|
Inspired to do this mod after seeing Tom's Tired roadwarrior other modders who painted their iBooks.
I bought a used iBook with an already broken hinge.
Parts:
Hardware store:
- 12" chain, 1/4 aluminum rod x 36", acrylic sheet, GE Silicon II Household glue, painters tape, lead pipe, plastic model spray paint(test first on the acrylic), 99% rubbing alcohol, hockey puck.
Guide to opening and painting the iBook: MacMod and PBFixit
- followed Tom's mod except for:
1. back stand: cut the 1/4" aluminum rod to desired length. Start the bend on one end with the lead pipe w/c would be around 2", bend #2 and #3 will form the bottom of the stand. Bend #4 is the other end that will go in the hockey puck. See pics below. I also drilled a small hole, just the right size to be able to hook my chain into the bottom of the stand. This will keep the frame from falling. The other side of the chain is hooked up to the iBook. A couple of rubber feet, actually rubber sheet with an adhesive backing attached to the bottom of the stand to keep it from sliding. I think I bought this at McMaster-Carr long time ago.
I drilled two holes on opposite sides of the hockey puck for the rods to be a snug fit. I also flattened the hockey puck by shaving some rubber off of it because this one was a little concave. Try to find one that's a little flatter.
2. acrylic face was not bolted in but glued onto the screen. I cut the acrylic 11.5" W X 12"H to make it sort of like a baby iMac. I used a regular table saw to cut it. I did not get a smooth edge but I was planning on smoothing it out and polishing it with a dremel tool later. I left it as is for now.
Painting. I used a plastic model spray paint brown in color. I used the front bezel's screen as my guide. Be very carefull in measuring and masking the part of the acrylic that is going to be painted and masked. I used the painters tape and plastic protector that came attached to the plexiglass for masking. Make sure the tape is nice and smooth to prevent any paint from creeping up from under the tape.Check the paint job to make sure it is really opaque with no pin size holes.
Logo. Photoshoped the Apple logo, resized and used a mirror image of it and then printed it on a white contact paper with an adhesive backing. Placed the cutout near the bottom center of the face acrylic.
Gluing. When paint dries up, clean and make sure that there is no dirt or smudges on both the acrylic and the screen. Once these 2 have been glued together, there is no way to remove any debris or smudges sandwich in between them. Also do not put too much glue that it oozes out in between them and onto the screeen. What I did was just put enough on the outer edge of the bezel screen and let pressure spread the glue around. Witih luck I did not have any problem with it. While the iBook was on its back and I placed the acrylic with the painted side on top of the glued bezel edges. I placed some heavy books on top of them and let them dry. It dries like bathroom caulk. I let it sit there for about 2 hours. Once that's dry flip the iBook and glue the hockey puck making sure the holes are on its sides.
Logo. removed the contact paper, placed a cutout from a silver mylar balloon on the unpainted logo and just taped it.
The power button was glued on at the bottom of the iBook.
Now sits on my living room.
Wrote this up pretty late, so if something is not clear email me.
|
