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Tapiture

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Oct 1, 2016
1,118
1,683
After a few months of owning my ASK, I noticed some fraying on the seams. Instead of letting it bother me, I set out to get rid of the small pieces of string sticking out along the sides of the keyboard. First I tried cutting them off with scissors, but that proved difficult. Then I thought of something that may sound crazy (because it is). I decided to use a lighter to burn them off. To my joy it worked perfectly! Even though I know many of you are unlikely to take fire to your Apple products, I decided to make a quick guide proving this method.

Fraying: This is what it looks like. Small, white pieces of string sticking out the sides.
fRMfxqt.jpg


Burning it off: Take a lighter with a soft, candle-like burn. Ignite the flame and quickly run it back and forth along the sides until the fraying is gone. Should take 1-3 passes maximum. Be careful not to hold the lighter at one spot for over a second, for obvious reasons.
iE7rnWK.jpg


The result: Fraying gone and ASK looks good as new!
6Dasz22.jpg



Do this at your own risk. Please realize I’m somewhat anal-retentive so I’m willing to take risks to make things look perfect. :p
 
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Synergie

macrumors 6502a
Jan 15, 2011
771
210
Halifax, Canada
Also once you burn off the threads, you can seal the bottom with a thin line of epoxy and a toothpick. Once it dries you can use a sharpy marker to finish it in the same colour. That way it won’t fray again in future. I do this with handbags where the ends start wearing...
 

lsh

macrumors 6502a
Feb 6, 2012
724
189
Cincinnati, OH
That doesn’t bother me as much as the magnets wearing thru the spine and dinging the iPad edge. The marks almost look like additional smart connectors spaced across the edge.

Apple replaced my ASK when I noticed it after it had done the damage. Now I notice a magnet almost worn thru on this one. I hope they redesign this next time around.
 

kaleb.mckale

macrumors newbie
Jul 10, 2011
8
0
A bit late to the party, but I’m wondering
Also once you burn off the threads, you can seal the bottom with a thin line of epoxy and a toothpick. Once it dries you can use a sharpy marker to finish it in the same colour. That way it won’t fray again in future. I do this with handbags where the ends start wearing...
what epoxy do you use for this?
 
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