glueing black plastic...laptop power jack component

Usually some kind of model glue. You will likely have to reinforce the plastic. What I do is take a piece of lead trim from a resistor or cap and lay it on the plastic across the joint and just touch my soldering iron to it and let it melt into the plastic. Do that on both sides and you will have a stonger piece than before the break. Just make sure that you are not placing the support anywhere that it might come in contact with a conductor.

Leonard

"J" hath wroth:

I've had good luck with cyanoacrylate adhesive and epoxy. The black plastic is ABS which should work with just about any adhesive. If cracked on the sides (as usual), I sometimes sandwitch a thin fiberglass or plastic reinforcing patch to straddle the crack.

However, methink replacing the jack is best, especially if it's severely mangled:

I just repaired my wife's flimsy cell phone charger flat multi-conductor plug using a method I've found to be successful many times, basically potting the whole interior portion in epoxy, then snapping the 2 halves back together & securing until set. Produces a plug much more solid than the original & also secures the wires inside nicely. Would likely work with 2 halves of a broken coax plug as well. Basic idea is to just fill the insides with epoxy.

Dan

Never glue anything without first finding out what kind of plastic it is, especially since some glues, like krazy glue/super glue/cyanoacrylate will often stick too poorly to make a strong repair but too well to be removed and allow a proper repair. If the plastic is dissolved by lacquer thinner or carburetor spray, it's probalby ABS, styrene, PVC, or polycarbonate, and it can be repaired by those solvents or MEK, methylene chloride, or brush-on liquid solvent glue sold by hobby shops (in a bottle, not a tube). Use scraps of identical plastic to fill any cracks, and allow 24 hours for the solvent to evaporate completely. If a solvent repair fails with polycabonate, the mating surfaces will have to be sanded or scraped to remove the chalky coating created by the solvent. Plastics that aren't affected by solvents include polyethylene, polypropylene, nylon, acetal (includes Derlin) and polyester. Polyester can be repaired very well with krazy glue or epoxy, but the other plastics need either exotic adhesives (n-Bond) or have to be melted together with a soldering iron. Polycarbonate is also repaired well by welding.

You may be able to strengthen any poorly designed part by roughing up its outer surface and coating it with krazy glue and nylon or rayon.

JBWeld epoxy has done very well for me. I usually use crazy glue to put things back together and then use the JBWeld over the original parts to strenghten things beyond their original design. It's gotten me through a lot of problems.

H. R. Hofmann

Thanks all for the suggestions. I may do a combination of all that. May reinforce with a bit of metal, and coat with epoxy after cyanacry? ester...

I wouldn't use it on any plastic but polyester. It's just high temperature epoxy.

I doubt the repairs I made to stripped and cracked gears of a mechanical TV tuner would have held up for long if I had used crazy glue or JB Weld on them. The gear made of ABS was solvent welded with lacquer thinner, the nylon gear melted back together with a soldering iron and its shaft flange reinforced with brass tubing. The TV still works, and I probably won't toss it until 2009, when analog TV broadcasts will supposedly be outlawed.

First make the proper repair according to the type of plastic. Then reinforcing a poorly designed part is always a good idea, but be sure the reinforcement will be sound. Epoxy sticks poorly to anything but hard plastic (Bakelite, polyester), so rough up the surface for good mechanical grip. Epoxy or cyanacrylic glue by themselves don't give added strength until fabric is added