Repair an Exposed Wire with Sugru

The black casing on laptop charger cord broke and I could see the inside wires.  When this happened to my last charger it broke soon after.  Sugru is a great way to cover up these wires and keep my charger safe and working!

Step 1: Exposed Wires

I am constantly bending and wrapping the cord and throwing it in my backpack.  It if only a matter of time before the white and green wires broke as well.

Comments

[wil2ya]

I would use shrink tubing . It comes in many sizes .You heat it and make a
durable & waterproof seal .

[rkrishnan7]

Heat shrink tubing of a diameter large enough to thread past the end connector would not shrink down sufficiently to have a firm wrap around the area.
Maybe you have a solution to the problem ?

[pfred2]

Then split insulation off another piece of wire put it around the compromised wire, and shrink wrap over all of it. Still a better fix than this nonsense.

[wil2ya]

I' d use a good grade of electrian's tape or when it happened
to my ear buds I used some PTFE thread sealing tape that
plumber use , it sticks to itself and isn't messy Wil

[wetnap]

Epoxy putty from the local hardware store is cheaper I bet. Also the bond would be stronger, you could put a decent wad of epoxy putty around that and it would provide cord strength through adhesive power, I think sugru might have less bonding strength since ive seen folks peel that off. Putty isnt flexible but that is ok for a small segment, just put a small mound of it on.

[honorman]

You can buy at auto parts place a blue (maybe other colors ) coating made for coating tool handles, I use it for insulating wires and tools handles, great stuff

[hairybaroque]

This is very interesting, but what is Sugru? We don't have it in the UK and I assume it's something you mix by kneading, like epoxy metal? I'd hate to use the wrong stuff and explode something!

[pmsfo]

According to wikipedia, Sugru was developed right next door to you there in the UK. It is an Irish invention. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugru

[StuNutt]

Obviously the "owners" of Instructables know what Sugru is - they have a "Sugru Competition" (just see the links to the right of the page!)

I must admit that this Brit had never heard of it either - must investigate!

[ericfrog]

I live in the UK as well and had never heard of it before this post but a quick web search showed me that is available here and sounds interesting.

I've just ordered 12 wee packages for £11.74 delivered to my door, so will comment no further until I've tried it...

[jessyratfink]

Ha! I was actually going to enter the same thing! Good thing I checked beforehand. My apple cords always fray. :)

[benjabean1]

Can you still bend it?

[Sergei-]

That looks too thick and stands out more then you would like

If you use heat shrink you need a peace that will fit over the connector sometimes impossible to shrink over the cord in that size or you need to cut the cord but seriously who would want to cause damage to fix something minor

If you use electrical tape soon it will unstick and get dirty

If you use the good old classic duct tape it won't be flexible enought

The best i have found is called rescue tape for almost everything you can throw at it

Google it and be amazed of what it can do

[knektek]

Use AT, Aluminum tape. Only if the wires arent both exposed, it could cause a short -_-....

[CoolKoon]

Remember, this is INSULATION. The replacement of any insulator with some conducting tapes for whatever reason is asking for trouble.

[Arathefu]

Um, well, it's good if you try it when cord is still working, but once it starts to breaking circut it's hard to fix it that way (and that's when usually you find out there's a problem). Anyway - good instruction :)

[and-reas]

You have the exact same adapter for a Dell laptop as I have. And the exact same problem on the exact same place.
They said it wasn't covered by the warranty, so I used your little I'ble to do it myself, thanks =)

[anode505]

Hate elect tape for this type thing. heat shrink works better. can grt marine grade that has an adhesive internally for better sealing

[awfeckit]

duct tape
Holds the world together.

[bgray1009]

Great idea! The Sugru will make it stay flexible and strengthen it too(long live sugru), oh btw hairybaroque sugru is available in the UK and has been for some time, i use it regularly,it is not mixed it comes pre made

[pizzaboy192]

Ever heard of Electrical tape?
Yeah... works wonders. And it's flexible... and it's the same color as the cord...
I built a 18 foot power block for a 90W dell power brick using electrical tape and some time. not too hard.

[carpespasm]

I'm a big fan of hot melt glue in these cases.

[bongodrummer]

Great. So tell me, how bendy is it with the sugru? Will, for example, it suffer from the same problem at the tip of the sugru, or dose it flex enough that this is not a problem? Interesting stuff...