Can a broken fiber optic be repaired.

[larrykidd]

I have a display with some extensive fiber optic lighting.
A few of the strands are broken.
Is there any way to repair them.
Larry

 

[MattMunson]

Yup. As long as it's just a few strands, and you're able to manually match them up properly, something as simple as some good masking tape should do the trick. If you had a heat gun, you can try melting the ends together. A soldering iron used properly could get the same results. Superglue is probably your best bet though.

Remember, all you need to do is make sure that the light is still conducting through it, so you won't need to get too savvy with joining the two ends up.

It's not quite as bad as connecting Spocks brain back to his body, assumign youv'e only got a few strands snapped

 

[Gigatron]

A lot depends on the quality of the optics and what you're doing with them.

If we're talking comm grade optics, forget it. You'd need a several thousand dollar splicing kit. If this is for, say, adding lights to a cockpit of a scale x-wing or something along those lines, your best bet would be to get watch crystal cement (micromark.com carries it). Watchsmiths use it to attach the crystals in watches. It dries crystal clear and forms rock solid connections and is fume free. CA (superglue), gives off fumes which tend to fog clear parts.

-Fred

 

[PTK]

i wouldn't use superglue (as stated above) it gets a little foggy.....i was going to recomment clear 5 min or 60 sec epoxy because it is clear, but that watch crystal glue sounds even better

 

[larrykidd]

Thanks for your help guys.
I have some of that watch crystal cement.
I'll give it a try.
Larry

 

[HouseAtreides]

If it splintered, make sure to cut both ends to be joined nice and flat so they will re-mate cleanly.
Use a razor blade, chop the ends at a right angle to the cable strand.

 

[RGPFX]

You could also perhaps get some styrene tube, Evergreen sells some small diameters of rigid tube, and cut a piece to fit around the break as a sleeve to prevent re-breakage.