[Early B.]

I want to replace the capacitors in my CD player and they are glued to the circuit board. How do I unglue the glue?

Thanks.

 

[mgalusha]

That is usually hot melt glue and will often pull off with careful use of some needle nose pliers.

The glue can be softened with heat such as a heat gun but then you have a sticky mess that is likely worse that what you started with.

If you do attempt to swap the parts, either remove the glue first or if possible unsolder the leads before applying force to the part. Either way, you don't want to apply force to the solder pads and traces, that is a fairly sure recipe for disaster.

[NekoAudio]

Sometimes the glue can be slowly cut through using a box cutter or similar knife. If so, the glue would still be connected to the capacitor and PCB, but now split in half so the glue isn't holding them down anymore.

[timind]

Unsolder first as Wayner said then cut through the glue with knife. This has worked for me on several power supply caps. Mine were fastened with RTV though.

[Speedskater]

On another forum, a person un-soldered the leads of a plastic covered aluminum cased capacitor. He then cut the plastic in a few places, he was able to remove the cap leaving the still glued plastic cover.  Then it was easy to remove the plastic.