chipped piece off body, any solution

L

Lustgarten

Well-known member
I chipped a postage stamp size of plastic from the bottom left side of the body exposing the innards of the af100 and haven't seen the missing piece. anyway to seal it back up?
 
Epoxy, a file, and patience! For something like this, I'd use something as an inert filler - to cover the inside, so the cavity isn't filled with the epoxy, or worse it getting onto any internal pcb. Make sure you carefully chamfer the edge of the hole - just a little, with the slope going down at an angle so the hole diameter on the surface is slightly wider than the hole diameter on the interior edge. My favourite technique is to cut small pieces of gaffer tape, then stick them to the inside of the cavity, with a bent piece of wire. You can't cover the entire hole - you are just making the hole smaller at this stage, then, once you have a sticky surface facing upwards towards you, that is secured by the pressure of the bent wire pulling again towards you, you can drop another small piece of gaffer sticky side down into the hole so the two sticky surfaces touch. You then have a solid surface below the level of the real plastic outer. Add the epoxy in two stages. The first being a thin covering of the flexible gaffer - that can be pusuaded to go slightly under the join between gaffer and plastic. It doesn't need to get under very much - maybe a couple of mm . This won't adhere that strongly to the shiny surface of the tape - but that isn't the point. The thin layer when it cures is stiff. This lets you put the finish layer of epoxy on, and give it some light downwards pressure to make sure it gets into the very edges of the hole. The thin layer and the thick layer bond fairly well, and the bottom surface will have leeched outwards on the inside and this matches the chamfer on the outside - making the epoxy filler less likely to fall out. Make the second layer slightly proud of the surface, and then gently sand level. Then mask off square, and spray. If you cannot match the colour - select a contrast. Matt black on dark grey, or a light grey on a darker one.

I developed this when I had to repeatedly repair some fibreglass mouldings that would often get dropped. The first results, with just a filled hole would often fall out if dropped again, and the chamfered edge and inner spreading provided a much better key - a physical one plus a bonding one. I did even try a few with some reinforcing between the two epoxy layers - I used microphone cable braid, gently worked into the inner layer before it cured. However - it seemed to have very little effect. Very fiddly work, but I actually got quite good at it.
 
Black or grey duct tape depending on the camera color and if you can live with the look. Paul's method for a permanent solution.
 
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Paul's suggestion is the right way to go... to ease the job a little you can use two part epoxy clay type filler, comes as two sticks. You can smooth and even carve in moulding shapes before it hardens, which will save some sanding work.
 
I would suggest using a product called marine tex ck amazon or you will find it in a boating supply store this stuf drys hard as nails and can be sanded it is used for permanent repair of boat hulls it is absolutley the best product to use for this type of repair it comes in grey black or white.
 
I agree with Shooter. This is not a job for the in-experienced. While Paul's solution is what I would attempt to do, a one inch hole is quite a project. The risk of contamination inside the camera is pretty good. This is not the kind of repair that should be done on the camera. The plastic should be removed before attempting the repair.

I'm one of those people that takes anything apart, and I do my own repairs, but I would be very hesitant to take the AF-100 apart.
 
It's not as big a hole as I expected, but it's also a tricky spot to repair. There is nothing to bond to. The left, right, and top are not part of the piece and have to be kept un-attached to the repair. I don't see a way to repair it without mucking it up. You would have to fabricate a piece of plastic to exactly fit the left, right and top and then epoxy that to the bottom piece. Forget it.

It's duct tape or a new part.
 
do you still have the piece that broke off? I really like JB WELD, that stuff works well, and if you mix it up and let it setup, you can use it as a putty to mold it and shape it, you have to work quick as it has a fast setup time, There's also some other really good two part epoxies out there, I tried a gas tank repair epoxy, came in a cylidrical tube about 4 inches long, about a quater size in diameter, you mix it by hand, has the consistancy of playdoe, a bit harder, I think that would work pretty well to. Mix it up, let it start to set, flatten it out, then shape it, let it harden, lightly sand it, then viola, it will be close to the same color as the body to.
 
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