Replacing a small piece of plastic
March 16, 2025 9:32 AM Subscribe
I've got a plastic casing that is missing a small piece of plastic. I need to replace it The Right Way. Details inside.
The knob that supports the left side of a printer tray has broken off. For something bigger I'd recreate the missing piece using the 3D printer, but this is too small.
The right support is still intact and I've included pictures.
Overview
Right side one and two.
Left side one and two.
I'm wondering what the Right Way to fix this is, given a budget of about $20 USD.
The knob that supports the left side of a printer tray has broken off. For something bigger I'd recreate the missing piece using the 3D printer, but this is too small.
The right support is still intact and I've included pictures.
Overview
Right side one and two.
Left side one and two.
I'm wondering what the Right Way to fix this is, given a budget of about $20 USD.
Response by poster: It's not a dust cover. It holds the paper tray up. The left piece needs to match the one on the right.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 9:47 AM on March 16
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 9:47 AM on March 16
Response by poster: (there is a dust cover in the picture but it is unrelated to the broken piece)
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 9:53 AM on March 16
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 9:53 AM on March 16
No change in advice, UV cured glue first. If the piece has enough clearance, add some reinforcement wood sticks or tongue-suppressor sized wood pieces as reinforcement.
Plastic weld with metal reinforcement kits usually run $40-50 on Amazon, and are designed to fix car bumpers, probably too big for fixing that tiny piece.
posted by kschang at 10:06 AM on March 16
Plastic weld with metal reinforcement kits usually run $40-50 on Amazon, and are designed to fix car bumpers, probably too big for fixing that tiny piece.
posted by kschang at 10:06 AM on March 16
Response by poster: Thanks. I'll see if I can shape the glue correctly. In the meantime I've added blue circles to the pictures for clarity.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 10:12 AM on March 16
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 10:12 AM on March 16
A kludgy fix would be to find a way to support the feed tray externally by adding support legs. That's one of the Epson Ecotanks, right?
posted by kschang at 10:23 AM on March 16
posted by kschang at 10:23 AM on March 16
'the right way' would probably be to weld /fuse on a replacement part of matching plastic, using a plastic welding heat gun nozzle around 300degrees C (depending on the plastic type), or maybe a blade to soften matching faces to essentially glue together whilst hot, ideally also with tiny metal reenforcements passed through (something like a flattened staple), and then carefully file the newly added form back to a matching profile after it's cooled.
(this would all be after checking for a matching plastic to weld on, practice your method, check for the right temp for that plastic, etc.)
The probably cheaper more accessible way would be a two part epoxy that can adhere to that plastic, thickened with filler powder, and then slowly drip build up in layers a slightly oversized form (probably also re-enforced slightly with metal), and file that back to shape after it's fully cured.
posted by many-things at 10:26 AM on March 16 [1 favorite]
(this would all be after checking for a matching plastic to weld on, practice your method, check for the right temp for that plastic, etc.)
The probably cheaper more accessible way would be a two part epoxy that can adhere to that plastic, thickened with filler powder, and then slowly drip build up in layers a slightly oversized form (probably also re-enforced slightly with metal), and file that back to shape after it's fully cured.
posted by many-things at 10:26 AM on March 16 [1 favorite]
UV adhesive, E6000 craft glue, or Sugru in that order. In all cases remove all previous attempts at gluing and lightly sand with fine sandpaper so there's more surface to adhere it.
posted by seanmpuckett at 11:01 AM on March 16 [3 favorites]
posted by seanmpuckett at 11:01 AM on March 16 [3 favorites]
Similar to Sugru, there's also Formcard, which becomes moldable when you heat it in a cup of boiling water. You can do this multiple times, and it's supposed to be more or less tacky depending on how hot it is when you take it out of the water.
I've used it to repair a kid's plastic shovel, so some load-bearing is okay, but that wasn't sheared off cleanly like here.
Main benefit of the Formcard approach would be that if it just falls off and/or you have leftovers, it won't leave any residue and you can reuse it for something else.
posted by demi-octopus at 12:11 PM on March 16
I've used it to repair a kid's plastic shovel, so some load-bearing is okay, but that wasn't sheared off cleanly like here.
Main benefit of the Formcard approach would be that if it just falls off and/or you have leftovers, it won't leave any residue and you can reuse it for something else.
posted by demi-octopus at 12:11 PM on March 16
(Still about Formcard, but so as not to violate the editing rules.)
If you get the temperature just right, you'll be able to use the printer tray as a mold to shape your repair. You'd need to get it attached first, since that requires the higher temperature, and then press the tray over it before it hardens fully.
posted by demi-octopus at 12:17 PM on March 16
If you get the temperature just right, you'll be able to use the printer tray as a mold to shape your repair. You'd need to get it attached first, since that requires the higher temperature, and then press the tray over it before it hardens fully.
posted by demi-octopus at 12:17 PM on March 16
I think you could make a new lug from fimo (or other heat-cooked molding plastic) using the old one as the guide and then cook it and stick it on you might want to make a couple of seating holes that would help glue in in!
posted by london explorer girl at 5:21 AM on March 17
posted by london explorer girl at 5:21 AM on March 17
Response by poster: Thank you everyone for the advice. I ended up using a slightly different approach, but all of these ideas were important to arriving at it.
For anyone who is curious, what I ended up doing was filing the hole out large enough that I could 3D print a fairly good replacement piece, and then used plastic epoxy to seal it in place. Other than my creating the plastic piece 1mm short everything seems to be working fine.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 7:35 AM on March 24
For anyone who is curious, what I ended up doing was filing the hole out large enough that I could 3D print a fairly good replacement piece, and then used plastic epoxy to seal it in place. Other than my creating the plastic piece 1mm short everything seems to be working fine.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 7:35 AM on March 24
You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments
Otherwise, I'd try UV cured glue first.
The alternative is a plastic "weld" with metal staple reinforcement, but that's probably too big for that part.
The ugly alternative is just "tape" a cover over it if it's just a dust cover.
posted by kschang at 9:36 AM on March 16