Andy Cuffe writes:

On Mon, 27 Apr 2009 23:52:05 +0100, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

I've got a B&D stapler which has died. The solenoid is ok, so it's likely
a fault on the PCB. Which is potted in what looks like epoxy resin on the
component side.

I'd normally just buy a new one - but have trillions of staples for it
bought off Ebay.;-)

I can get a new PCB for approx 60 gbp - but that's more than the thing
cost new.

Any ideas about removing the potting compound hopefully without damaging
the identification on the components? I've likely got everything on that
board 'in stock' so would be happy to replace the lot. But don't have a
schematic.


Use a heat gun set to a temperature below the melting point of solder.
Epoxy gets much softer and weaker as it heats up. At the right
temperature, it will scrape off like putty.
Andy Cuffe

I haven't tried it, but I know someone who supposedly used a propane
torch to soften up the Epoxy and then scraped it off. This was a potted
laser power supply brick and the resulting PCB looks like new.

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