I have an hp laptop that has a DC jack that is too small for the DC plug. The result is that any slight movement creates extreme leverage on the motherboard and snaps the traces off the board. I have reconnected them and soldered the DC jack back in place but I was wondering if anyone can recommend an epoxy that will be safe for the motherboard and the circuitry and strong enough to hold the DC jack in place during the course of normal wiggling while working on the laptop.

Sorry for the long response time…

Circuits are commonly embedded in epoxy or “potting compound” or “encapsulants”. Check out the pictures at the bottom of our basic soldering guide

We don’t sell any epoxy for this purpose, but you might be able to get some free samples here: http://www.epoxies.com/potting.htm

a little anecdote:

While taking my IPC Soldering Specialist class, another guy was from the Navy and was talking about fixing circuits on subs. Apparently they encapsulate everything on a sub to prevent damage from depth charges. The downside is that if a chip dies, you have to dig through a couple inches of silicone or epoxy to get it out.

Hopefully the googling circuit board encapsulants or expoy or potting compound will get you somewhere. I bet you’d be fine with any old epoxy, though.

Thank you for the advice. I searched around and found a few results. Quite a bit on potting but nothing about a specific brand. I called my uncle who does all sorts of furniture, trim, painting, and refinishing work because he works with adhesives quite a bit. He recommended J.B. Weld and said it is a very strong hold with no acid properties. That is the route I went and so far so good.