earphones: how to attach new ear-pads to now-bare plastic?

[David Combs]

I've got a pair of press-against-ear headphones in which the foam-pads on each side have fallen off.

I've gone to Radio Shack and got a package of two replacement pads.

QUESTION: How to attach the new ones to the now-bare plastic "speakers" that press against each ear.

Glue?

What kind of glue?

(I imagine that some kinds would eat (dissolve) the material the ear-pad are made of.

THANKS!

David

PS: (No, maybe I am cheap, but I don't want to toss them and buy new ones; I'd much prefer to fix these. Plus, I have others in the same condition, and I'll want to fix them too.)

[mm]

I'm sure. I used contact cement to glue foam rubber to the "stryfoam" domes that are meant to keep garden faucets from freezing, and the foam was ok, but it was eating away the "stryofoam" pretty fast. Fortunately it stopped in time for me to glue things.

Hey if you were *really* cheap you'd be trying to carve new foam out of foam. I haven't been able to do that and it bothers me.

[mm]

It ate the hard foam, the white stuff that looks almost like popped popcorn mashed together, but not the foam rubber.

[David Combs]

Thanks!

I especially liked the idea of cutting them out of larger pieces/blocks of (soft) foam.

And I guess you're suggesting I use contact cement.

(Does that include eg Duco, Elmers, ...?)

David

[mm]

If you figure out how to do that, let me know. The best thing for cutting foam rubber is an electric knife, not a hot knife but the thing they sell for cutting a beef roast. But...I haven't tried but I don't think it would be so good for cutting curves especially on something as small as earpads. I guess because no knife is very good at cutting curves.

Not for sure. You brought up glue that eats stuff, and I was just saying that contact cement ate the hard foam but not the foam rubber.

I use contact cement for gluing cloth, because it bends well, but here maybe a little drop of 5-minute epoxy in two places on the side or back of each ear thing would be good. Or even Ambroid Cement which isn't as strong, but I still consider to be strong, and dries quick and can be pried off if I have to do it again. (available only in model and hobby stores.)

Actually, there used to be two kinds of contact cement made by the same company and they came in two differenct color tubes, red and white maybe. And I liked one and disliked the other, and I knew which color was good. But I've lost track.

I guess now I always use the stuff that comes in the brown translucent plastic bottle, whatever that is, because it's a lot cheaper than the tube.