Magnetic port door upgrade

[PB170]

As anyone who owns one of the original PowerBooks knows, the I/O port door with its latch/tab and power button behind it isn't the smartest of designs. Since I got my PowerBook 170 back in 2001 I've been alternating between using it without the door (not that pretty), with a door with the tab intact (too hard to open) and most recently with a door without the tab and a piece of double sided tape in its place (works for a while but, naturally, the tape slowly collects dirt and loses its stickiness). So, for some time now I've had the idea to upgrade it to use a magnetic lock

I started out by cutting a small piece of metal out of a steel sheet, and used the tip of an iron to slowly melt it into the port door in the area where the latch/tab used to be, and then covered the piece with the plastic that was forced up in the process.

For the magnet part I used a neodymium magnet from a broken hard drive, which I snapped to a size suitable for the hole where the locking tab usually goes (a very tricky process considering the brittle nature of neodymium magnets, but I finally ended up with a relatively clean piece). For now I've just fitted the magnet inside the hole without covering it with plastic, but I might do so in the future.

Anyway, the upgrade turned out really good, with just the right force between the door and the magnet to keep it in place while still making it easy to open.

I've attached a video of the result and a few photos of the process.














View attachment Video.mov

 

[equant]

This turned out great. When you said "iron" I assumed you meant soldering iron!

 

[cheesestraws]

This turned out great. When you said "iron" I assumed you meant soldering iron!

So did I, and it didn't even occur to me that I'd done it until you mentioned it! 

 

[PB170]

This turned out great. When you said "iron" I assumed you meant soldering iron!

Well, putting context into consideration, that makes perfect sense I guess  But no, an old clothes iron, although I'm sure a soldering iron would work just as fine

The closeups in combination with the lighting make the modification look a bit more messy than it does in real life, by the way. Since it's normally hidden I didn't put as much effort into making it look good as I normally do though, but I might try to make it a bit more even.

 

[equant]

If only any of my PB1XXs had their doors still

 

[Juror22]

That's bloody brilliant!

 

[traildog64]

Speaking of doors, has anyone designed a 3D printing replacement for the I/O door? Neither of my PB165 has theirs and I sure would like to find some.

Thanks.