Monitor Nightmare

koolmoecraig

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Looking for some help here...

I bought an NOS Well-Gardner 13k7801 monitor. There seller didn't realize that it has the touchscreen option. Wonderful.

So now I'm sitting here trying to remove the digitizer for the past couple hours. I have made very little progress.

Does anyone have experience doing this? I removed one years ago but this one seems impossible.

I have tried Goof-off, acetone, heat gun.

Please help
 
Sorry, can't help. Would it be very obvious under plexi if you left it on? I've got a 19" in a box which has the digitiser and I was planning on leaving it on if I wasn't going to notice it.
 
Yes. It's an earlier one that is visible. Let alone the fact that it's not what what was paid for or wanted. Not happy.

Trying to minimize my anger by removing it.
 
Can you work some dental floss under the digitizer? Start in a corner and work towards the center. Little heat won't hurt either.
 
Can you work some dental floss under the digitizer? Start in a corner and work towards the center. Little heat won't hurt either.

That's apparently the preferred method according to the Megatouch manual. Dental floss is laughable. Bought braided fishing line and it snapped before cutting through anything.

15 years in the hobby never had a seller not know he was selling a touch monitor. Seriously pissed off.
 
Will Acetone start eating away at the anti-glare coating on the tube?

I would hate to see a NOS tube all mucked up from that.

I would test Acetone on a "trash" tube first.
 
If you can lift a corner with a nylon pry tool just a bit after heating it up with a heat gun you may be able to get your braided line under it and get it off in one piece. I had a very similar experience and in the end it broke and I just took it off carefully in pieces. I would wear eye protection while doing this too.
 
I got a little bit of nylon string in there but it was coming off like .5mm every hour. I now have it sitting face down in a tub of goof off. Going to leave it over night and see what happens.
 
Assuming the Goof off doesn't work.

What do you guys think about using paint stripper? Safe for the tube?
 
For reference Goof Off is basically acetone, and will evaporate pretty quickly. But if that doesn't eat through it, I'd say nothing will, that won't also risk damaging the glass.

If the chemical route doesn't do it, I'd go with heat next. Heating the whole thing up with a heat gun might be difficult, but I'd try getting some type of radiant space heater, and leaving the tube in front of it for some time (monitoring it, of course), until you can heat the whole thing up enough to soften whatever adhesive is being used.

The key is you've got to get the tube to absorb enough heat to actually soften the adhesive (and not just keep sinking the heat), without damaging the tube. However that would likely take a lot of heat, so you probably have a lot of room to work with. You just need a good sized heater.
 
Thanks, Andrew.

I'll see if the Goof-Off works over night and go from there. I haven't had much luck getting enough on it for sure.

Goof-off has something in it that prevents evaporation, that's for sure. left a capful out last night and it was still there in the morning. Straight acetone evaporates within minutes with no residual. Goof-Off leaves leaves that oily residue.
 
Razor knife. Shove it between the face of the CRT and the digitizer. Slowly cut through the double stick tape.

This is how we removed touch screens from 13" and 19" monitors.
 
Thanks, Andrew.

I'll see if the Goof-Off works over night and go from there. I haven't had much luck getting enough on it for sure.

Goof-off has something in it that prevents evaporation, that's for sure. left a capful out last night and it was still there in the morning. Straight acetone evaporates within minutes with no residual. Goof-Off leaves leaves that oily residue.


Yeah, there are other additives in Goof Off. I looked into this, as I was using it every day for board repair, to remove flux, as it works much better than isopropyl alcohol. You can find the MSDS online. The main ingredient is acetone, and there are small percentages of other things added, though I'm not sure what they are meant for. None of them were considered strong carcinogens though, so that was good. (Apparently Goof Off originally was a different formula, but they changed it several years ago, to make it less harmful. We had a small discussion about it in another thread here recently.)

I did switch to 100% acetone (which you can get in the mail polish aisle at Walmart for like $2 for 16-oz bottle), and it works pretty much just as well, I'm not sure if I can tell a difference. I figured it's safe enough for thousands of Asian women in nail salons across the country, it's good enough for me. ;) It dissolves just about everything I need it to dissolve for board work purposes, while not dissolving the stuff I want to keep. I apply and remove it with Q-tips, which work really well, as you don't need to use a lot of it, and the dirty Q-tips go right in the trash.
 
Paranoia about scratching the monitor face.


I had the same thought initially. However with a clean enough blade (and the right blade), and given that you're at a low enough angle, I could see it working, with low risk to the tube. If gamefixer's done it, I believe it, but I'd want more details on the specific tool and maybe technique first.

I'd still try sticking it in front of a heater (or a warm fireplace) first, as surely the adhesive will give to some degree, if you can get it uniformly warm enough.
 
Paranoia about scratching the monitor face.

That glass is super hard. Unless you dig the blade directly into it you wont scratch it. Even if you did that you would hardly be able to see the scratch.

Just pivot the blade into the back of the touch screen glass.
 
no need for heat or even a new blade (although that helps). Its super easy. Get three sides cut open and then you can swing the glass outward and cut the double stick as you go.

hey, koolmocraig. Is there some other tape wrapped around the tube over the edges of the touch screen? If so remove all of that and you will be able to see the double stick holding the touch screen onto the monitor.
 
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