How to best repair a cracked kindle casing
April 15, 2013 10:35 AM   Subscribe

Like many people with a kindle keyboard, my casing is cracked at the lower corners of the screen. I would like to fix these cracks. By 'fix' I mean make them structurally better at the expense of aesthetics.

The cracks appeared within months of buying it, but were less than a half centimetre long and did not appear to be growing for many months. Now, a year and a bit after purchase, they have grown rapidly in the last month and are approaching the edge of the unit.

In contacting kindle customer service I could not find out what kind of plastic the casing is made of. In searching online I could not find any accounts of previous attempts to fix these cracks.

My WAG options include [in order that I would try them]
-CA glue [which would be thin enough to get in the crack but maybe also too brittle]
-Epoxy [which might be too thick to get in the crack but might make a patch on top]
-Plastic solvent [which might glue the crack back together but might just wreak havoc on whatever it drips on inside]
-melting with a lighter or heat gun [which has worked well on dashboards, but this plastic is really thin so I don't know]


Has anyone here done this?
Is anyone here just not so terrible with google and wishes to mock me by presenting a link to a pre-existing answer?
Does anyone know what kind of plastic the casing is made of so I can search for a solution more intelligently?

If nothing really works, I will be content to wrap those areas with gaffer's tape, but would be secretly ashamed
posted by Acari to Technology (10 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
How about a small piece of Sugru over the effected area?
posted by Confess, Fletch at 10:39 AM on April 15, 2013 [3 favorites]


Personally I'd go for CA glue first, Sugru next. It might even look hip, and protect the casing from future impact.
Together they'd probably be stronger than just one or the other.
posted by Too-Ticky at 10:41 AM on April 15, 2013


I called Amazon support and explained the issue to them, they sent me a replacement. This was after having owned it for over a year.
posted by smitt at 10:50 AM on April 15, 2013


Response by poster: Amazon support has said they are 'sorry' there are cracks in my kindle.

I tried making sugru once [the silicon and corn starch method] and was disappointed. It sounds like a good bet, though, and I could mould it to my thumb shape for optimum comfort!
Maybe I will buy some.
posted by Acari at 11:32 AM on April 15, 2013


Bought Sugru is indeed different from the homemade kind (which is also called Oogoo). Good luck and have fun, it's nice stuff.
posted by Too-Ticky at 11:37 AM on April 15, 2013


Sugru can be bought in 3-packs for around $5 on Amazon. Store it in your fridge to extend its life.

I'd stay away from heat unless you can protect the screen itself effectively. I'd go with epoxy, just because it's easy enough to mix in small amounts, and in many cases you can sand it later on. But as long as you're going Sugru, you'll definitely want to use the remainder of the pack to enhance the Kindle's fit on your hand; perhaps some element on the back to act as gripping points.

Just today I'm sending my 2.5-year-old Kindle Keyboard off to a friend who wants the replacement screen, as the battery has expired in an unspectacular fashion. If I didn't have to preserve the screen, I'd offer to experiment in your behalf.
posted by Sunburnt at 11:38 AM on April 15, 2013


I would absolutely use epoxy specifically made for gluing plastic on this. It stays rubber/flexible and will outlast almost anything else i can think of while also never flaking off.

I won't use any non-flexible glue on anything that's going to be mobile,and epoxy is pretty much my go-to.
posted by emptythought at 1:12 PM on April 15, 2013


I would not use CA for this repair. For one thing, it's quite brittle, and so would not likely hold for very long, but, more importantly, the viscosity is low enough that it could easily run along the crack into the system and come into contact with the electronics. This would be a Bad Thing (TM).

Plastic solvent or the lighter idea makes me nervous for obvious reasons.

If you really want to keep the crack from running any further, I suspect epoxy is your best bet, especially not knowing the specific polymer in question. (I did try to find out, to no avail. I suspect we're talking about a PC/ABS blend, but that's just a guess.)

I do like the idea of putting Sugru over it once the epoxy has completely cured. It looks like it would deal with the continued stress of carrying the chassis or using the keyboard.
posted by blurker at 2:58 PM on April 15, 2013


I would use two-part epoxy. Sugru (the real stuff) is great but it's not really structural. Super glue (CA) is, as mentioned, super brittle. A good two-part epoxy will fill the joint and strengthen the area around it. I made the same repair to my Kindle DX with epoxy and it's still going strong. (I took the case off and did it on the inside because I'm vain that way, but there would be no need if you don't care how it looks.)
posted by Ookseer at 9:59 PM on April 15, 2013


Home made 'sugru' is not the same as the branded stuff at all. The branded stuff is a different formulation and much easier to work with.
posted by pharm at 2:02 AM on April 16, 2013


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