Opening your blasters - Prelude to an article

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isoaker
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Post by isoaker » Wed Jul 21, 2004 11:54 am

Just wanted to post up some general (some would say obvious) thoughts on opening up soakers after opening up 4 of them yesterday and planning to pop open more in the coming days.

i) use the right type of screw driver - you don't want to shred screw heads and you want to be sure that the tip can actually properly reach the screw to begin with
ii) keep track of screw positions - either ensure that removed screws don't fall out of the hole they are in and/or tape them to the casing or to a sheet of paper so you know which screw goes where. Soakers use different lengths and sometimes thicknesses of screws for different holes
iii) typically the hardest thing to remove on soakers is the end cap found around the pump-piston. A vice-grip can help, but will often damage the plastic. Unfortunately, end-caps are often glued in place making plastic damage almost impossible to avoid. I have noted that if the case can be gently pryed open apart from the end-cap, one can sometimes use the added leverage from the casing to dislodge the glue or let you get a flat-head screwdriver into a crack to help pop off the cap
iv) when splitting apart the halves of the casing, be gentle and use a flathead screw driver or similar tool to ease the casing apart evenly as opposed to prying open one side before the other. Many cases I've opened prefered to be open all at once and would catch if one side was being opened faster than the other
v) work on a flat surface (I worked on the floor) so that in the event some piece falls out of place (i.e. a screw or cap), it won't fall too far or get out of sight. Many who open soakers want to still be able to close them up again and still have a working soaker.

Just some thoughts.. I've got more, but would rather work on a full-fledged article for that. For the modders out there, I know this stuff seems trivial. For others who want to get into modding or need to do repairs, I hope this helps.

:cool:
:: Leave NO one dry! :: iSoaker.com .:

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