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My favorite stuff for this sort of thing is Deoxit D5. http://www.amazon.com/CAIG-DeOxit-Cleaning-Solution-Spray/dp/B0002BBV4G It isn't cheap, but a little goes a long way. I'm still on the original can I bought several years ago.

There is a product called Pebeo Vitrea that is intended as a glass paint to make faux stained glass and various artsy-fartsy stuff. It's the best thing I've found for creating and repairing solder mask though. You can buy it in bottles as well as pens where you simply draw it on. Let it dry for...

You can usually get away with opening a drive in a reasonably clean environment, just don't run it with the cover off, that in my experience tends to kill them rapidly. If the driver could read but not write, I would suspect an electronic fault. Bad write amplifier or a problem with the analog...

For the most part they weren't really that bad to work on and had the same sort of faults as any other monitor. Bad capacitors, the occasional open resistor or shorted diode, blown HOT. Sometimes it was just a bad solder joint. Once I had a good multimeter and an ESR meter I had a pretty solid...

Sometimes there is no substitute for testing out of circuit, but you can check a lot of parts in place. If a diode shows a reasonable forward drop in one direction and nothing to speak of in the other then it's probably good. Transistors can be tested like a pair of end to end diodes from the...

A fault in the logic board could. It's not common, but a shorted IC could cause the supply to shut down and tick like that. It would be extremely unlikely for a CRT to fail in such a way as to cause this. As long as the vacuum is intact, the tube is probably fine.

Shipping a CRT overseas is going to be risky and expensive, but there is no reason you can't separate the board and the tube. I'm sure there are others here who could use a good tube for their compact Mac. Clicking likely means the power supply is starting up and shutting down repeatedly. Look...

I had forgotten to install several capacitors, including those on the power rails to the ROMs. It happened because I ran out of caps in the middle of the job and had removed all of the like values at once. That board should be in good working order now but I have not bothered to test it.

Linear Technology parts do tend to be a bit on the spendy side. If you ask them nicely though, they will usually send you a couple of samples free of charge. I've used the LM257x parts as well, originally National Semiconductor and now cheaper clones are made by TI. They work very similarly to...

Does it not have a 3 digit code on the top? It works the same way as capacitor codes. You can make a pretty good guess by looking at the datasheet though. It will tell you how to calculate the optimal inductor value based on the desired input voltage and output voltage and current. RTFM :)

I've used the LT1070 in a couple of designs before, it's a good part. Datasheet and documentation is here: http://www.linear.com/product/LT1070 The CKC suffix indicates various options, stuff like temperature range, package style, whether it's Pb-free, etc. You need to start searching by the...

That photo is too blurry for me to make out the part number, but Linear Technology generally has good datasheets and documentation. Most of their part numbers are LTxxxx. Inserting an ammeter anywhere in the regulator circuit is not likely to work. The current will be pulses and these circuits...

It's really pretty straightforward, it's the same way a flyback transformer produces such high voltages. An inductor stores energy in the form of a magnetic field. The more quickly this field collapses, the higher the voltage it will be because it's the same amount of energy released in a...

Wasn't there a 3rd party Macintosh clone (early laptop?) that used a standard PC drive modified for variable spindle speed? That might turn out to be fairly straightforward depending on how the spindle motor speed is regulated, but you'd have to consult the datasheet for the motor control chip...

A typical boost regulator works by repeatedly charging up an inductor, then opening the switch (transistor or mosfet) so the magnetic field collapses rapidly, resulting in a high(er) voltage pulse which is directed through a freewheel diode into the output filter capacitor. If there is no load...

A fuse that blows instantly almost always means a shorted component on the primary side of the power supply. The most common is the chopper transistor which will be a power transistor or MOSFET on a heatsink near the big filter capacitors on the input side. It could also be a shorted main filter...

A syringe is still the easiest way I've found to get it right where you want it with less risk of dripping. You should be able to get them at just about any pharmacy or veterinary clinic, they're typically less than 50 cents. Tap Plastics has them too for a bit more. Just don't leave solvent in...

Stamping has the same issues as molding, the setup costs are obscene since you have to machine the molds/dies which have to be made out of a durable material. Once you have this done, the parts are cheap per piece, but you usually have to make thousands of the part before it becomes economical.

It's known as a "hum bar" and indeed is very common with CRT displays. I've run into it frequently with vintage arcade games when bad connections develop and you end up with 60Hz hum riding on the video and sync lines to the monitor. It's much of the reason why analog television vertical refresh...

I've had good luck with solvent welding. I think the stuff is mostly MEK, it's sold for welding acrylic but it works on most ABS plastics too. Just be careful not to drip it anywhere as it will melt and scar whatever it gets on. I use a small syringe with a needle to put just a few drips right...