If you run/work in a repair shop, you’ve probably met this type of customer. 

Example:

“How much will it take to replace my broken iPhone 6 screen?”

“$160”

“What? Are you

trying to rip me off? I’ve looked online and the glass for an iPhone 6 is only

$15~$25!”

There are plenty of articles/videos out there “teaching” people how to do glass only repair. In each video, it only takes around 20~30 mins to finish the whole job, but is it really that easy?

First you need to know what tools you need for a glass only repair:

1.   A Heat Plate to heat the adhesive between the glass and digitizer (a heat gun also works, but it’s hard to control the temperature. To high you damage the phone, to low and it does nothing to the adhesive)

2.   LOCA/OCA Sheet is needed to glue the new glass and digitizer assembly together 

3.   A sharp razor blade & thin plastic pry tool or thin but strong string to separate the broken glass

4.   Rubbing alcohol to clean the adhesive;

5.   A UV light to dry the adhesive.

Some tips for glass only repair:

1.   Remove the broken glass from the screen assembly. This is the first and main obstacle you’ll have to overcome during the whole

process. Nowadays cellphone screens are becoming thinner and thinner which means the risk of breaking the LCD/AMOLED display is much higher. I can’t tell you exactly how fragile the display is, but 9 out of 10 people will break the display their first glass only repair.

2.   If you have successfully removed the broken glass, the second challange you face is applying the new glue. There are two options:

a.     LOCA (Liquid Optical Clear Adhesive). By using LOCA, you have to calculate the proper amount of adhesive you need. If you don’t use enough LOCA, you will have air bubbles in between the glass and the display; if you use too much LOCA, then you have to spend a lot of extra time to clean the spillover.

b.     OCA sheet. It’s easier to just apply an OCA sheet rather than LOCA (a roller will help you to keep out the air bubbles), but the adhesive is stickier which means if you do something wrong, there is no chance for you to re-separate the parts. 

3.   Use a UV light to dry the corners of the screen first in order to avoid air bubbles in between.