Edit - I can not vouch for E6000. I had been led to believe it is the same as Goop, which I have used extensively for almost 20 years. Apparently, I was misinformed.
Anyone who tries to repair without completely removing the lid and cleaning both surfaces perfectly is going to have it fail. E6000 (also known as Goop, which I use regularly) is a contact adhesive, you have to apply to both surfaces then let it cure for a couple of minutes before clamping together. You can’t just squirt a dab of adhesive into a gap. If that’s what they did, it’s not surprising it failed.
Correctly applied, the glass would break before the adhesive failed.
There are slight differences in the formulation and use of E6000 vs Goop. E6000 not a contact adhesive, it’ll cure wherever you put it and can still evaporate the toluene, which makes it a favorite for jewelry makers. Instructions from the manufacturer:
After the aforementioned breaking of the other side of the lid, on the other side hinge, I just removed the lid entirely and did a full glue-up again. Right now it’s clamped and I’ll let it dry again.
PERSONAL ADVICE TIME… (COPYING TO THE TOP POST)
I wouldn’t fully recommend doing the whole process I did at the top of this thread. That was advice for when I thought just one side was going to break… but I see now that if one side breaks, it’s a very short time window until the other side does too. So, all of this thread was, well, literally a half-measure that wouldn’t stand up over time.
I don’t know the specific technique I’d use, but in retrospect if one side breaks (and you’re fixing it yourself), you should probably disconnect the camera wire bundle, wedge a thing scraper in the gap, and remove the entire lid.
When it’s fully released the entire contact area is obviously fully exposed and can be better worked with. I saw all the dry adhesive, could scrape off a lot of it, I goo-gone’d it and scrubbed off a lot of the residual, so I had a clean surface to work with. That gave me a lot more access to put a clean layer of E6000 down.
There is huge forces permanently balanced, or at least until it finds a place where the forces go beyond the breaking point. Like in every other situation forces concentrate any place that is a sharp corner no matter how tiny.
Not surface tension. think it more like tying a girdle you tie the top and bottom first and one down on each side till you get to the middle,except that unlike a girdle glass does not move or flow so each step down flexes what is below as that is still soft but only compresses what is above as it cools from outside in.
That compression is outside in but also side to side and all balanced which is great unless the forces are removed from part in the form of a scratch and any unbalance catastrophically unbalances all just beyond and you have sharp edged gravel.
Cody’sLab has a couple of videos where he attempted to use chemicals to dissolve thru tempered glass, in both cases, it shattered once enough was removed.
You’d likely be able to etch the surface without immediate issues, but the hinge attachment is under great stress, I would expect it to be significantly more likely to fail in-use.
Hi eflyguy, can you elaborate on the VHB tape that you used on the GF lid hinge glass mentioned in your post. I’ve tried glue and it doesn’t last, I’m now using duct tape as a hack, but obviously not the best way to go about it. Very interested in the VHB tape if I know which one to purchase.
I never had to repair my lid in over 5 years. I have a replacement machine now.
You can find various versions of VHB in many places including Amazon. There are over 200 variants, you’d need to wade thru the ones available at your source of choice to find one that would work well for metal-glass.
FWIW, after repairing the lid last time, I was SUPER careful with the lid and only opened it from the top if really necessary. However, a few months ago I was getting a replacement machine and actively trying to physically break the E-6000 glue bond, and it was just rock solid and not budging at all.
I think the real secret to that was lightly clamping it (with soft materials covering the contact points), so it dried with with some pressure on it, AND that I let it set for like 2 days before removing those clamps. I think after that, the lid was really quite firmly attached.
Still, if you have the funds and are able to get a fully replaced machine, obviously that’s better… but yeah, in retrospect the repair seemed extremely strong.
