Unpotting a sammich

[UncleFester]

I've got an old BB650 sandwich from the Shoppe. I want to dissolve the potting epoxy between the boards. I discussed it with Wayne and he says it's pretty much permanent. Has anyone tried to unpot a Sandwich shop built sammich?
TIA

 

[nein166]

I've got an old BB650 sandwich from the Shoppe. I want to dissolve the potting epoxy between the boards. I discussed it with Wayne and he says it's pretty much permanent. Has anyone tried to unpot a Sandwich shop built sammich?
TIA

I've disassembled a shoppe sandwich but the board was blown. Wrong battery orientation. You won't be able to dissolve the Epoxy it is potted with. Its like a rock. After I unsoldered the led wires I screwed the E-Screw into a steel coupling (can't remember size) and put it in a vise. It only went 1 turn and bound up so I made it tight. Then I went around the E-Can and tapped it with a hammer to break the bond with the E-Screw. Use an upward motion and a rubber mallet would be ideal to separate the 2 parts. It was a GD board so I heated the E-Can with a butane torch and tapped it out from the bottom. If its a DB you'll need to find the ground wire and clip it. Now use a big screw driver to take the E-Screw out of the pipe coupling. Theres a slot on the back of the E-Screw that helps bond the two parts together thats where the screwdriver goes. Now you'll be able to rebuild the LE with a fresh board but use the same LED and Can.

 

[deusexaethera]

I've had decently-good luck removing epoxy using a Dremel and a circular steel-wire brush. Strangely, it doesn't seem to strip the components.

 

[greenLED]

I don't know what type of potting compound Wayne uses, but most will soften (somewhat) if you heat them up. You have to work fast and pick out the soft pieces quickly before the potting compound hardens again. There's always the risk of shearing an SMT off the board while doing this... :(

 

[UncleFester]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. This sammich has an intermittant problem of some kind. I've eliminated all probable external problems that I know of. I wanted to get in there and resolder everything. Mostl likely I'll lose the thing in the process but it's got to where it doesn't work unless you rap the MiniM@g bezel first on something hard. I want it to work when expected.. LOL

 

[bshanahan14rulz]

you can always try heating it up to soften solder and try again, if you're already planning on taking it apart anyways. I'm thinking solder might soften and make a better contact if a contact is broken. Maybe it won't work unless the solder melts completely though, I dunno. just tossing ideas out for ya. I've never had luck disassembling potted parts