I believe that this link will take you to some pictures of the thing. If not, I can try again. (I’m afraid I don’t know how to limit the link to just these pictures, however). You will detect some evidence of earlier attempts at putting it back together, including a melting effort and a try at holding it steady by wrapping a wire through it. Didn’t work for long. Clearly, I need a good adhesive.
OK, I can’t quite tell how this thing is supposed to look, but assuming that the black piece is supposed to be symmetrical, and one of the ears has broken off, I would try the following:
- Clean all the old repair attempts, and make sure the pieces fit correctly, with no interference.
- Make a jig to hold the two pieces in the correct final position.
- Go the hardware store, and get some music wire, around the diameter of the wire in a paperclip.
- Using a Dremel, and a very small drill bit, drill series of holes slightly larger than the wire diameter, around 1/2" deep in both pieces, making sure the holes line up.
- Cut the music wire to the right lengths, and test-fit.
- Mix some 2-hour epoxy (the 5 minute type will not give you enough working time to do this right). Fill the holes with the epoxy, and coat the wires with it,too, then insert them in the holes, and assemble the two halves.
- Fill the gap with epoxy.
- Wait for it to set, then sand the excess, and match the color with paint.
I’ve used this technique to fix plastic objects that are otherwise un-gluable (like my sunglasses).
That’s nice. I’ve thought about pinning the pieces together like that. I still want to have the right adhesive to use, however, or all is for naught. Dremel tool - a key here.
How is the black thing attached to the green gear wheel? If it’s glued, that hopefully at least means gluing is possible.
However, if the broken prong has to take any kind of load (do the two prongs clip either side of a bar or something?), it’s liable to snap at the glue joint.
Assuming a way could be found to attach it to the green gear wheel (and first remove the broken part without damaging the wheel), it doesn’t look like it would be impossible to manufacture a replacement part - either by moulding one out of a tough polymer clay-type material (some of these are really good nowadays), or by heat-forming, then cutting/filing a piece of lucite, or maybe even moulding something from scratch.
If you can tell me the radius of curvature and the thickness of the material, I’d be happy to try making a piece of curved recycled HDPE from which you might be able to cut out a new part.
Yep, the black part is glued to the green base. The black part doesn’t really get a direct load. It’s positioned over a rotating pin that slowly moves the piece back and forth like a cam. I’d like to try the “pinning” method first, with the assumption that some sort of epoxy might help. And if that doesn’t work, I’d very much like to take you up on your offer. Thanks. FYI, the black piece is about .32 cm thick, although I notice that it has a base that’s a bit wider, about .65 cm. The O.D. of the curve is 7.46 cm.
If repairing the plastic doesn’t work, you might be able to fashion some sort of wire harness that fits around the reciprocating pin, and wraps around the remaining prong of the black part.
If you do decide you want to fabricate a new part, drop me a PM (in case I lose track of this thread)