So this week this is something I had to face. My youngest kicked and snapped his sisters earphones. The earphones were plugged into the wife’s laptop, he wasn’t the most popular in the house that day.
Instantly I went to the interwebs for a solution, this is something i have not done before. Below are the ones I saw, tried and one I decided against.
Safety Pin and Superglue - Didn’t work for me
This first suggestion was to heat a safety pin up, and then push this down inside the middle of the snapped jack. Some have plastic and wires, the heat allows you to melt through, so then when you have a hole you can move on the next step. This was to dip the pin into superglue, slide it into the hole and then pull it out once it has dried. NOTE you will need pliers as when you heat that pin up it can burn your fingers.
I tried this but it all seems to be metal so I could not really get this in enough.
BIC Biro Insert and superglue - Some progress
Take out the plastic tube of a bic biro, add a dab of super glue to the end and then press this into the earphone jack. DO NOT pour glue into the jack, also don’t put too much on the end of the pen.
I added a dab on here then sat here for 20 mins so you knew it had stuck, then I left it for 24 hours, and most things I said was to leave it for a while to let them bond together.
The next day, I could not decide to pull it out quickly or slowly try. I went with the slow approach, this did seem to be making progress but then the pen broke off.
Pin and Superglue - Worked
After a positive sign I decided to use the pin from my Swiss Army Card. I saw that has a flat head, you can see in the photo below. I put a tiny dab of glue on the head, got my needle nose pliers and then held it in place on the earphone jack. Again had to sit here for about 10 mins until I knew it had stuck. I then again left this over night.
Next morning, I took the needle nose pliers, grabbed down as low as I could then jerked it and out it came.
No damage to the port, can simply snap the pin off. Checked the port after with some other headphones and everything was as it should be.
The other ones I saw and did not try, was again with a BIC biro middle or a straw that comes with WD40 or something like that. It was to heat this up so it become pliable then you push it over the jack, leave it to cool down then pull that out, I didn’t trust that idea.
So if you come across this problem, I would less is more especially with the superglue, you don’t want to much going into the socket.
