Household repair using cardmodeling

[lizzienewell]

Cardmodel techniques work for repairing plastics. The tray on my printer broke. It's fragile plastic, maybe polystyrene. I bumped the tray and a tiny piece broke off. The tray wouldn't stay. It's difficult to even get a good look at the problem, and I can only fit the fingers of one hand into the space.


I tried repairing with tape and it didn't work. So I took snippet of paper and hot melt glue. The paper let me get the hot melt glue in place and hold it until it cooled.

That worked so well that I fixed the divider on my freezer in a similar manner. It had cracked. The clips are to keep the divider from sliding. They hold spaces made out of chip board and waterproof map paper. I share the freezer with a roommate, and we like our space evenly divided. Fussy I know. The divider would get pushed over. I'd try to push it back without removing her stuff, and that's how it broke.

Tape would be messy. I doubted that epoxy would hold, and I didn't want the stink of epoxy resin in a place I store food. I cut a patch out of waterproof map paper and glued it with hot melt glue. No stink. It's held up for several months, so it looks like it's a success.

 

[zathros]

That's a god Idea. If you have to do this again, and can get to the front of the printer, where it's broken. Drilling a series of small homes will allow the glue to go into the holes. You are better off using Two Parts Steel Epoxy. You would drill the holes, push the glue, or epoxy through the holes, this would allow the pins to act as rivets, and secure the repair better. Also, if you have a crack in something, drill a small hole at the end of the crack, and that still stop the crack from spreading. This even works on cast Iron cylinder heads in cars, though in these, you hammer an interference sized pin (,002") bigger, then mill, or grind it smooth. This is considered a permanent repair and can same a vintage engine block.

This particular Epoxy is incredible. You cut off what you need with scissors. I recommend wetting your fingers occasionally, the core is Black, outside is Grey, you keep mixing it till it is darker Gray. When solid, you can drill, mill, and tape threads into this stuff. It is really incredible. For submerged in water uses, get the marine version, it's "White" in color. Put what's left back in Saran wrap, into the tube, it never goes bad.

 

[lizzienewell]

Nice ideas. My difficulties with both these repairs is that I have a chemically sensitive roommate, probably due to overexposure to epoxy resin, but her requirements are stringent as far as what can be in the air. No solvents. This knocks out nearly all cements and glues. The printer is also constructed in such a way that if I took the tray off to repair it, I wouldn't be able to put the tray back in place. That and there is no room to work. I wouldn't be able to get a drill in position. The breakage was a chip out of a plastic track that holds a sliding plastic tab.Printer are designed to be disposable so that you have to replace them every five years. Grrr. It broke because I didn't close the tray before mucking with computer wires and put pressure on the tray while trying to reach plugs.

 

[zathros]

This stuff lets out virtually no smell, and when it hardens, there is absolutely no smell.