Hi DIY!

My headphones of many years recently broke. My first response was to attempt to glue them back together with super glue (ethyl 2-cyanoacrylate) however that didn’t seem to hold. Not even a little bit.

I then did a bit of searching and found that Sony often use ABS plastic in headphone manufacture, so presumably these are ABS. I then read super glue should work okay on ABS, however there seemed to be no bonding happening at all.

Do any of you have any tips for the best kind of glue or epoxy to bond these plastic parts back together and get the music flowing again?

I plan on wrapping the joints in thread afterwards, for additional durability. But first I need to get them bonded.

  • LuxSpark@lemmy.cafe
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    3 days ago

    I would make some metal rods to insert in the holes left in the hollow plastic. Epoxy those in place on both sides to reinforce the joints which will have stress on them. I think that is the only chance you have of repairing broken plastic like this with little surface area to bond. You could look around and find some nails or something to cut up.

    • punksnotdead@slrpnk.netOP
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      3 days ago

      Great idea! I’ll give that a go, thanks. Reinforcement rods, adhesive, and thread wrap around the outside should surely be enough

      • FiniteBanjo@feddit.online
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        3 days ago

        Might be able to find some wire in an electrical or automotive store. 20 guage is about a millimeter or less, 12 guage is between 2 and 3 mm. Do you have calipers to take a measurement?

        Wire Coat Hanger might fit, will be harder so a better reinforcement.

        • punksnotdead@slrpnk.netOP
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          2 days ago

          No calipers, but I have random bits and bobs lying around that I can just trial and error until something fits. Thanks!

    • in_my_honest_opinion@piefed.social
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      3 days ago

      @punksnotdead@slrpnk.net I would suggest carbon fiber rods or aluminum, ferris metal could interfere with the bluetooth radio depending on their shape.

      • punksnotdead@slrpnk.netOP
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        2 days ago

        Somebody suggested wooden dowels so I’ll probably try that just because I have scrap wood lying about anyway and it’s easy to carve into shape. Thanks!

          • anotherandrew@lemmy.mixdown.ca
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            3 days ago

            And I’m a 30 year veteran EE who designs a lot of high speed and RF gear. There is zero chance ferrous metal rods to repair the headphones as described would have any meaningful impact on the Bluetooth connection.

            You’re technically correct that metal in the vicinity could possibly have some measurable impact on the 2.4GHz radio, but your theoretical scenario is a practical absurdity.

            • in_my_honest_opinion@piefed.social
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              2 days ago

              Low power BLE has been fickle to me so I guess I was being a little over cautious worrying about interference for such a small radio and low power.

          • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca
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            3 days ago

            yeah, everyone is an engineer on Lemmy. there is ferrous hardware all over BT headphones.