Repairing a broken earpiece tube. "Repair with glue and ash"
ID: 186357
Description:
Steps:
- Sound output tube of a walkie-talkie earpiece (covert style); sound is transmitted through a transparent tube to the ear, and the tube was broken due to an impact.
- This repair is being carried out, not because of the high cost of the device, but for the challenge and satisfaction of finding solutions and being able to repair it yourself.
- Gluing the tube directly onto the area where it has broken will not be effective, so you must prepare the joint area by trimming and smoothing the base with a utility knife. It must be completely flat.
- Carefully smooth the rest of the tube with a file.
- To insert the tube so that it is perfectly centered with the hole, you can use a fine jeweler's screwdriver to assist.
- To prevent the screwdriver from also getting stuck due to glue residue, apply a drop of OIL along the driver bit.
- Using a small flathead screwdriver, apply a cyanoacrylate or similar quick-drying glue around the edge of the circle on the earphone base. The higher the quality of the glue, the better the result will be, although I didn't use an expensive one; this one is from AliExpress.
- With the tube inserted into a thin screwdriver as indicated in step 3, insert the driver bit into the hole in the base; leave it on the table like this for a few minutes so the glue can begin to dry and bond the two parts.
- After a few minutes, carefully remove the screwdriver (thanks to the oil we applied, it should come out very easily); the tube should remain fixed in place.
- To reinforce the repaired area, we will use more cyanoacrylate glue or similar and fireplace ash (wood ash or cigarette ash); it creates a much more consistent bond than the one provided by baking soda, also used in this type of reinforcement; we could also use a small wrapped piece of cotton.
- Apply one or two drops of glue with the small screwdriver and then sprinkle the ash, which creates a hard layer in a few seconds.
- Clean off any loose ash residue with a brush, apply 2 more drops of glue to coat the outer layer of ash, and let the entire assembly dry for 1 hour.
- Once dry, use masking tape or painter's tape to mask off the entire area that should not be painted, then apply a touch of black paint; "it will give it a more professional finish."
- Place a piece of electrical tape on the last 3 or 4 mm of the tube to mask it off so that the paint does not stick there.
- Any matte spray paint will work for this repair, as we are only applying a light coat.
- Final view of the assembly, ready to insert the transparent tube.
- NOTE: The repair will not have the consistency of the original factory part, but if we treat it with a little care, we can continue using the headset.
- END of the repair guide.
- This repair methodology can be useful for many types of breaks in plastic parts that we need to reinforce.
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