Disillusionment- Repairs to Apple products

So, most people would never dream of self servicing their Apple products. 1. I am not most people 2. Most people who have Apple products paid unholy sums of money for them 3. most people who buy Apple products are not your most technologically savvy people 4. I don't like Apple

All that being said, I must at least confess to owning (at some point) three different Apple Products: a 2Gb iPod Nano (second gen) bought refurbished, and 80Gb iPod Classic (3rd Gen) refurbished and a 32Gb iTouch (third Gen) given to me for free by a friend who bought an iPhone.

Today's Repair involves the iTouch. It was originally given to me with a completely shattered digitizer (the glass above the LCD that detects touch) that was roughly held together with a screen protector. I replaced the digitizer over Christmas (a $12 repair, surprisingly) However, while re-assembling the iTouch, I forgot to put the button in, and might have accidentally crazy glued the thing shut. (accidentally crazy-glueing things is going to be a very common theme here)

This was not a huge a problem, as I clipped the flaps that keep the button from falling out of the device off (with some wire clippers) and then just glued the button in. This was great until yesterday, when the button came unglued and fell out.

Never one to make a bad situation better (at least initially), I went ahead and pealed some other crap out of the hole (I was bored). (and frustrated)

iTouch, clipped button (upsidown) and random plasticky thing shown here.

A better picture

 Apparently, that tiny spec of metal in the plasticky crap is the metal contact when the button is depressed, completing the circuit between the small dot of metal and the metal encircling it inside the hole in the iTouch

it's not as complicated as i'm making it sound

 I began to seek alternative ways to mount the metal contact beneath the button to iTouch's board. Since my family has moved 2 or 3 times while I as at college, my electrical resources (masses of half-disassembled electronics) are down to about 10% of their original capacity. 

This is all I have left to work with.

What a bunch of junk

Ha, an old keyboard header from an Inspiron!

 Anyways, enough of the bull. I ended up just cleaning the original parts, re-centering everything, and gluing it all back together. 

I think it's sneering at me

Glued a toothpick to my finger accidentally. 

There, the plasticky thing and the metal contact are glued in now.

Some more glue (but not too much) holds the button to the plastic

IO feel like I had some larger point I wanted to convey in this post, but it's late and I've been listening to too much techno, and I've eaten like 4 or 5 banana double pops (the cheap mexican kind). Give me a second. Okay, no clue. But here's some stuff I just thought up: iTouch's are pretty easy to service if you are comfortable using a pry tool kit, be careful where crazy glue goes, and crazy glue dries almost instantly upon contact with skin.

I think in my next post, I'll go over some of the tools and techniques I use when performing my sorcery. Just to get you acquainted with my work environment, so you can do this awesome stuff too.