For longest time, a wish list that might really span more than a decade, I figured what I wanted was basically, a color Mac Plus. In some situations, it could be easily argued that I’m wedded to the form factor, the tiny 9-inch screen, the little box that almost looks like a person, with its, at the time, high resolution graphics, and so on. I always found that the little “compact mac” was a friendly machine. Besides, I’ve got some custom furniture that’s just made for that form factor.
My last compact mac was an SE/30, or as I affectionately called it, an SE/X (Mac II-X-ish motherboard.) I got well over five years and the start of the Fishing Guide to the Stars journals out of that little machine. Five years is a long time, in computer years. It was still working when I finally shipped it off to miss fredlet, as a token of appreciation, and as trophy for her compact mac collection.
By all rights, that should’ve been an Apple end-of-the-line for the compact mac chassis. It wasn’t. Last year, Greg sent me a very dead Macintosh Classic II. 1991 flavor. I toyed with it long enough to determine that it was really dead. Suggested uses included the “mac aquarium” and similar graveyard ideas.
But percolating in the back of my mind, there’s always been an idea, a goal, a left over bit of dreaming. Imagine a color screen and modern processor in a compact mac box, just the coolest bit of high-tech gadgetry in this trailer park? As Apple introduced more and more stuff, I got away from any desktop machine, preferring a more mobile arrangement. I did get lots of miles out of the old PowerBook, and I did think about gutting it, and putting its parts into that compact box. The problem was it was more trouble, and required more tooling, than I’m prepared to deal with.
I waited until the rumors became true about the new mini-mac. Then that idea bubbled to the top again. I found a 9-inch (used) color monitor on eBay, cost was $20 plus $20 for shipping. I already have a spare keyboard and mouse (trackball, actually, thank-you-very-much.) I bought a can spray paint last weekend, good for computer cases and similar plastic.
I pulled that compact mac case out of the closet and started to gut it. CRT, drives, motherboard, all gone now. Thanks for the memories, more way than one, as I recall how difficult it used to be to add RAM to those little boxes.
But there’s a power supply and a fan, and I was wondering about the rest of the internal framing, what to do after partially gutted the dead Classic II? Then, after I got to playing with just the monitor, I figured I didn’t really need to pop it into a different case, it was good enough like it was. But there’s the project status. Gutted case and a monitor than should be slipped into that case.
I popped the monitor case apart, briefly, the other evening. Looked at its internals. The good news? I’ll bet it would fit in that compact mac case. The bad news? Way more work than I was interested in, especially at the time.
Once upon a time, I’m sure, I would have had this apart and up on the work bench, plastic flying, hot solder running off in rivulets, wee hours of the night, spray mask on, layering on a third coat of lacquer.
I’ll still paint the case, and I’ll look around, see if there’s a good cooling fan to put on the side of the case. If I had more space, I’d have that monitor apart, and I’d be messing around with ideas on how to mount its parts in the compact case. But space is a premium, and those fish might be biting, even if it’s just a wee one.
Thursday evening, part of the festivities included stopping at the Apple store, and I finally got to see one of the mini-mac things in person.
