Glue joints and solvent

[beachycove]

I want in the next couple of weeks to take apart and try to repair a PowerBook power supply. I can do it by breaking the glue joint, but does anyone know if the glue can be dissolved, so as not to cause the kind of damage to the plastics that is common when the joint is broken?

I seem to recall a discussion of this question on here from years back, and I have searched, but nothing comes up.

 

[James1095]

I don't know about these particular things, but a lot of stuff like this is ultrasonically or solvent welded. When the adhesive works by melting the surface of the plastic to bond it, there isn't much you could do to dissolve it. A clean cut with a very sharp blade could get it apart nicely enough to solvent weld it back together without looking mangled.

 

[beachycove]

The ps in question is a dead white one used with the PB G4. The PBG4 in question is the one in which I recently installed an OWC SSD (which now runs like a completely different machine, btw), and for which I want a spare ps.

I have had to repair one of these power supplies before, but the tip/ connector on that particular one died, and that is a difficult thing to repair. It transpires, though, that I have an unused ps that just ticks when plugged in, providing no power. It is otherwise "as new," but I suspect faulty capacitors in its innards. Probably fixable once opened up.

There is certainly a conventional glue joint, as the last time I opened one of them, I broke the joint with some light taps with a hammer and a broad chisel, and took note of the construction. While the hammer works, there is some danger of breakage and marring, and I was just wondering if all bother could be avoided. Judging by the lack of responses, the answer is likely that it can not.

 

[James1095]

Well there's only one way to find out for sure. My own experience is that any solvent that will dissolve a glue that bonds plastic will also dissolve the plastic. Obviously I haven't tried anywhere close to every combination though. Sometimes a combination of things might work, a bit of heat and pressure in just the right amount in just the right places.