Good Morning from My Robotics Lab! This is Shadow_8472, and today, I have another less-than-full speed progress ahead story. Let’s get Started!
The story so far: I crushed my Blinkie Pie case while it was in my backpack. The damage isn’t terrible, it’s just inconvenient enough it needs to be addressed. One long tab is 99% broken off, and part of the top is peeling away from the rest.
I researched a bit more with my father. It looks like some super glues work well for this kind of thing while the cheaper kinds usually don’t. Another tip was to use baking soda or some other kind of powder to use it as a filler material.
The experimental stage went surprisingly well. I have an aborted print and its original raft I can test glue techniques on. We tried the baking soda method, but the bottle was starting to thicken up. It didn’t mix well with the baking soda and didn’t hold. I went into the workshop and made a bead of some high quality stuff with a fine application tip, and did two test pieces; both were without baking soda, one pressing down the whole time — the other only pressed down after, and both turned out strong.
I went to repair the original in the same way and discovered that super glue can be disagreeable.
I tried multiple times, but the bond wouldn’t hold. I’d think that parts broken from each other would naturally be the perfect surface for each other, but my test failed. The plan now is to try using acetone to remove the residue. After that, I’ll want to test out a number of procedures on my dwindling test supplies.
One drastic method would involve heating the base material with a soldering gun or something and melting some new filament in there. I’ve heard there is such a thing as a 3D printer pen that –while cool and useful– will probably turn out to be something niche.
Another real possibility is to try the baking soda again with a thinner super glue. I’ll need to make sure it actually soaks in this time.
Sanding the parts’ faces and applying super glue to the resultant faces is another option. I’d be nervous of it not being perfect, but if I was really after that, I’d just reprint the whole thing.
Whatever the case, the crack in the case head will be more challenging to approach with how tight it is. I’ve given up the notion that I can get away without a paint touch up, but I’ll still hold out a modest bit of hope.
Final Question: random edition: pronunciation: dAta or da-ta?