Dude fixes his iPhone's broken glass screen by himself - the ghetto broken display fix method
Posted by Will on Tuesday, September 18th, 2007 at 6:04 pm under Apple, Devices
While this isn't the first shattered glass display that we've seen from the iPhone world, it certainly has the funniest outcome. Too bad this guy didn't get a free replacement from Apple.
Epic Proportions over at the Something Awful forums wasn't having any of Apple's $300-to-replace-your glass-overlay nonsense. Like a true DIY soldier, Epic replaced his broken iPhone's glass screen (with some clear plastic) all by himself. Armed with a razor blade, some 1/32 inch clear plastic, a dremel rotary tool, scissors, permanent marker, and a healthy dose of "anger, spite, and an imagination," Epic managed to replace the broken glass overlay with a custom-cut clear plastic piece.
Sure it's ghetto. Sure it looks funny. But it's a worthwhile interim solution until iPhone parts start to come down in price.
Quick tip: we keep our iPhone's glass screen facing inward, towards our thigh, when we keep it in our pocket - a dented casing is much easier to deal with than a broken glass display. We're sure Epic would have done well to follow that advice.
[Via: Into iPhone]
If you found this story interesting, why not subscribe to our RSS feed to get your daily fix of mobile technology news?
October 20th, 2007 at 4:52 am
i think it looks cool
realy 
i gues i'm gonna order my pice of plexi right now, just in case 
November 17th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
Good to know when mine's broken
altough it's not very nice…
November 30th, 2007 at 8:23 pm
[…] seen a good amount of iPhone DIY (Do-It-Yourself) projects out there, but this is one of the slicker DIY tutorials. The resident […]
November 30th, 2007 at 8:45 pm
[…] seen a good amount of iPhone DIY (Do-It-Yourself) projects out there, but this is one of the slicker DIY tutorials. The resident […]
January 26th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
where did you get the 1/32 plexiglass, i tried every hardware store and they don't carry it…
help!! 
February 6th, 2008 at 5:58 am
hiii… i just broke my iphone glass… any idea where do i get the glass from..??? pls hlp..
February 12th, 2008 at 11:54 am
A CD case works perfectly instead of buying the plexiglass. I am sure everyone can find a cd case lying around
I broke my screen yesterday, and just finished replacing it. looks almost as good as new.
February 13th, 2008 at 9:09 am
Question… when you replace the glass, what actually holds it in place? do you have to drop a little glue or does the phone have brackets that it slips into?
Thanks.
March 19th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
yeah I broke my iphone screen from having it in my pocket when carrying a music equipment flight case… but the damage wasn't quite so bad and none of the glass fell out, I taped over the broken area with clear parcel tape and the touch sensitivity still works fine.
A CD case / plastic cover will get so easily scratched.
Apple's repair price is a total rip-off.
April 5th, 2008 at 11:14 pm
Hey, just a tip. I used black electricians tape instead of a black sharpy. I am also checking into getting a piece of tempered glass cut from a glass place. We'll see how it goes….
May 14th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
i just tried this technique, and the phone looks brand new! the screen looks awsome, but… the touch dosent work,, so, i pritty much cant do anything.. any suggestions?
June 12th, 2008 at 1:18 am
Hi everybody !
I tried to do the same operation but my iPhone died durring the operation.
The touch screen under the "glue" has been broken…
If you try to do the same be carefull it is very thin and fagil !
See you !
June 19th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
hi! i also tried to change z broken glass with a new one. but as soon as the replacement was over, i switched it on, and to my surprise, z touch system is no more working. can anyone help me plz…. czad916@hotmail.com
thanks…
June 19th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
z original glass can be obtained on ebay. it is from there itself that i bought mine, but its not working…..!! help plz….! thanks!
June 20th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
Nice tutorial. I used it to give it a try myself. I've posted a similar tutorial for replacing the broken glass with one of the replacement glass screens they have on ebay now. Check it out at: http://www.hitchsource.com/blog/2008/06/fixing-the-broken-glass-on-my-iphone/
Kenja
July 10th, 2008 at 11:46 am
[…] are no longer glued together. The original iPhone joined the two components together, making a cracked glass-overlay expensive to replace. But, it seems any repair to the glass display alone could be a cheaper […]