I work in a museum (the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument www.archway.org ) in the photo department (we take photos of the guests and offer them for sale at the end).  I was in need of a way to streamline the transfer of compactflash cards from where they are taken, to where they are viewed, until now we have had to run them back and forth.  It needed to fit in with the western theme of the lobby, so my old tangerine iBook wouldn't work stock, so I decided to gut it and make it look more "old"...  It connects to the network over the internal Airport card, copies the images, erases CF cards, and that's about it, but I'm proud.  I plan on adding in the battery, but as the battery I have doesn't hold a charge at all, I didn't as of yet. 

Parts needed, 1 hinged shadowbox from Target ($12.99), 1 8x10 piece of clear lucite (already had), and 1 working yet cosmetically damaged Tangerine iBook (bought new in 1999, lived a rough life, but still runs)

Also if you want, brass accent corners (I used 12), 2 brass hinges (to replace the black hinges), and a bunch of brass screws.

Another optional part, 1 brass handle...

... and 2 brass closures.  All brass parts were obtained for under $15 total at the local hobby shops and hardware shops.

After gutting the iBook (which was a BLAST thank you very much), I had to figure out how to lay out the logic board, this way seemed to work best, note the logic board is slightly larger than the box... nothing a little creativity can't solve.

With a pencil I marked the areas that will need to be notched for the corner of the board and the power port.

As well for the USB port and ethernet port.  I didn't worry about the audio out port, since I won't be needing it, but if you will be needing it, you should mark that too.

 Now I was ready to lay into this box.  First I removed the power plug (just remove the screw and it pops straight up and off), then using my handy dandy x-acto knife, I notched for the corner.  (Note that I've left the foam pad that comes in the box in for now as support, that will be removed later)

 Then I proceeded to notch down for the USB and ethernet.  I used an x-acto for all the notching since the box is just glorified cardboard, I tried a dremel, but it was more trouble than it was worth.

Then it was time to cut through for the plugs to come through.  The ethernet goes straight through, but the USB has to angle through.

Once  they were cut through, I test fit to make sure they were big enough.

 A view from outside to show the openings.

 And last is the hole for the power plug, note it goes through at an angle, almost directly in the corner.

 A view from outside showing the power hole.

 TaDaa!  It fits!  Now I took some time to figure out how the Airport antenna would lay, as well as connecting the screen, to make SURE they reached (they did in all previous test fits, but that was before the logicboard was in, so I wanted to make sure)

 The 8x10 Lucite with its protective paper still on, that will be removed before final placement.  (It is advised to use gloves once the paper is off to avoid leaving prints on the inside)

 The screen is placed so that the LCD is centered (it's helpfull to take the hinges off and lay the wood on something soft to avoid damage, also you might try turning it on to make sure the display is centered)  Mark the places for the screws with a pencil so it's easy to recenter if needed.

 A small brass screw in the holes at all 4 corners will hold it securely.  Now is also the time to remove the foam padding from under where the logicboard will sit to help prevent overheating, and use touch-up paint to cover any dings in the wood and the areas we notched.

 Add the brass accents, hinges, handle, and clasps as desired (the handle and clasps are on the topside to keep it shut and make carrying easier, but I forgot to take a photo of them)

 A Logitech travel mouse, Fellows stowaway keyboard (it's meant for windows but works fine on a mac), and a USB card reader with built in USB hub made by Lead Data finish it off, AND all but the card reader can fit inside the box for transport or storage.

 As you can see it's running jaguar, the hard drive on the original iBooks was only 3 gig, and Panther was giving me problems, so I left it on Jaguar, but that's fine since it's job is mainly to copy images onto a server of a CompactFlash card, nothing to special.

 A shot of it set up and running in the location it will be primarily used, normally the kayboard will be folded and stored in the box, since we don't need it all the time.  Total mod time, under 5 days of working in my spare time, which in minimum, if you were to do it in one sitting, I bet you could crank it out in 3 hours or less.

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