If you wish to thank
or forsten me...
Apple downside up…
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Those who know me a little know how much I like my
Pismo.
And it is a long time that this
« detail » bored me …
So far, it does not improve anything but that I am proud of
my Powerbook G3 Firewire.
It is important, too, isn't it ?
Of course, I won't be responsible in any way if you try and damage something, this mod requires hand skill and some costly tools.
So, after having installed a combo drive internally, upgraded to 900 MHz and improved the cooling system, here is «Apple downside up»!!!
You probably understood the title: Powerbook G3s (Wallstreet, Lombard and Pismos) have a white Apple logo on the back of the screen. But... the logo stupidly showed upside down when the screen is open (usually the case when you use the Powerbook, don't you ?).
I find this badly designed from Apple (did they mean to do that ?), I can't imagine what thought people seeing this (students in classroom, exhibition attendance,...), at least «how stupid was the designer to not think to that».
Hopefully, Apple corrected this from The Titanium Powerbooks.
Very few people corrected this on their own Powerbook (they might be less crazy than me!!), I did not find a lot on the Net (only one in fact, a Spanish guy, I think).
My target was not «tuning» the Pismo, I won't have a keyboard without letters, neither a wooden or stone-like palm rest, neither a blue neon-light under the body. Japanese tuners make this far better.
Here are all steps:
1)
Original look: frankly speaking, is it logic ? don't
you smile ?
And I don't like that people smile while looking at my
laptop...
2)
The cover removed, it is easy, you don't need to remove
the screen.
Carefully insert a cutter blade between the white foam and
the cover on each edge to detach the foam. Remove the white
plastic sheet, too.
3)
And you reach the translucent apple.
4)
Plastic rivets are melted: don't even try to removed it!!
5)
Trace the 2 axles to centre the logo later.
Put masking tape on the Apple logo on the outside, and trace
again the axles.
6)
The cover installed on the milling machine.
Use the drill to only centre the logo.
7)
The «saw» installed.
Normally, the saw is fixed on a dedicated-mandrel, but I found it was not rigid enough to precisely cut the plastic. Some wooden plates under the cover will limit the deformation.
8)
Yeah, cut out!!!
9)
Of course now there is a gap.
Don't panic, I know what I do.
Let's go on.
10)
I have a lathe, and aluminium, so let's machine it.
11)
And bore...
12)
And cut it at the right thickness!!!
13)
Carefully remove the unnecessary materials, and...
14)
Use the previous lines to horizontally align the apple logo, then cover with a 2 components glue. If the lines are not exactly at the same level, it is not important, just have a similar gap on each side.
15)
Temporarily install the white foam and cut it to show the entire logo, then glue back the plastic.
If you want to change the colour, you can use a different colour...
I personally kept the original white, it looked more "select" to me.
16)
Best at the end...
17)
Everything reassembled, one o'clock in the morning!!!
Clean, no scratches.
I do not consider it as "tuning".
Well, it is my opinion. Just build yours!!!
