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Salvageable E1?

Started by Zunazet, March 14, 2018, 06:36:02 PM

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Zunazet

I bought a broken E1 off eBay. I thought I could use a challenge.
After getting it I found out why it was broken. The aluminum corrosion had welded the mouth piece to the transmitter. Ugly!

So, first step:
Drill out bakelite around wires to allow soldering jumpers.
Thankfully the wire is thick and strong like steel. If it were a thin soft copper it never would have survived the drilling and grinding.
I used a couple different Dremel bits and a drill bit for this.
Extra holes at top are angled to create a "key" with the epoxy to hopefully lock the parts together.

I soldered in a couple short jumpers and checked continuity.

Next I used some generic clear 5 minute epoxy and worked it in to the holes and all around the break as best I could. It would have been really nice to have had an epoxy that was considerably more liquid like for this use. This epoxy was very thick and did not want to go down into the holes as much as I would have liked.

Pourme

~

You are brave to attempt such a repair. Someone obviously tried to dissemble the transmitter and broke the handset. I have a couple that would probably suffer the same fate if pressured too much.

Keep the pictures coming,

Benny
Benny

Panasonic 308/616 Magicjack service

Zunazet

Me too. Highly educational to see what is inside there before breaking one myself.

Zunazet

#3
Once cured I scraped the epoxy off the outer part of the handle and did some sanding. It scared me to see how poorly the epoxy was stuck to the Bakelite. So to see if it was worth continuing I gave it a good whack against the edge of the work bench and was pleasantly surprised it stayed in one piece and did not go flying across the room.

Now I am seeing the need for a black epoxy of some kind. The crack is still plainly visible.
So, on to the next step.
Not feeling the brown spots were going to sand or polish out I tried wiping the whole thing down with some ebony wood stain. It seemed to work pretty well.

Zunazet

#4
Next step was to try some clear gloss wipe on poly just to see what would happen.
It looked nice, but neither the stain or the poly had done much for hiding the crack.

So, next - two more coats of poly. I added some powdered lamp black pigment to the poly. It made the old thing look gorgeous. But the crack still showed through.

The poly was also showing some bubbles and wipe marks or maybe lamp black grit, so I went over it with some Novus 2 polish. Unfortunately I ended up rubbing the finish off in spots trying to smooth it out.

So this is where I am at with this project today.

What should I do to get the crack to disappear?
Should I strip off the poly and use something else?
What would you have done differently?
Advice is a wonderful thing to receive.
My mind and ears are open...

WEBellSystemChristian

Wow, very interesting process!!!

I have never thought about using Ebony stain for the wood filler! Great idea!
Christian Petterson

"Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right" -Henry Ford

Pourme

I can understand how difficult it could be to completely visually eliminate  the the separation, completely. I was able to do it once on a stick handset once but after using epoxy i sanded and painted it with flat black spray paint. this handset wouldn't look natural with that treatment.  What you have accomplished looks very good!

Maybe someone here may have other ideas.

Benny
Benny

Panasonic 308/616 Magicjack service

RotarDad

Great work on this!!  It may not be possible to fully hide the repair, but I don't think that's a bad thing.  The repair is clean, strong and shows the history of the handset.  I would rather have the original Bakelite finish showing a repair, than cover it all with a coating of some kind anyway.  Again, great project; thanks for sharing!!
Paul

Zunazet

#8
I'm with you. I don't like a coating either. No mater what it is it's going to chip with use.