Macintosh SE FDHD Restoration Project

[Torbar]

Hey guys,

So last year I got a dead Macintosh FDHD complete in box for $10.  Spent the money on it no problem figuring even if the machine was totally dead and unrepairable, I'd buy the box for $10 no problem.  Crack it open, and it's a victim of the Maxell bomb.  Luckily the ROM chips and SWIM seem to be salvageable, and everything else looks good minus a bunch of rust.  I put the Macintosh carcass on my shelf for another time

Fast forward to last week, looking for a project, decide to start work on restoring the FDHD.  Bought a replacement SE board from a member here(slomacuser), the chassis while rusty, appeared only to be surface rust so I sandblasted it.  Opened up the power supply which had a bunch of rust, but the board seemed fine, so sandblasted that too.  Powdercoated both the frame and the PSU casing black, and am working on reassembling the whole thing.  I'll probably attempt to retrobright the back housing since its fairly yellowed, and may end up doing the front while I wait for the new board to come in.

I'll be posting my progress in this topic as I get further along this project.

Here's an album of my progress so far

 

[mjhagen]

Ooh I like the black! I got an FDHD myself last week and it too had a Maxell battery, but thankfully it hadn't exploded!

 

[mraroid]

I think building back old Macs is a great project and you do it right!  I have a question about ground.  Do the metal parts pass ground between them?  If you paint it black, will that stop this?  I have been tempted to do what you are doing, but do not know.  Post more photos please!  Great work!

mraroid

 

[bibilit]

Nice to have a sandblasting cabinet at hand, which i still have one of my own.

 

[mraroid]

babilit...
 
I had some smaller stainless steel auto parts dunked at a local place.  After all the chrome was striped away, they nickel plated the part, then copper plated it, then chromed it.  It was so inexpensive that I took in a rusted metal trowel I had made in high school. For about $10, they dunked it and then did the same thing.   A chrome trowel can sure cut through the dirt much better then it did with it was rusted metal.
 
I do like your idea better.  When I was a kid, my dad would sand blast parts for a old Model T car he was rebuilding.  Later on in life, I read that some folks have switch from sand to small beads - I think they were made out of glass, but I am not sure.
 
From a "polluting the planet earth" point of view, I think sand blasting is far better then dunking in a toxic solution. 
 
Do you use sand or something else?
 
Thank you for your post.
 
mraroid

 

[Torbar]

Ooh I like the black! I got an FDHD myself last week and it too had a Maxell battery, but thankfully it hadn't exploded!

Yeah the black looks really nice.  Wish i had gotten to this machine before the Maxell exploded, but then probably wouldn't have gotten it for as cheap as I did

I think building back old Macs is a great project and you do it right!  I have a question about ground.  Do the metal parts pass ground between them?  If you paint it black, will that stop this?  I have been tempted to do what you are doing, but do not know.  Post more photos please!  Great work!

mraroid

Thanks!  The paint does not conduct electricity, so anywhere that ground wires attach, I've been sanding the paint off to expose the metal.

I'll keep taking photos as I make more progress and add them to this thread,  and I've also been recording some video so I'll edit it all together and post that when this project is done.

This cabinet uses just sand, not beads or anything

Nice to have a sandblasting cabinet at hand, which i still have one of my own.

Sandblasting cabinet is at a makerspace I'm part of, but yeah definitely nice to have access to.  This is the first time I've used it, but it's definitely useful.

 

[Torbar]

https://i.imgur.com/LbzVkTo.jpg

Success!

Got the new board in last week, moved the ROM and SWIM from the old board(SE FDHD) to the new one(regular SE).  Booted up first try

The front case is in real nice shape for the mostpart, but the back needs some retrobrighting