Cutting a hole in TPU case?

[fchipm]

So I have a case from TPU-cases.com and love it but have decided I'm tired of how hard it is to press the power button. Anyone have any suggestions how to cut out a hole for it? Do you think this would make it easier or more difficult to press the button?

I just tinkered with a sharp knife and this case is really, really tough...

 

[peeturr]

I don't have one of these cases but you might try to sand out the inside using a dremel at low speeds or carve out the inside of the button area with something else. Hope you didn't take the knife to the outside of the case. That'll look tacky. Ideally you want to make the button softer.

Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

 

[RaQHoliday]

I had to remove a bit of excess plastic around the microusb port on my N1's TPU case, as well as some extra around the flash on the camera (it was giving all my flash photos a blue tint). I used an X-acto knife and was INCREDIBLY careful. It worked, although it wasn't PERFECT.

 

[AllGamer]

use a hole puncher, or simply use scissor if you don't mind minor imperfections

 

[leyvatron]

Exacto knife.

 

[Jayrod1980]

Power button and volume rocker sucked when I first got the case. However, i flashed something wrong a few days ago and had to do a battery pull. Putting the vase on a second time lined everything up better somehow (these cases are a little too tight) and the power button is much much easier to press. On a side note, I'm really hesitant about taking on and off this particular case. The edges are a little too stiff and sharp for my taste and I'm afraid it will eventually scratch or Mar the plastic bezel taking it on and off. Other than that its a great case. I am using the gloss black one but I also have the smoke argyle case from the same company (tpucases.com) and the smoke has a rough spot on one of the edges and didn't fit or line up as well as the black one. Leads me to believe some of these will give you an easier time pressing the buttons than others. Sanding the button cutouts to make them thinner and easier to press does seem like a great idea though.

Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

 

[OneStepAhead]

Power button and volume rocker sucked when I first got the case. However, i flashed something wrong a few days ago and had to do a battery pull. Putting the vase on a second time lined everything up better somehow (these cases are a little too tight) and the power button is much much easier to press. On a side note, I'm really hesitant about taking on and off this particular case. The edges are a little too stiff and sharp for my taste and I'm afraid it will eventually scratch or Mar the plastic bezel taking it on and off. Other than that its a great case. I am using the gloss black one but I also have the smoke argyle case from the same company (tpucases.com) and the smoke has a rough spot on one of the edges and didn't fit or line up as well as the black one. Leads me to believe some of these will give you an easier time pressing the buttons than others. Sanding the button cutouts to make them thinner and easier to press does seem like a great idea though.

Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

I was trying to figure out what edge you are talking about that is sharp and now that I'm holding the case in my hand i see it, its the inside edge of the case. You can only feel it when its off the phone. I would be extremely surprised if you could scratch the bezel with TPU. I've never had any customer tell me they have done so at least, and I never have on any of my phones.

As for the power button stiffness, we have now addressed this on all future models. We finally went to a cutout design. Of course now that we have done so I've already received 2 reports of people saying they liked the molded design better. I guess you cant please everyone! Still using a molded volume rocker, but the TPU is thinned out a bit more on the newer models so it should be easy to press. If your using one of our older cases a nice trick is putting some clear tape on the inside of the case where the molded buttons are to fill in the gap. Works very well on some models. I've cut TPU cases with xacto knives before and I would recommend it, it always ends up looking like crap. If your more skilled with a blade then me maybe you could do better.

 

[hot0m]

I know this thread is dated, but I did a search and it lead me here. I need to cut out a hole in the edge for the infrared blaster for my samsung galaxy tab sch-I815 7.7. As you may or may may not know that it's difficult to find a good selection of tpu cases for this device. Would a hot knife eg. Exacto blade mounted in a variable temp soldering iron, small dremel grindng bit or a leather hole puncher work better? At what temperature will the tpu material melt and not burn?

 

[killswitch70]

If you're nifty with a sharp knife or paper cutter. This might be for you.. Depending on how hard or soft the TPU case is, I use to slice CAREFULLY the top and bottom part of the button tab impressions of the case, without slicing everything off. Thus loosen it up a bit, and give it a little more flexibility. Which leaves me with the buttons still protected, and also not get bugged thinking an overly tight case might break the button itself with the constant pressure all the time. It works for me. It could probably work for you too.

Note: Just slice the top and bottom part. Imagine the button impression as a rectangle. You just slice the longer sides of the rectangle part, leave the shorter sides alone..

 

[superng888]

What I did was remove the nexus s back cover and the buttons pressed just fine I have a tpu case and don't really need nfc

Sent from my Nexus S using xda premium

 

[hot0m]

Thank you for all of your suggestions.