Broken Bose headphones glued and taped back together
I paid $300 for some Bose headphones a couple of years ago and they have excellent sound quality but unfortunately the plastic over the head which forms the head band is made of an inferior plastic which has broken apart. Last night was the fourth time it broke and each time has been in a different place. I have repaired these breaks using silicone rubber glue and rubber tape. Shoe Goo works well because it forms a strong bond with this plastic and is very durable after it sets, but it is difficult to work with in this application because the broken parts are difficult to hold tightly together for the half hour minimum setting time.
These headphones have not been mistreated in any way; it is the plastic material, which was made of a very inferior material, which is the problem. Some plastic is intentionally designed to deteriorate when exposed to sunlight to prevent build up of plastic garbage in the landscape and in the oceans. Such things as plastic shopping bags and six-hole six-pack can holders should be designed to deteriorate, but top of the line headphones, like these very expensive Bose, should be made of durable materials if anything should.
Broken Bose headphones closeup of glue and tape repairs
The difficulty of holding the broken parts together resulted in a very sloppy looking repair. If you are forced to do one of these it would make sense to use a table vise or some sort of jig to hold these broken pieces in their proper place. The places under the white tape were also glued before repairing but that was much easier than at the lower junction.
I would recommend to anyone who has these Bose headphones to immediately wrap tape over the plastic parts that arch up beside the head with some elastic electrician’s tape or something similar. After they break it is much more difficult to repair their breaks because it is quite difficult to hold the broken pieces together precisely while gluing them back together. I am going to put a thin layer of Shoe Goo all over the fragile parts before I tape them.
If anyone reading this doesn’t want to go to the considerable fuss to fix their Bose and are going to throw them away, please throw them my way and I will try and repair them. They will probably work okay but they will look a bit sloppy. Bose, it has been reported on the internet, claims that it is impossible to repair this part and that the part is not available.
