What glue to attach wires to case of old keyboard?

THX1138b

05 Oct 2017, 21:13

I am making some modifications to an AST KB-102 keyboard and I'm going to glue the wires to the outside of case. The best glue would be invisible and removable without causing damage. I can't find any indication of what the case is made from so I can't tell whether acetone would cause damage if I wanted to use and later remove superglue. Ultimately, I'm not sure what glue to use.

I'm going to organise the wires in that typical PCB trace way to try to get a cyberpunk look.

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hoaryhag

05 Oct 2017, 21:48

I sure wouldn't use acetone. Why not use cable management instead of glue... Look up some parts at digikey.

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Nuum

05 Oct 2017, 23:03

If you really need to use glue, use hot glue maybe?

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wobbled

05 Oct 2017, 23:21

Nuum wrote: If you really need to use glue, use hot glue maybe?
I second this, hot glue sounds perfect for you.

Findecanor

06 Oct 2017, 00:00

Acetone does not remove superglue but it damages plastic.
Hot glue comes off with alcohol, without damaging the plastic.

But I would also look for plastic brackets for wires with adhesive foots. I think they may be found in stores/sections for PC modding.

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hoaryhag

06 Oct 2017, 00:01

wobbled wrote:
Nuum wrote: If you really need to use glue, use hot glue maybe?
I second this, hot glue sounds perfect for you.
That's what I was gonna say at first, till I realized he wanted the cables/wires outside of the case. How about using hot glue to adhere fasteners, or self adhesive fasteners.

https://www.digikey.com/products/en/cab ... teners/490

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JP!

06 Oct 2017, 00:04

Why not use something like this?
sticky.JPG
sticky.JPG (47.46 KiB) Viewed 2702 times

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hoaryhag

06 Oct 2017, 00:48

I wasn't clear on what he is doing. His last sentence leads me to believe this ain't wire management. Anyway, yeah, hot glue if you are making a design with a lot of wires.

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Polecat

06 Oct 2017, 04:25

Hot glue or clear silicone caulk/sealer. Silicone won't attack plastic and peels off easily if need be.

THX1138b

06 Oct 2017, 11:27

I'm sorry for not being clearer. The wires I'm talking about are about a millimeter (less than 1/16 inch) thick. This not about cable management. This about making a pretty design out of the very thin equipment wires I will be using to connect my switches to the top of my keyboard so they will be decorative.

I don't think I could apply hot glue skilfully enough for it to not be visible in this application.

Acetone does dissolve superglue. It damages some plastics; it does not damage all plastics.

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wobbled

06 Oct 2017, 14:07

Hot glue is still your best bet tbh since its very easy to pull the glue off while its still warm

Findecanor

06 Oct 2017, 14:23

I would be surprised if the case was made of anything other than ABS. Acetone does absolutely dissolve ABS.

Acetone does NOT dissolve cured superglue - it may help loosen superglue but it does not dissolve it. Do test it if you don't believe me. If you use it to get superglue off ABS then that is only because you have dissolved the ABS underneath.

I would look into using self-adhesive vinyl to just cover the wires. It is like tape but you could cut it in any shape you'd like. That could make the wiring into a decorative element instead of something you would hide.

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2ter

06 Oct 2017, 14:51

You could use copper tape instead of wires and put some layers of clearcoat over it.

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