Recently purchased a monitor from eBay. It's a Dell 19" Monitor model P991 - Sony Trinitron. The monitor was dropped by the courier, and did some damage to the power button. I've opened the monitor to have a look and. Exterior button and spring are fine. It's the internal switch that is damaged. The plastic arm broke away from the switch shaft. The switch is is soldered onto the "D" board. The Exterior button pushes the arm, which turns the switch on/off.
Anyone know the best way to reattach the shaft to the switch? Which glue or cement would work best on these two plastic parts to make a solid bond? I can post pictures if necessary.
It's a common thing, and is usually fixable with standard cyanoacrylate superglue BUT, you MUST splint it as well. The easiest way to do this is to drill a small hole ( 1 or 1.5 mm ) in the centre of the broken off and still-attached pieces. Then find a tight fitting piece of wire - I use enamelled copper wire - and superglue it into one of the holes you've just made. Now cut the wire off to a length to suit the depth of the hole in the other piece, put some superglue in the hole, and push the two pieces firmly together. This will repair the switch shaft as strong as the original. Have done it many times ...
Another trick that avois the drilling and works well on small pieces is to just heat up a bit of lead trim from a cap or resistor and melt it into the parts. A little glue combined with this works well in many cases.
If it's a feather-touch control, then a cyanoacrylate will do. The best
1-part cyanoacrylate for plastic, IMHO, is called Plastic Surgery. This is made, as the name suggests, especially for plastics -- it has a bit of solvent in it which bites into the material, unlike garden-variety Super Glues. I used to only find this at Walgreens, but it's been a while, so I dunno who might stock it now. There are some good 2-part cyanoacrylates (1 part is an accelerator). These set up very fast, but Plastic Surgery performs as well as most 2-parters.
If, otoh, the plastic is under more stress, as with a high-current power switch (cuz ya use more force to push it), you need a less brittle adhesive for a lasting repair.
A really great product, albeit somewhat esoteric, is called Plas-T-Pair by Rawn. This is a two-part, resin-based system -- you mix plastic powder with a solvent and form up the compound. This stuff is perfect for damage where there's missing bits of plastic, as you can make it as thick or thin as you like and mold it into whatever shape you want while it's curing, after which it can be drilled, filed and sanded to match the original part's shape. I use the liquid solvent by itself for quick welds where the parts meet up perfectly and there will be little stress on the piece. Where greater strength is needed, I mix it up and leave a sheath of Plas-T-Pair around the part in question.
Another specialty solvent I use is called Pro-Weld by Ambroid. It's a 2oz. bottle of liquid with brush built into the cap. It bonds Styrene, Butyrate, ABS, Acrylics, etc. This solvent creates solid joints and it sets up super quick.
For future reference, just in case you dig into a piece of equipment where you might need to repair a nylon part, forget it! I have yet to discover a solvent that will work on nylon gears and the like. You might as well try to weld teflon together. About the only thing available for these is tape. I know there are some surgical-grade products that claim they work on Teflon and Nylon, but I'll believe that when I see it.
So if it was a real question, how about some input from the OP ? Did you repair the switch in the end, or were you frightened off by some of the comments ? Did you manage to get a new switch to fit ? Or did you perhaps take it to the tip and resolve never to buy anything from eBay again, or at least if you do and it arrives broken, not to dare ask about it again on here ? Did you feel that the positive or negative comments were justified ? Just interested to know ...
If it were a monitor I owned, I would just go inside and jumper the power switch so it's hot. I haven't turned a monitor off with a power switch in years. When there is no signal, they turn off.
Right! If you really feel the need to be able to power the unit off, say when you have brown-outs or lightning storms just wire an inline on/off switch onto the power cord. They can be gotten at any hardware store.
I cant believe everybody is fighting over a simple problem.
flame wars wouldnt help anybody.
I believe there's nothing wrong with using superglue or any other adhesive since these are mostly non-conductant, just be sure that you know what you're doing and be careful if you're going to use a splint to keep the switch steady.
Michael's suggestion of jumping the switch so that it would permanently stay on is good too. however if it were my monitor. I would try to get a replacement switch for my monitor then solder it in like all good guys do. If not, i would just make an arpeture either at the front or the back of the monitor with a little hacking and create my own switch.
If it's a Sony made monitor you might be able to get the switch straight from Sony. I replaced the bezel on my Trinitron after I cracked it on the corner of the trunk lid getting it out of my car, that thing is heavy!
The OP is still having trouble posting to the group, but has contacted me direct to ask me to post on his behalf, to thank all who helped. He has now successfully repaired the switch.
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