• Updated 2023-07-12: Hello, Guest! Welcome back, and be sure to check out this follow-up post about our outage a week or so ago.

Powermac 6100: Internal ZIP Drive Hack

MinerAl

Well-known member
That's awful. The one I was thinking of was a little more professionally done, and definitely a CC, but what a great illustration of the difference between careless hack-ing and the careful case hack craft you see around here.

 

Trash80toHP_Mini

NIGHT STALKER
I like the way he almost got it to line up straight.

More interesting choice of tools from the Dollar Store. That coping saw is designed to cut curves for butting the inside corner joints of mouldings, wood butchers miter inside corners on a chop saw, but with modern drywall instead of plaster on lath, it works well enough.

Thank goodness this butcher didn't own a Japanese pull saw or a Dremel Tool . . .

. . . how well do blood stains wash off a Mac case? :?:

edit:

[mod mode]

Ordinarily, we probably shouldn't be ridiculing a hack with this much . . . dunno, hard to put a finger on the right word for it . . .

. . . but when the perpetrator reviews something like this with the refrain: "yuck, oh well . . ." I think it's probably fair game.

I'll give him an A for effort and the stones to try a first hack and document such results on the WWW. We all learn something from the process of making, and admitting to making, mistakes.

[/mod mode]

I almost hate to admit it, but it's beginning to grow on me . . .

. . . if he'd cut the case up into a few good sized, really nasty lookin' chunks, drill badly spaced holes and stitch it up like a baseball . . .

. . . I think I could live with it, especially if he painted each chunk to match different case colors from later Macs. }:)

 

onlyonemac

Well-known member
I'm not saying one thing, then contradicting myself later. I'm okay with ZIP drives being fitted in a mac IF:-If possible, the hack can reverted back to stock configuration, should Zip go TU in some horrible way or you just don't want a Zip drive anymore.
They're never removable. You can't restore a widened floppy slot.
 

Hrududu

Well-known member
I love my Performa 6115. Its one of the most reliable Macs I've ever owned. The little dude ran for over 2 years straight without a reboot as my LocalTalk to Eithernet bridge. 72MB of RAM and 9.2.1

 

Trash80toHP_Mini

NIGHT STALKER
This guy never gives up..
He'd better start trying to give a bit of it up. :p

Just buy a second Mac with a Zip drive installed, tear it out, bondo the hole in the bezel to the size of a floppy slot, install the freakin' FDD and get it out of your system already, kid!

[mod mode]

No pestering the other hackers, you've made your point. Keep this nonsense restricted to my threads, in your sig, and paste a smile on it! LAST warning!

[/mod mode]

 

beachycove

Well-known member
Actually some us think onlyonemac has got a point, though it is being somewhat obsessive-compulsively pursued. (And what isn't around here?)

However, onlyonemac, best let it rest. What you need to know is that not everyone here is into hacks and modifications. Discussions ebb and flow over the months and years. At the moment, there is much talk of hacks, partly owing to a few vocal members. The dynamics will change eventually.

In the meantime, concentrate on the threads that interest you, most likely those that are about stock machines, setups, software and restorations. Add some of your own. I'd say what you most need are some new machines to restore, and for that, this forum is still the best place to find help anywhere on the web.

 

markyb86

Well-known member
If there was ever a reason for me to remove my Zip mod in my SE, I have a spare bezel.

I left a trail of Cheerios to find my way back if need be. However, having a the zip drive inside is nice, as I don't have that huge wall wart to power it and I can literally just pick this thing up and go, only one cord from the wall, or honestly since its the universal cord, I don't even need to go that far..

Now back onto the 6100:

Uniserver: are you good with plastic work? I mean bondo, or epoxy, resin, whatever?

Maybe you could cut out the zip section of a g3 AIO and "replace" the floppy slot and fuze it back together?

or just find a zip bezel from a

220px-Macintosh_G3_DT.jpg.cb64a1b5e3f1befa90a15563c6687b05.jpg


g3 desktop?

 

Trash80toHP_Mini

NIGHT STALKER
Filing out the existing FDD opening is the only way to avoid painting the case.

Doing a perfect job of fusing is near impossible, even when the parts align just so.

A chemical weld, glue bond or a plastic welding bead still shows.

When you sand any of the parts off to equalize levels and contours of the surfaces the texture is removed from those surfaces.

There has been no successful texture renewal process documented to my knowledge.

BTW, Bondo for auto body work is a terrible choice, there are activated fillers with the sanding characteristics of construction materials that are far more suitable for working ABS case parts these days.

@ beachycove: I agree with you, he has a very good point . . . up to a point . . . he has gone far beyond that point . . .

We've been in touch in PM and in his thread, which was locked because he pushed it too far even there. I tried to leave it unlocked to preserve his bully pulpit, but it didn't work out that way. He can hound me all he wants in my threads, so long as he puts a friendly face on it, I've got a thick skin. However he's agreed to stop beating his drum in other hackers threads, that was the deal.

[mod mode]

The good natured kidding of, and about, O1M that has been taking place is beginning to feel a little less good natured, keep it civil gang.

Extremism from either side of this issue will not be tolerated.

[/mod mode]

 

markyb86

Well-known member
I don't condone bondo for this either, I just know case modders have been using it somewhat often over at modders-inc.com.

I have used a two part "mighty putty" clone made by loctite on my mac book, and it dries white. It isn't factory perfect but its a pretty good texture afterwards.

I think it's a form of epoxy.

 
Top