A Number of Future Projects

[warmech]

I recently met up with a local gentleman and acquired a small trove of Macs in need of work. I had originally responded to his ad looking to pick up the LaserWriter he was offering and wound up striking up a conversation about what all he had - very nice guy, I have to say! I figured that, what the heck, if the price was right I could maybe pick up the remaining Macs I needed for a shot in a documentary and resell them later to help fund said documentary. Needless to say, I walked away with a car full of Macs at what we both felt was a fair price (and I tossed in a spare IIc monitor as a trade).

The final result?

1. 3 x 128Ks (modded up to 512K)
2. 2 x SE/30s
3. 3 x SEs (one a SuperDrive)
4. 1 x boxed LaserWriter
5. 3 x M0110 keyboards
6. 1 x 10-Key
7. 2 x serial trackball mice
8. 2 x HD20s
9. 1 x 400K external drive

The analogue boards on all the 128Ks need work (all were battery-bombed and non-functional), but the logic boards appear to work with no issue. The SE/30s both need to be recapped; one boots fine but needs to be extensively cleaned and checked for trace damage and the other has a RAM issue of some kind. I think it may just be an issue with the installed modules, but I haven't had time to test. The SEs all boot, but are not in good cosmetic shape (one will need a new case which, thankfully, I have). I haven't had time to test the LaserWriter, but it's in decent shape other than being dirty. The 400K will need to be taken apart to inspect for a mechanical problem (can't insert a disk) and the HD20s power up, but only one is responsive; the other fails when attempting to initialize. I'll have to break out the HD20 test utility for the first time and see what's going on with it. Everything is dirty and will need to be completely taken apart and cleaned (thoroughly), but I'm a-okay with that. The SE/30s and SEs aren't in the best of physical shape, but are at least in one piece and can likely be made to look nice (except the one with a mauled face). The 128Ks aside, there wasn't a single Varta or Maxell bomb among them (to both my surprise and relief).

In all, I'm pretty happy with what I picked up; this finally let me acquire the last of the compact Macs I needed to arrange a 4x4 grid of Macs on a shelving unit to have running the same piece of software simultaneously. It's just for one stupid shot in an art documentary, but it'll really be an art installation unto itself. When I have it setup, I'll put up a thread about it.



(I took the mouse apart just about as soon as I got home to see what kind of bearings I needed to replace)

 

[olePigeon]

A boxed LaserWriter? Would love to see the box for it.