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Worst corrosion EVER! Silver lining...parts available! '030 accelerator!

cbmeeks

Well-known member
OK, so back in January (2017) I bought a Macintosh Classic on eBay for $12.75.  Picture showed a checkerboard screen.  But the user said "for parts".  So I thought for $12.75 (and only $12 to ship!) what the heck...

So I get the Mac and it was in rough shape.  The seller actually just put it in a box with packing peanuts.  One of the worst shipping jobs ever.  I didn't even bother opening it up.  I just put it in storage.

Today, I thought I would finally get around to opening it up and see what I got.  And OH MY WORD....the battery leaked and it literally ate the metal case.  The mother board is destroyed.  I mean destroyed.  The CRT board was dangling inside.  The case has corrosion all over the place.

So, I thought I would just salvage what I could.  Unfortunately, I waited way too long to file a claim.  No way that Mac booted up.  And there is NO way it corroded that bad since I put it in storage.  Much of the metal is actually gone.  So, for $25, I learned a lesson.

The hard drive is dead.  I didn't bother booting it up because I could literally hear the platters clanking around when I shake it.  The floppy drive actually looks good.  It may work.

OK, so here is the part that really surprised me....this Mac has had a third party 68030 accelerator installed!  Not only that, there was an extra RAM expansion card installed AND the '030 board also had additional RAM!  Now the bad news.  The accelerator card comes in two pieces and it "sandwiches" the motherboard.  The top piece is pretty much just a Xilinx board that snaps over the 68K.  The bottom board contains the '030 and the additional RAM.

The top board has a little bit of corrosion on it.  Mainly around the Xilinx.  But, it might actually be salvageable.  Now the bottom board looks MINT.  It was spared all corrosion that I can see.

Now on to the CRT.  I have no idea if it works.  The small board that connects to the neck and the analog board LOOK OK.  But I have NO idea if they work.

Here is what I'd like to do.  I'm not in this to make money.  But, I just can't bring myself to tossing this stuff in the trash.  I actually have no interest in the '030 board.  I have a SE/30 that I am repairing.

I will provide pictures to anyone that wants to see.

The '030 board is free to anyone that wants it...all I ask is a little for shipping.  My eBay profile is "cbmeeks" so you can see I have built a lot of trust.  I can't in good faith sell this stuff because I have no idea if it works.

If anyone also wants the CRT and analog board, I will give that away too.  But obviously the shipping will be more for that because I would want to pack it well.

Just please keep in mind that I cannot guarantee any of this.

So to recap:

Item 1

'030 accelerator board (and Xilinx board).

Small power supply that I *think* is needed for this board.

Item 2

CRT monitor (unknown) with neck board and analog board (unknown)

Item 3

Empty back of case.  Has corrosion on the inside but could probably be scrapped off if you're missing a back of a Mac.

All free...just need shipping.

Send me a PM if interested.

Thanks!

 

macosten

Well-known member
Funny; I recently trash-picked a Classic the other day and it works fine; opened it up and nothing was leaky. Sometimes you just get unlucky, I guess. :c

If Joe doesn't take the '030 board I'll take it since I now have a machine to put it in.

 

BadGoldEagle

Well-known member
I have a 16MHz 030 accelerator from MicroMac in my Classic. It doesn't need a PSU and it's quite small compared to yours. But, there's no extra RAM slots and it's only running at 16MHz, not 25... Although I suspect I could probably push it to 25MHz with a simple CPU and crystal upgrade...

BTW, the CRT is toast, it is missing the little glass tube at the end of the base. It was probably dropped at some point. Analog and neck boards are probably fine though.

 

cbmeeks

Well-known member
BTW, the CRT is toast, it is missing the little glass tube at the end of the base. It was probably dropped at some point. Analog and neck boards are probably fine though.
Not sure I follow.  I have the little square board that plugs into the that glass tube.  The one with the pins sticking out.  Is that the board you're talking about?  It's currently soldered (via wires) to the main analog board.

I thought you can just plug that board back in?  It was just dangling about when I opened it.

 

Bolle

Well-known member
You can just plug that back in, correct. However it looks like your tube itself is broken. There should be a little glass nipple in the center of where the socket plugs in.

This nipple seems to be broken off and therefore you will have no vacuum in the tube anymore.

 

cbmeeks

Well-known member
Oh.  You mean that large anode red wire?  When I get home I will take some more pics of the tube.  Sorry, I'm no expert on things CRT.   :)

Assuming it truly is gone forever, I guess the best thing to do with it is e-cycle it.  But that would break my heart.  lol

 

Bolle

Well-known member
No, right at the back of the CRT. There is a small glass nipple where the CRT is sealed when the vacuum inside is made. This seems to be broken off on your CRT.

34BCE5D5-0D23-4F15-AF66-7B4BF75D918C.jpeg

 
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cbmeeks

Well-known member
OOOHHHH!!!!!  Yeah, I think you're right!

In fact, when I opened the case, I saw a clear piece of glass that looked like a broken LED.  In fact, I thought it was an LED but now that I think about it, there are no LED's that shape in the Mac.  So that had to be it.

DANG.  So that CRT is worthless?

 

Alex

Well-known member
The CRT may be in trouble, I did notice the bent pins in an earlier post. Someone clearly put too much force when removing the bit that connects to the pins (forgot the name now) and that may have caused it. Trying to turn it on could prove hazardous. I would be really careful.

On another note, quite a bit can be salvaged, I mean everything, the frame, the cables, the PSU etc etc. Don't dump it. I would put parts on ebay or give them away here but on an AS IS basis.

 

cbmeeks

Well-known member
The CRT may be in trouble, I did notice the bent pins in an earlier post. Someone clearly put too much force when removing the bit that connects to the pins (forgot the name now) and that may have caused it. Trying to turn it on could prove hazardous. I would be really careful.

On another note, quite a bit can be salvaged, I mean everything, the frame, the cables, the PSU etc etc. Don't dump it. I would put parts on ebay or give them away here but on an AS IS basis.
That's pretty much what I've done.  I'm going to assume the CRT is toast and just recycle it.   The actual case could still be used.  I'm going to clean it up a bit.  The floppy drive might be OK.  It looks fine and of course, the cables look good.

The internal frame is in the trash.  I didn't take more pictures of it but it was pretty much completely gone.  There was no way it could ever be used without rebuilding more than half of it.  The analog board is probably OK.  So, not a total loss I guess.

 

Bolle

Well-known member
The analog board and joke can still be used it is just the tube itself that is useless. Maybe someone in here might still have a use for it though. You can cut the tube open and mount a LCD behind it for ITX conversions. That way no good working tube has to be sacrificed.

 

Alex

Well-known member
The internal frame is in the trash. 
Do you mean the metal frame? If this is what you mean, I don't know why you might think it is trash. Maybe there is some corrosion on it that you believe may not be removed but just to make a point …

An iMac G3 that I have had the battery basically puke it's guts out all over the main logic board and it truly destroyed the board beyond economic repair unless I chose a very expensive and labor intensive repair that only an expert could correct.

The frame itself also got some collateral damage from the battery's catastrophic end of life failure. Here are some before and after shots of the frame. Sorry if I misunderstood the reference you made to 'frame'.

Corrosion.jpg

After-sanding-and-spray-painting-1.jpg

After-sanding-and-spray-painting-2.jpg

So what I did was by some very fine sandpaper P180 and sanded off any rust or corrosion then I ran some P500 (silicon carbide electro coated resin bonded waterproof latex sandpaper — waterproof sandpaper basically) and this cleared off basically all the rust. I then put on about 3 coats of spray paint in total, doing only one coat at a time and waiting about an hour or so between adding the 2nd and 3rd coat. Perhaps some purists here might resist the spray paint but if considered, there will come a time when the elements take their tole and time is creeping up on these machines so in the vast majority of cases some interventions are necessary to upkeep the machines. Beyond this, I get a ton of satisfaction seeing the machines go from a stale tired to look to a near factory finish.

Here are a few more pics. I do plan on making a separate post on this week long restoration process because I discovered a number of things that I really want others to enjoy and none of it is complex or requires any specialized tools, just patience, time, staying organized (not losing screws or mixing them up) and a little love.

A few other pics just out of interest.

Further-photo.jpg

IMG_0886.JPG

IMG_0893.JPG

IMG_0895.JPG

Kindest regards and it is not my intention to apparently hi-jack your post. Like I said I will make a post on this particular restoration but in the meantime I hope that every part in your machine finds a good home and a new owner who can make use of those parts. Although millions were sold I am confident that over 90% were recycled or sadly, in a landfill. Glad you are doing the right thing, which does take time, tossing it is easy but wrong for the long term health of our planet.

—Alex

 
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cbmeeks

Well-known member
@Alex

Yes, I mean the internal metal frame that holds the motherboard, drive cage, etc.  You can't see from the pics above but trust me when I say it was beyond repair.  I mean, I guess it technically could be rebuilt.  But at least half of it or more was rusted all the way through.  I don't think it was just battery leakage.  I think it was full blown rust.  The rust was so bad that I could break off large pieces of the frame with my fingers. It wasn't something that could be scrapped off.  

 
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