Ever wondered how the Caped Crusader handles his word processing and
spreadsheet tasks when he's out patrolling the moonlit streets of
Gotham in his never-ending struggle against the forces of evil?
It's simple - He uses this custom Powerbook: A beautiful assemblage of metal, leather and high-impact styrene specially designed to be just as stealthy and mysterious as the Dark Knight who carries it.
Read on to find out how to build your own BatBook...
I’m relatively new to the Mac world, and while I have only recently discovered this wonderful little group of Macintosh hackers and modders, I already feel like I’m home. I’ve always been obsessed with changing and improving my possessions, and I still bear the scar from my first “mod” – shaving one of my “lifelike hair” G.I. Joes with a butcher knife from the kitchen cabinet. Still, once the stitches were removed, I looked better than Joe, who appeared to have had some serious acne as an adolescent.
As I got older, I moved into the electronics arena, and tried to extend the range on my Star Trek communicator walkie-talkie by gluing a sheet of aluminum foil to the opening grid, and running two wires directly to the 9-volt battery. It didn’t work, but today, years later, whenever I smell that overheated electronics smell I think about my communicator.
As time passed, my creative aspirations moved into a more two dimensional arena, and I became an artist. And while I still built the occasional movie prop replica, and modified the occasional electronic component, things mostly tapered off.
Then I picked up a used G3 PowerBook (a Wallstreet w/DVD), and in an attempt to discover why it wouldn’t recognize the battery, stumbled upon the Applefritter site. Holy Cow! I saw glowing Apples, and painted Macs, and I felt that old itch start to return, and decided that for my first project, the Apple must glow blue. Looking back, that was an ideal way to begin - something fairly simple, with a clearly defined goal, and after I received the new lid I had to order to replace the one on which I broke the clips, I was happy with the results. As time went by, and the machine’s “newness” wore off, I thought about the other changes I’d like to make. Other than replacing the hard drive, (and overclocking, which I’m too scared to do) most of these changes were not only cosmetic, but also fairly substantial. Since I used the computer every day, and since I wasn’t confident that I wouldn’t damage it beyond repair, I held off until I was finally able to buy a new aluminum G4 (12 inch, and I love it).
Three days after I got the new computer, I tore apart the old one and set to work.
I’ve always loved the “tactileness” and beauty of the G3 PowerBooks. They’re not only gorgeous, they basically “demand” to be picked up and touched, and one of the goals I had with this mod was to accentuate that aspect of their "personality". One way I thought I could do that would be to recover the rubbery insert with some sort of fine-grained black leather, so I began to shop for a piece that fit within my budget (Which was non-existent, really – I didn’t want to spend more than $25.00 ttotal on the entire project )
To me, the G3 PowerBooks have always been reminiscent of something mysterious and dark – the fact that there’s no brand name on the cover, and the fact that the case is solid black both confirm this feeling for me. I knew that I wanted to emphasize that particular aspect of the machines, and decided that to do so, it would be essential to remove the Apple logo, not because I dislike it, but because it seemed a little informal for the subtly sinister effect I was shooting for. I also decided that for added coolness, my mod should also somehow build a real-world connection to something else that was dark and mysterious - James Bond, maybe, or the Imperial military from Star Wars. Hmmm… and then it hit me – Batman.
Batman has always held a special place in my heart, especially as portrayed by Frank Miller in the Dark Knight series. The all black and grey Batman in the 90’s animated cartoon also appeals to me, and I had these two versions of the character in mind as I began my project.
(I’m not going to go into too much much detail about HOW I disassembled the computer – there are a ton of detailed sites out there with far better instructions than I could write. The best of these is probably here: http://members.rogers.com/yippun/fixsoundjacks.html
THE OUTSIDE
1. First, I looked into recovering the rubber surface, but was unable to find leather thin enough, or for that matter, cheap enough. I did find a really nice piece of scrap glove leather that, although it was still too thick, was both the right size and inexpensive ($4.00). I bought it, just in case. I also thought about using vinyl, or pulling the rubber covered metal panel off, but since I didn’t want to risk cracking the cover, I decided against it. Compromise #1, damnit!
2. Since I wanted a Bat symbol inlaid into the cover to replace the Apple logo, I looked around for the appropriate image. I knew I wanted just a Bat, minus the ugly yellow oval, and started with the current incarnation of the Bat symbol on the Justice League animated series. I built a replica of this image in Adobe Illustrator, and immediately knew it was wrong. It just looked too cartoony, and it didn’t have that immediately recognizable shape. I wanted people seeing it to think, “Oh, Batman!” and this image just didn’t do that. I tried the Adam West symbol with the same result, as well as the emblem from the ’89 movie. What finally worked for me (and worked perfectly, at least in my opinion) was the traditional Neal Adams designed symbol from the ‘70’s comics.
3. Once I had built a replica of that awesome symbol in Illustrator, I began shopping for a laser cutter (You know, those guys who laser engrave trophies and plaques) who could cut the image out of the computer lid and replace it with a sheet of fogged acrylic that would glow just like the apple. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a cutter who could cut through the metal without destroying the plastic of the case. Apparently the heat given off by the metal would melt the case, so I resigned myself to carefully prying off the insert, hopefully without damaging the lid. A flat putty knife and a hair dryer worked pretty well (The heat from the hairdryer softened the adhesive holding the metal to the case) but it was still slow going until I dripped a little fingernail polish remover into the gap. It ate through the glue like nobody’s business, and in a minute I had the metal piece off. (A reminder: Nail polish remover will discolor the surface of the plastic, so be sure that you’re not getting any anywhere except on the adhesive areas.) Unfortunately, I had bent the metal piece beyond repair while removing it, so I was past the point of no return. On the plus side, though, removing the metal meant that I could lay in a piece of black leather in its place. (Lucky for me I bought the glove leather.)
4. Once I glued down the leather using contact cement ($2.99 Ace Hardware), I cut around the edge of the insert with a very, very sharp Exacto, using the channel already inscribed into the lid as a guide. Then I cleaned up the contact cement residue on the outside of the case with a little “Goo Gone”. I realized after I finished that I had failed to take into account the fact that the space the Bat symbol needed to cover was quite a bit bigger than the actual apple. This necessitated enlarging the symbol quite a bit, but I was fortunate that I could make it big enough to cover the circle where the old apple was and still have it fit into the leather covered space.
5. It was back to the laser cutter, where I decided to make another compromise. The guy with the laser cutter was concerned that cutting out so much of the grid reinforcing the underside of the case would weaken it. I might have taken the risk anyway, but I was also unhappy with the amount of light coming off the back of the screen. It was nowhere near as bright as that of the G4, and I decided that it would look way to dim. (I was also concerned about fastening the inlay to the lid.)
6. With this in mind, I decided to simply cut through the leather, peel it off, and inlay a brushed aluminum bat the same thickness as the letter. Since I already knew that the cutter couldn’t handle metal, I selected an aluminum-looking piece of plastic. For the heck of it, I also had a black and a white piece cut, but neither of them looked as cool as the aluminum. (The cutting cost me $11.00).
7. Once I glued the bat symbol down with a very strong spray adhesive (3M Super 77 Adhesive, sprayed on the back of the bat symbol, I didn't use contact cement, because I didn't want to risk getting some on the leather), I conditioned the leather, did a little dance of happiness because it looked so cool, and moved to the next step; the inside of the computer, i.e., the screen and keyboard.
THE INSIDE
1. I thought that Batman would be a touch typist, and since I wanted to continue with the sleek, dark feeling I was attempting to convey, I bought a used keyboard on EBay, ($12.00 plus $5.00 shipping) and painted the keys black. (I’m NOT a touch typist, and I wanted to be able to use the computer if I needed to. That’s why I kept an extra keyboard.)
2. I used Photoshop to create a suitably mysterious looking desktop image, distorting the illustrator image and layering it with some found textures.
3. I zipped back over the laser cutter and had him cut out a tiny silver Bat symbol on adhesive backed foil to cover the Apple logo on the bottom of the screen. (Free, 'cause he liked me)
4. I also bought a small roll of aluminum tape ($2.49 Ace Hardware - It's "stove pipe" tape) and covered the touch pad and “clicker” button. I applied this the same way I put on the leather, using an oversize piece and cutting off the excess. Then I removed the metal from the touch pad, because it didn’t work when it was covered. (At some point, I may remove the black plastic cover on the touch pad and replace it with a sheet of clear Mylar. I saw this on a site somewhere and thought that it not only looked cool, but would still fit my theme.) 
And that’s it. Since I wasn’t aware of this site (or this contest) at the time I made these modifications, I didn’t take as many photos as I otherwise would have. I’ve also never written a tutorial before, and I’m sure I probably left out some info.
The total amount of cash I spent on building the BatBook (Not including gas money for all the running around I did) is somewhere around $30.00, and I imagine I’ve got about 8 or 10 hours invested, timewise.
Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions, and I’ll be happy to answer if I can:
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