]

Hi
does anyone have any advice for how to transplant the top (plastic) edge of an SP3? I have two chassis, one with no top edge (melted) and the other with a broken bottom corner. i'd like to transplant the whole top edge to the good aluminium chassis.

I think it is just glue but before I exert too much pressure and heat (again) i'm looking for your advice, please.

thanks
Justin

 

[Wayne Orwig]

I would imagine that you need to unglue the display panel. The cameras and maybe even the wifi antennas can then be removed from the plastic. It is easy to imagine that the plastic piece is screwed to the metal back.
Not easy I'm sure.

 

[Justin Adie]

thanks for the response.

the devices are fully disassembled already. not a hard job at all, thankfully!

no screws for the plastic. It's some kind of epoxy I'm sure. I can't think of any other way to bond metal and plastic.

I'm looking really for advice on unbonding - heat (in which case which temp)? or a solvent that won't damage the plastic or the magnesium. and advice on what epoxy to use to rebond to the new chassis.

thanks

 

[Justin Adie]

for those interested, the plastic is held in by what looks like a hot glue epoxy in little crenellations. I found that submerging the edge in alcohol for 25 minutes at about 50C (warming oven) allowed me to pull out the plastic top with very little force.

this left _most_ of the glue tabs inside the plastic and I'm now experimenting with how to remove these. without the magnesium casing there is no heat-sink so I don't feel willing to pour too much heat in. I've tried up to 130C using my hot air station (for very little time), but that seems to leave the plastic edge a little too pliable whilst doing nothing to the glue! About 1/3 of the glue tabs have succumbed to chipping with some tweezers. I will try with some more alcohol and see whether that makes a difference.