IIfx-ClearLidHack™

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

A picture is worth . . .

View attachment 19772

It's almost time for the next five year tune-up for the pet IIfx.

1) re-cap

2) Internal Zip next to the FDD

3) CNC'd blank for bending a clear Plex lid with a wider Snow White groove for FDD/Zip access slots and a side door for the tray loader or a slot for one of the cartridge loaders.

The Zip will be a tight fit butting up to the CD, but we''ll wedge it in there! }

p.s. If someone can clean up the larger scanned image (to be uploaded to the frog) for me I'd appreciate it. The QS'02 is down and out for the count and I've never had to clean up/filter out half-toning in an image before.

 

[defor]

I'm kinda confused- the image you posted is a composite photo, not an actual clear lid.?.?

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

So am I, it's a scan of the cover, but I'm not sure if it's it's real or composited. The "smoke testing" protocases for the SE from the same development period make me think it might be real, but the lack of detail for the plug in the second FDD slot makes me think composite. There is also the lack of retaining/positioning tabs for the NuBus cards to be considered, but they wouldn't be necessary for airflow tests or necessarily soft-tooled in a very early prototype. The apparent lack of thickness of the case seen on the corners has me leaning toward composite.

But either way it's definitely on my gottahaveit list for the pet IIfx! :approve:

 

[olePigeon]

I measured our CNC router, it's big enough to cut out a custom IIfx lid. With decently thick piece of acrylic, could mill out a custom clear top. I plan do it for my IIci.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

What kind of files do you need and what's a decent thickness? :?:

I've got a makeshift router table and (hopefully) I've got a plexi bending heat strip somewhere amongst the junk. I'm planning to make up a jig so I can experiment with how deep the v-grooves need to be for me to to get the bends just so and the dimensions to fit the bent lid to exactly the right size. The inset and snow white groove ought to be easy to figure, but possibly difficult to align during the bending.

I'm thinking 3/16' or 1/4" will be necessary, which is too bad because I've got a lot of 2mm scrap on hand. :-/

THX for the offer! :approve:

 

[Unknown_K]

Are you worried about noise interference (the top case has metal shielding that will not be there anymore)? Don't forget the air vents.

 

[markyb86]

I doubt he's going to set anything on top of it that noise would interfere with, a monitor or such would block the clear portion :b&w:

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

My IIfx lives most of its life open-topped and I'm concerned that it might not be cooling properly because of that. I haven't had a problem with RFI. I'll definitely be giving it the stock cooling vents as well as the card supports. Installing an internal Zip and having access to the internal CD without removing the lid would be third and fourth on the list of reasons why, with elimination of wear and tear on latches in the back being the fifth reason.

The Mac II series is too tall to support any monitor that's large enough to it justice. Apple had to build a support for those who didn't have the desk space to set a large monitor next to their Mac II where it belonged. After trying the Portrait on top of the IIci back in the day, I gave up on that as well, it was just too high.

 

[markyb86]

Did portrait displays have a tilt or swivel base?

All the desktop-oriented PC's we had growing up had the unfortunate monitor sitting atop them. They weren't designed to be used all day long I would imagine.

With the time I spend on the computer each day I couldn't imagine having a desktop with a monitor on top today. When I was in my teens I used to remove the swivel bases from my monitors to "low rider" them, or if It was possible stand the desktop upright next to the screen.

I had a compudyne 486 that had little tabbed feet that pulled out so you could stand it up.

Also Mac II's with the LC era RGB sitting on top just don't look proportionately correct.

 

[CelGen]

That's obviously a composite image.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Yep, never thought about it too much until the question came up here. I can't see the large image because I did the upload, just the thumbnail. I looked at it again at work when I saw your reply and the lack of depth is more obvious than I'd thought.

Also Mac II's with the LC era RGB sitting on top just don't look proportionately correct.

If you mean the 12" RGB, not only does it look wrong, it'd need 2x-4x the pixels to do a Mac II justice. The 13" RGB would work all right for spot color sitting on top of a Mac II so long as it had a TPD sitting next to it for doing real work.

The Portrait could use the same tilt-n-swivel base as the12" RGB & GS monitors a and a couple of others IIRC. I'll scan some pages from the Apple Press books, there are a few really nice line drawings of various setups.

 

[volvo242gt]

Plus, at least, with the stock Apple cards, the 12" RGB may not work on a II series machine without VampireVideo. The smallest monitor I'd have on a II would be either the 13" High-Res RGB or 12" High-Res monochrome monitor. The 14" MCD also looks good, if a little new for the era - that's what is currently sitting on top of the fx here, with the Apple 5.25" PC drive next to the monitor.

-J

 

[olePigeon]

I'll have to measure again and see how thick. I did it a while back for my IIci.

The only problem I noticed when setting it up are the latches in the back of the lid that clip snap on when you put on the lid. I don't know of a way for the router to mill the underside to make the lip. Don't know how the II/f/x attaches.

 

[volvo242gt]

Doug,

Got an Apple IIgs? If so, the II uses the same kind of latch setup. Spring loaded levers that you depress to lift up on the lid. Later today, if no one else gets to it, I'll take some pix of the back of my IIfx (well, hot rodded II - still says II on the front and has the M5000 model number).

-J

 

[olePigeon]

I have a IIgs. It has the two things you depress, then lift off the lid.

 

[volvo242gt]

It's pretty much the same as that.

-J

 

[markyb86]

I don't know of a way for the router to mill the underside to make the lip.

If you were talking about milling plexiglass, you could mill the lip before bending to the shape?