Fixing a battery charger
As mentioned in an earlier entry, I need to make a security screwdriver to enable me to open an old battery charger that was broken.
One of the chaps on the Blokeyshed forum pointed out that this was potentially dangerous and that the makers probably put those screws in place to stop people opening the case. There is a reference in the manual that this device should only be repaired in a certified repair centre. I understand this but as I’m not planning to change the circuitry I thought it was a fairly low risk activity.
Opening up the case I saw that two of the posts for holding the screws had broken off.
I wrapped some masking tape around these and filled the resultant tubes with an epoxy plastic material.
Once this was dry I drilled the holes and used a cutoff disk to trim the top down. The material was good to work and cut well.
At this point all I had to do was to screw the case back together. However because my driver had a big handle on it I managed to overtighten it breaking my new plastic additions from the case (which I was not happy about). It is possible that there was an issue with the bond between old and new plastic, I probably make the posts thicker if I tried this again (taking care not to obstruct the electronics)
I did manage to bond the plastic parts with some superglue and once dry screwed the screws in. Now the case is back together and can be safely used.
Metal sculpture in brass, mounted on an 1800s French Coin
It is encouraging to see someone repair something they would rather see we just replace. keep up the post. I quite enjoy them.
David, thanks for your comment. Given the price of the glue v.s. the price of a repacement charger there’s not a lot in it. However I’ve also got some other things to fix such as a grinder guard so the glue is going to come in handy.
Good for the environment too. Repair rather than replace!. Obviously wouldn’t recommend everyone takes apart things they aren’t sure about and tries to repair them but where we can we should be really be looking to do so or maybe even recycle when possible.
I did have a fairly good idea what the problem was before I took it apart. It was possible to look in through the join. I’ve seen this kind of failure before so was optimistic it could be fixed. I often take things apart and then scrap them, either to see how they work or to separate the materials for recycling.
There are a few different things that you can try to troubleshoot battery chargers and AC adapters for your camera. And it’s important that you do try to fix this problem as quickly as possible. This is a problem that you can’t ignore, as any issues with electricity, batteries, and malfunctioning battery chargers or broken AC adapters could lead to a short or a fire.
Cheers Jacks! Yes it would be a bad idea to use electrical equipment with a broken case as it could be dangerous.
[…] did contemplate fixing it with the same glue I’d used for my battery charger fix but then I spotted a small piece of aluminium block on the […]