Hi DIY!
My headphones of many years recently broke. My first response was to attempt to glue them back together with super glue (ethyl 2-cyanoacrylate) however that didn’t seem to hold. Not even a little bit.
I then did a bit of searching and found that Sony often use ABS plastic in headphone manufacture, so presumably these are ABS. I then read super glue should work okay on ABS, however there seemed to be no bonding happening at all.
Do any of you have any tips for the best kind of glue or epoxy to bond these plastic parts back together and get the music flowing again?
I plan on wrapping the joints in thread afterwards, for additional durability. But first I need to get them bonded.
- fix the pieces in their intended position (maybe with a droplet of epoxy)
- bring out a dedicated soldering tip (you won’t be soldering with it any more) and 3D printer filament of the same plastic
- weld carefully with a low-temperature iron, in a well ventilated place (maybe outdoors)
You can also weld in metal wire with a soldering iron. I’ve done repairs that way before and it works quite well as long as the two pieces can’t move and fatigue the metal.
If you’re up to a bit more complex of a job, I have files for headphone bands to replace the whole hinge and band with either 3D printed or cut metal.
3d printed can be done with any printer either as is or flat and then shaped with an oven to specific designs.
Metal needs only a dremel, drill, and sandpaper and can be made out if sheet steel from any hardware store. Bending is done by hand or 3d printed jig.
Both use 3m screws to be adjustable but can be glued in place if prefered.
That sounds a bit outside of my skill range - thank you though!
Glues are fucking useless unless you have a large surface area to bond. Headphones don’t use ABS, too brittle. The use polycarbonate on the hoop that breaks and that doesn’t bond well with glue.
Hot staples are an option because the embed steel wire into the plastic. These kits are cheap now and very common in automotive plastic repair because glue is universally useless.
Gloop gets used in 3d printing. It physically welds the bonds together on a molecular level between 2 plastics.
Gloop is just acetone and tetrahydrofuran. That shit is toxic AF.
Superglue sprinkled with baking soda creates incredibly strong bonds. But you’ll need to add it all around the seam to make a thick layer.
I also recommend first scratching the plastic with sandpaper so that there’s something for the glue to hold on to.
Ouch, I used hot glue for mine but its not great at holding to the surface, I just had a massive surface to make use of and pretty much made a ring of glue around the break. Doesn’t look like yours would work with that sadly.
So, probably don’t go with hot glue.
Noted, thanks though!
physical reinforcement is a good suggestion lots are coming up with. If it’s not too late, I’d recommend doing that with something that dissolves the ABS instead of an adhesive. ABS dissolves readily with a few solvents, like acetone. Get physical reinforcement in place, and IF you do not need any bulk filler, just use a solvent like acetone to literally melt and repolymerize the plastic back together. As long as there’s no new gaps or new voids, the physical reinforcement should leave it stronger than the original. At least after all the solvent evaporates away.
If you need gap filler or bulk reinforcement, two part epoxies are definitely the way to go, though make sure to use something quite flexible or it’ll just crack off the next time you drop them.
A few people have recommended acetone now. I originally ruled it out due to the wire running through one of the hollows (not wanting to damage the insulation) but I’m thinking I might try adhesive on the piece with the wire and acetone on the other. Thanks!
Speaking of physical reinforcement, when my headphones broke in a very similar way I was able to use cable ties to secure them back together. Ugly but it worked.
The headphones I currently use (on my head right now) also have physical reinforcement, but instead of zip ties it’s just a thin tensile wire I had lying around. (If you mean ye olde twist-ties like in grocery store produce sections, then that’s close!) Tied it around a cylinder piece that broke off that holds a rotatable insert, superglue, and lots of extra wraps encased in superglue… and it’s perfect! … outside of where I was dumb and got glue between the rotatable faces and now it binds up a bit, but otherwise great. Replacement parts would’ve been like $35+.
… I guess all of that is to say, physical reinforcement is excellent when it’s adding strength as opposed to replacing strength! (similar to OP, the superglue is a bit brittle for a one to one toughness fix).
General purpose tip for Gluing:
Isopropyl Alchohol in a spray mister will speed up Superglue bond time from minutes to seconds.
Mixing glues can be very useful. For example, I’ll use Epoxy for the hollow insides but a drop of Superglue where pieces fit together to hold the pieces together while the Epoxy cures overnight. UV glue is fantastic for that because it cures instantly. But a drop of Superglue with a spritz of alcohol works good too.
I didn’t think of mixing glues, nor have I heard of the alcohol spritzer thing - I might give it a go. Thanks!
Cyanoacrylate accelerator is not IPA. It’s a mix of acetone and amines. You are getting a weak effect from the water in the IPA.
I didn’t say it was accelerator but it works like accelerator. This is the solarpunk forum where you are supposed to recommend hacks.
I bought a cheap Temu plastic repair welder (melts in a little metall pin) - they actually work and the results are surprisingly strong.
5 minute 2-part epoxy. Buy the individual packets rather than the bottles so ya dont get solidified wasted bottles.
Loc-Tite Plastic Bonder has worked well for me in these situations, but sometimes it just doesn’t seem to take well; other times it holds better than the original plastic does. Worth a shot?
This looks like Loc-Tite’s version of the JB Weld Plasticweld. If I can’t find any JB then I’ll give this a go, thanks!
If the adhesive route fails, it looks like there are replacement parts available, but your mileage may vary when it comes to the source. Not seeing anything official, but ebay has a few hits: https://www.ebay.com/itm/204942975498
Might also try just calling Sony support, but iirc their support is fairly shit.
I am but a poor student so I’ll try and repair it first, but it’s good to know there’s parts out there if absolutely necessary - thanks!
Came to basically say the same thing. Parts also on AliExpress, looks like the same pictures from eBay so might be the same products. “Fixing” the plastic joint that has so little surface area and is mangled as much as it is seems like it would be dubious at best.
If it were me, I would be looking at buying a replacement bracket first, and if that didn’t pan out, I’d probably be looking to 3d print something that would function as a new bracket or an entirely new headband.
You can glue it, it won’t work. When you’ve tried all of them, get a plastic staple gun and make it ugly, but fixed.
I’ll be honest, you’re probably not going to be able to fix those to a degree that I’d trust. Some headphones are reparable and have replaceable parts, and that isn’t one of them. I’ve had really good luck with Audio-Technica and Beyer Dynamic in that department, but most of their more sturdy and repairable headphones aren’t very portable.
Whatever you do, don’t break that wire, it’s nearly impossible to DIY repair.
