Got my 1st Mac Plus today

[Skate323k137]

Having no intention of adding one to my collection, I did always like the look of these guys. I recently saw an ad pop up on Craigslist in my area for a Mac plus, complete with keyboard, mouse, Hard Drive 20SC, 800k floppy drive, cables, and bag.

The gentlemen was really nice, retired guy with a wood shop I could only dream of (easily 2000sq ft being conservative). He told me the back story:

He used to work opening restaurant franchises in the early 80s. He had a Mac II at home, but could not travel with it, so he went to an apple store here in Michigan and purchased the whole setup. He used it here and there when he traveled to open Burger Kings, and it's sat since.

The only thing is he washed the case and it seems to be shedding fuzz from the soft interior. He felt bad about it but he was just being nice... I'm hoping I can just throw it back through a tumble or vacuum it out or something. It holds the entire setup, so I hope it can be saved!

Here's the score, I'll hook everything up later

 

[Iesca]

A couple things for you, in case you're not familiar with the Mac Plus and earlier:

The Mac Plus is not prone to cap leakage, either on the analog board or the logic board. However, do check to see if there are any Rifa brand film caps on the analog board, likely in the power supply area if there are. These particular caps, their packages breaks down and crack with age, and are prone to... explosive failure. You can replace with modern Rifas, or use regular X and Y class film caps as appropriate.

The one electrolytic cap that might show signs of leakage would be C1. This is a 3.9µF Non-polar electrolytic. It may be working fine, especially if it's a higher voltage (≥100V), but some units may be lower value. This cap was troublesome enough even in its day that Larry Pina talks extensively about it in Macintosh Repair & Upgrade Secrets, with a number of suggested replacements. This particular value is basically unobtanium these days for an electrolytic, especially bipolar, but a film cap of the same value should work fine in its place (if it needs replacing at all, which it may not!). You can also substitute with a 4.7µF instead.

You'll also want to check all the solder joints for your various connectors on the back of the analogue board. These are prone to cracking due to the connectors being pulled on and off.

And make sure to replace the motor gears in the internal and external floppy drives when you're able! (And of course, gently clean the read/write heads with alcohol.)

Congrats, and enjoy!

 

[olePigeon]

Also, just assume the floppy drive is seized. Do not put a floppy disk in there less you risk breaking some of the gears.

 

[Byrd]

The “fuzz” - I know what you mean, some tricks to remove are to use a disposable shaving razor to scrape out the excess, and a heat gun on low heat will shrink all the remnant fibres

 

[Skate323k137]

A couple things for you, in case you're not familiar with the Mac Plus and earlier:

The Mac Plus is not prone to cap leakage, either on the analog board or the logic board. However, do check to see if there are any Rifa brand film caps on the analog board, likely in the power supply area if there are. These particular caps, their packages breaks down and crack with age, and are prone to... explosive failure. You can replace with modern Rifas, or use regular X and Y class film caps as appropriate.

The one electrolytic cap that might show signs of leakage would be C1. This is a 3.9µF Non-polar electrolytic. It may be working fine, especially if it's a higher voltage (≥100V), but some units may be lower value. This cap was troublesome enough even in its day that Larry Pina talks extensively about it in Macintosh Repair & Upgrade Secrets, with a number of suggested replacements. This particular value is basically unobtanium these days for an electrolytic, especially bipolar, but a film cap of the same value should work fine in its place (if it needs replacing at all, which it may not!). You can also substitute with a 4.7µF instead.

You'll also want to check all the solder joints for your various connectors on the back of the analogue board. These are prone to cracking due to the connectors being pulled on and off.

And make sure to replace the motor gears in the internal and external floppy drives when you're able! (And of course, gently clean the read/write heads with alcohol.)

Congrats, and enjoy!

Thank you so much for all of this. I'll definitely give it a rundown.

Floppy wise, I think he actually checked them. He told me he specifically left in a floppy for transport (I have the old yellow apple plastic fake floppy they made for shipping drives). Nonetheless I'll clean them up if I intend to use them (I have 2 other working 800k externals anyway).

 

[LaPorta]

The “fuzz” - I know what you mean, some tricks to remove are to use a disposable shaving razor to scrape out the excess, and a heat gun on low heat will shrink all the remnant fibres

You could also use one of those battery-powered clother depilorizers as well.

 

[JT737]

Congrats on the find @Skate323k137 ! Other than the yellowing, the setup looks like it is in great cosmetic shape. It's a good candidate for retrobriting!

 

[Skate323k137]

So far so good, both floppy drives work but will not really get used until I clean them.

The only non functional item was the HD in the 20SC. The 5.25 SCSI 20MB drive had given up the ghost. I found my APS SCSI external actually was recognized instantly, so I removed the internals of the Hard Drive 20SC, and put the APS in (which is actually a 6GB spinny disk, but I have it initialized as 1GB to keep it easy on old macs). I might see if I can also squeeze a RaSCSI in the enclosure but I'm happy as is for now.

I will need to upgrade the RAM when I open it up, it is only 1MB indeed.

 

[Iesca]

Fabulous! Glad to see it's working well.