Steel ruler to take apart spice ?
#1

Regarding that cantankerous troublesome lower-edge of
the two plastic halves when taking apart a "spice" HP-34C.............

Did anybody try sliding a steel ruler between the
two halves, along that troublesome lower edge,
sliding it in between the two uncooperative halves ?

The trick is to allow the back-half
to slide translationally past the top-half, true?

But it doesn't slide because of the molded ledge
on the top-half. A thin, stiff piece of metal would
allow it to slide past the top-half.

It may enough to use a steel-ruler. One of those shiny spring-metal drafter's templates (the ones about 2" x 4") would be even thinner. The ultimate would be a piece of .010" Tungsten metal foil (nothing is stiffer than Tungsten while avoiding britleness). But I haven't seen any of that since I was working in a laboratory.

Once the stiff piece of metal is in between, the back-half should translate past the top-half and the clamp should release?

Wanted to know if anybody else had tried this.

#2

Hi, Norm;

I had the same trouble opening Spices.

The trick is to allow the back-half to slide translationally past the top-half, true?

For these days I slide the corner of old telephone cards to accomplish this. They smear a bit, but once the corner is rought (two, three times tops) you can always use the other three ones and even cut the card with a scissor.

One of our contributors uses dental floss. It seems to be nice, but I did not try it so far. I looked at the Articles but did not find anything about it.

In the past I used my fingernails, but sometimes it hurts...

Hope this helps a bit.

luiz C. Vieira - Brazil

(as always, my regards to Captain Zener)

#3

The "dental floss" trick for opening Spice units:

Opening Spices the gentle way

#4

You're the man!

I could not remember who gave the great idea.

And I feel bad with myself not giving the fair credits.

Thanks again.

Luiz C. Vieira - Brazil



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