The Mud Dauber seems to be invading the Midwest, from what I've gathered, they're similar to a wasp but they have a different type of nest, it kind of looks like somebody took a sand/paper/mud ball and threw it at a wall. Today I thought I'd open a tiny mono box and do some refreshing for a nice little project, the fricken screw holes are full of Dauber, it's a grainy puffy column that doesn't like to come out easily, I've been working with water, IPA, Q-tips, small screwdriver, vacumn and I still can't get all of it out. The issue is the sand grains get into the screw grooves. This is a 70's unit so getting screw crack is hard enough but without positive connection it's impossible. This is the 2nd box with Dauber Goo, kind of a drag. http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/MISC/WASPS/Sceliphron_caementarium.htm
Is it as annoying as when you go to undo a screw and the pillar has snapped off from the cabinet, but the PCB is still retaining it, so fifty turns of the screw later you realise nothing is happening and the back is still firmly held on. I have had that happen.
we had to smash the back off an m90 once, luckily it was only a parts unit which i gave away on boomboxery a couple of years ago
I can one-up you Longman, I had a pretty nice rare one that somebody used too large wood screws to put the case together, they cracked all of the screw pillars......
On the radio I was taking about I eventually managed to drill the head off the screw. That was when I could remove the back and see what had happened inside.
You got lucky that's not easy to do. I've found that my Makita Impact Driver will sometimes heat the plastic up enough that the screw will come out but it isn't easy. If I can get a screw driver under the head and pop it up a little that helps. The holes in my case are around 1" deep, finally got into it but it wasn't easy. The unit was made in Taiwan, the screws look like Philips but my bits don't bottom out in them. The heads have a dimple which people have noted might make it JIS. Does anybody know if JIS was used outside of Japan? I've always thought the dimple was for automated screw machine alignment during assembly.
Mud Daubers-Common where I live. I find them under the hood of cars that sit idle for too long, inside old sewing machines, everywhere. My favorite way of removing them in the barn is to use them for target practice with my pellet gun. They explode when you hit them. They continue to build new ones so I can do it again in a few months. Unfortunately, that doesn't work inside a piece of electronic equipment. Screw pillars: Broken at the end around the screw hole-Warm it up a little with a heat gun or whatever. Squeeze it back into shape with pliers. Wrap just enough glass cloth around the end and tack it in place with a drop of super glue or some sewing thread. Coat with epoxy. Broken off at the base-Remove any loose pieces at the break so it will go back in place without obstruction. Rough up outside of pillar and area around where it will sit. Glue back in place with super glue. Apply thickened epoxy around base of pillar. Work it in around the base to built up a fillet around base. If what you've applied gets in the way of something else, you can trim or shape it with a rotary tool. Unless you get really outrageous with screw size or applied force, it won't break again. I like marine epoxy with appropriate thickener best. It's expensive but, if you don't need a lot, you can get it in little repair kits with all the needed materials. JB Weld can make some good repairs as well but doesn't have the versatility and won't saturate fiberglass cloth. Don
