What kind of adhesive does Apple use?

The bottom case of my TiBook is a little loose at the battery corner. When I type and rest my palms on the top case, it kind of "pops" or "clicks" a bit as the pressure moves the top and bottom cases together. It's not a big deal, but it's annoying enough to want to fix. I tried to get the folks at my local Apple repair center to deal with it under Applecare (I have about a month left.) They said it wasn't a warrantied problem, but they did offer to glue it for free. I didn't think that was a good idea, so I declined. I have since been told that Apple glued the bottom cases of the TiBook to the frame at the factory, so that would have been the appropriate repair.

If that's true, what kind of adhesive did Apple use for that, and exactly where was the glue applied? It must have been a prettty strong glue, and sparsely applied, as I didn't see any traces of it when I took the bottom off the computer. In any event, if gluing is the right move, I'd just as soon do it myself. The repair center would take at least a week, since they're usually so backed up. But I don't want to use anything that might damage the case or leak into anything.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Posted on Nov 20, 2005 5:58 AM

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6 replies

Nov 23, 2005 2:02 PM in response to Chris Meyer1

The metal skin is really glued around the edge by a plastic frame. It is this frame that holds the skin to the main frame and can give problems.
I had to open my ti case to install an airport card. I either did it wrong or the apple glue job was poor because the gray plastic trim around the edge of the metal skin had come loose over 50% of the circumference.
I had a commercial 3M rubber cement on hand so I used that. I applied it with a toothpick very sparingly (of course the rubber cement gets stringy so the job was a ittle messy).
I let dry in a warm room for 24 hours. The reason I did that was fumes from curing glue can be caustic and attack some very thin metals etc. I fugured I wanted to lose any fumes before I trapped them in the warm computer.
It worked well and I haven't had a repeat of the problem.

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What kind of adhesive does Apple use?

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