Hot Glue & How to remove it.

[gimpod]

Originally Quoted by heiney9

"I'm just not that excited about wrestling with pulling the super glued inductors off the PCB."

I'm sure H9 meant Hot Glue and not super glue.

I've been getting some questions and comment's like above on how to remove Hot Glue from the inductors on the SDA crossovers lately and my usual answer has been to provide a link Use rubbing alcohol to remove hot glue from nearly anything along with a disclaimer that I have not tried it but it should work.

Well curiosity got the better of me so I thought I'd give it a try. I grabbed a spare set of crossovers and binding post plates from my parts stash to try this on and let me tell you this works great! It took me about 20 mins to do one crossover but you have to keep in mind that I have the manual dexterity of a 2 year old so it should only take you maybe 5 mins.

All you need is Q-tips, Rubbing Alcohol, a pair of hemostats or tweezers (something to grab hold of the hot glue with) and maybe an X-acto knife or something to gently pry with.

Step One: Get your Q-Tip soaked in alcohol and rub it around edges of the glob of hot glue, don't be afraid to use to much alcohol you want to keep it wet. The wetter the better.

Step Two: Now take your hemostats/tweezers and grab hold of the hot glue (you may have to use an X-acto knife or something like it to pry it up off the board so you can grab hold of it) and start pulling up wetting with alcohol as you go, it wont take much and then all of a sudden that glob of hot glue will just pop right off all in one piece (most of the time). Note: if you decide to remove it from the top of the inductors (L1 & L2) just be careful not to scrape off any of the schlack off the wire.

Step Three: Your Done!


Here are some pictures and links to high res versions to prove it.



High Res Version




High Res Version

Hope this helps.

[Face]

Thanks!

[DarqueKnight]

Note: if you decide to remove it [hot glue]from the top of the inductors (L1 & L2) just be careful not to scrape off any of the schlack off the wire.

A blob of hot glue was applied to the top of the medium size inductors (L1 and L2) for vibration damping. A bead (or two) of hot glue should also be applied to the opposite sides of L1 and L2.

[Lasareath]

Nice!

[pitdogg2]

I just used needlenosed pliers when I did my XO came right off. No Alcohol needed same with the binding post. Just peeled like an orange.

[gimpod]

This post was mainly aimed at those who bought or are thinking of buying my new boards and want to remove the updated caps and parts from the old boards. Because everybody went hot glue happy when they updated there crossovers, it was the only way to hold the new bigger caps down on the original boards. Even if your not getting or planing on getting my boards this is still a very good way to get old and new hot glue off.

A blob of hot glue was applied to the top of the medium size inductors (L1 and L2) for vibration damping. A bead (or two) of hot glue should also be applied to the opposite sides of L1 and L2.

I'm aware of that and should have stated that, but I would still remove that 20+ year old yellowed crap and replace it with new. But like the ASS I am I was assuming everyone knew that.

I just used needlenosed pliers when I did my XO came right off. No Alcohol needed same with the binding post. Just peeled like an orange.

I've got three pairs of SDA 1C crossovers now, On my first set that I modded and are using, the hot glue on the little round inductors were all broken lose and practically fell off, not the case for L1 & L2 and the binding post plates it was still stuck on pretty good and I ended up prying it off in little pieces. On this pair it was also still stuck on pretty good. The alcohol just makes it a WHOLE lot easier and works just as well on fresh hot glue also.

[Jstas]

For those looking to remove super glue, it's a cyanoacrylate based adhesive. Acetone takes it off. Takes a little bit to work it's magic though. Watch it around plastic parts since acetone can dissolve those parts too. Then again, cyanoacrylates can dissolve the parts as well so it's rarely seen used in electronics and usually only with wire wraps and other prototyping methods to secure things like sockets and mounting hardware.

[schwarcw]

Good info Tony!

Hot glue removal is tedious. Alcohol looks to be good solvent for that nasty stuff.

[JimAckley]

Nice writeup! This would've saved me a little time when doing my LSi crossovers. Definitely bookmarking this for the sake of my lack of memory :tongue:

[dorokusai]

I've always used needlenose pliers or the tip of a small screwdriver as a prybar. I don't think you really need to get this deep on hot glue removal but for the recent xover modifier or newcomer, I'm sure this is nice to know.

[VR3]

I have always just used pliers...

On Def Tech crossovers they almost use like a rubberized glue - it peels off like tape...

[Jstas]

I have always just used pliers...

On Def Tech crossovers they almost use like a rubberized glue - it peels off like tape...

That would be rubber cement.

[byfthalone]

so why the glue in the first place? lord...does that make me sound stupid?

[Face]

To prevent damage while shipping and also for sound quality, passive components don't like resonances.

[heiney9]

I'm sure H9 meant Hot Glue and not super glue.

You're right I didn't mean the brand "Super Glue", I was using "super" as an adjective.

H9

[Jstas]

You're right I didn't mean the brand "Super Glue", I was using "super" as an adjective.

H9