Hot glue inside an amp?

[atilla]

I have this old Tube Works RT-2100R head (ss power, tube preamp). It sounds decent and I'm keeping it as a back-up to my Laney AOR. I thought I'd plug a few new pre-amp tubes into it, so I opened it up. It looks like the manufacturer's tech squirted random bits of hot glue over the circuit board, and ran a nice tight bead of the stuff around the junction between the tube and socket.

What gives, and how can I correct this without doing any damage?

[Cleveland Metal]

Re: Hot glue inside an amp?

Probably just a quick solution for tubes that would become loose in transit or during usage.

I'd see if warming it with a hair dryer for a bit would loosen its grip, I'm sure it will.

[442w30]

Re: Hot glue inside an amp?

Try an Xacto knife if it's just the perimeter of the tubesocket and tube. - Hot glue doesn't stick to glass as well as porcelain and other porous materials.
A lot of electronics folks fasten things down with hot glue - weird, but no big problem.

hot glue is probably more common with rework on PCB electronics than old school or factory stuff.

[Shotgun]

Re: Hot glue inside an amp?

My Crate BV120 was full of the stuff, and believe it or not, IIRC the schematics actually had 'glue here' points marked.

Keith

[Twisteramps]

Re: Hot glue inside an amp?

It's used to secure parts on a circuit board. I see it a lot on filter capacitors. You're talking about the stuff that dries more rubbery than hard like superglue, right? Kinda like high tech snot? [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Pete

[atilla]

Re: Hot glue inside an amp?

[ QUOTE ]
It's used to secure parts on a circuit board. I see it a lot on filter capacitors. You're talking about the stuff that dries more rubbery than hard like superglue, right? Kinda like high tech snot? [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Pete

[/ QUOTE ]

That's correct, Pete. I'm going to try the hair dryer idea. It's still going to take a delicate touch to get the tubes out...they're mounted on a PCB perpendicular to the main PCB, and it's rather flimsy.

Aside from the glue by the tubes, the other spots look so sloppy and random, like the glue gun was dripping.