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Any tips on plastic adhesives? Trying to repair headphones (lemmy.nz)

submitted 5 days ago by punksnotdead@slrpnk.net to c/diy@slrpnk.net

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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.

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[–] LurkingLuddite@piefed.social 5 points 5 days ago (2 children)

physical reinforcement is a good suggestion lots are coming up with. If it's not too late, I'd recommend doing that with something that dissolves the ABS instead of an adhesive. ABS dissolves readily with a few solvents, like acetone. Get physical reinforcement in place, and IF you do not need any bulk filler, just use a solvent like acetone to literally melt and repolymerize the plastic back together. As long as there's no new gaps or new voids, the physical reinforcement should leave it stronger than the original. At least after all the solvent evaporates away.

If you need gap filler or bulk reinforcement, two part epoxies are definitely the way to go, though make sure to use something quite flexible or it'll just crack off the next time you drop them.

[–] punksnotdead@slrpnk.net 2 points 4 days ago

A few people have recommended acetone now. I originally ruled it out due to the wire running through one of the hollows (not wanting to damage the insulation) but I'm thinking I might try adhesive on the piece with the wire and acetone on the other. Thanks!

[–] BenLeMan@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Speaking of physical reinforcement, when my headphones broke in a very similar way I was able to use cable ties to secure them back together. Ugly but it worked.

[–] LurkingLuddite@piefed.social 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

The headphones I currently use (on my head right now) also have physical reinforcement, but instead of zip ties it's just a thin tensile wire I had lying around. Tied it around a cylinder piece that broke off that holds a rotatable insert, superglue, and lots of extra wraps encased in superglue... and it's perfect! ... outside of where I was dumb and got glue between the rotatable faces and now it binds up a bit, but otherwise great. Replacement parts would've been like $35+.

... I guess all of that is to say, physical reinforcement is excellent when it's adding strength as opposed to replacing strength! (similar to OP, the superglue is a bit brittle for a one to one toughness fix).