Generale wrote:
now there's an idea. Only concern for me is a lot of those connectors are just clipped together. Remove the clipping mechanisms on the sides and they'd separate...wouldn't they? Or are they narrow enough to be stuck together with minimal/no clearancing. I don't have one in front of me now and I can't remember. Sorry.
With enough epoxy, anything is possible. :-D
But nah, really, you must know how these go together -- the ribbon cable stabs onto barbs, and even if the clip on the back snaps off, it's not going to *immediately* fall back out on you. So if you paint some nonconductive adhesive on, you can get the flat part of the clips back on for cosmetics... and if you use enough, you should be able to make it as proof to being yanked out by the cable as it was originally.
I'd take the dremel to all the bits first, of course... and then something like a thin ruler and a whole bunch of C-clamps would come in handy to get the whole mess aligned as a straight connector long enough to paint the gloop over one flat side. (At this point you're down.. what, 2 or 3 XT floppy cables, $6 of glue, and one good table you'll be vainly trying to scrape your epoxy accidents off for weeks, so do remember to consider the cost/benefit.) :-)
