Thermal Adhesive ?

Jul 25, 2005 4 Replies

First reply

James Sweet

If it's white paste, it's just thermal grease, it'll stick pretty good due to surface tension but it's not glue. If it's dried up, scrub it all off and smear on a thin even coat of new stuff before you put it back together.

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Hey everybody:



I'm trying to get at a switch in the back of a powered speaker, and in order to do this, I need to remove the entire circuit board from its enclosure.



After unscrewing every screw I could find, the board wouldn't budge, and it seems that it's glued to the case by its huge heatsinks by what I assume is thermal adhesive.



So my question is: do I just wedge a screwdriver in there and rip it away? And after I do figure out how to get this thing off, I assume I'll need to buy some more "glue" and put it on there? Is that as simple as it sounds? Will I have trouble figuring out what to buy?



Thanks in advance.


What is your experience level with electronic repair?

N

If it's white paste, it's just thermal grease, it'll stick pretty good due to surface tension but it's not glue. If it's dried up, scrub it all off and smear on a thin even coat of new stuff before you put it back together.

I've replaced tweeters on two sets of speakers and I've fixed a DC socket on a synth. I know how to use a DMM, but my oscilloscope is the crappy one that uses a PC soundcard. I've built a synth from a kit, and I'm starting to make a binary LED clock from nothing but the schematic. I took a semester or 2 of EE in college a long time ago, and read a couple of books.

Hope that's neither too much nor too little info to answer your question!

I can't say that this is a good idea then. I would apply careful steady pressure to see if the heatsink paste gives, but it takes experience to know when things will break.

N

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