Classic accelerator?

[sirwiggum]

I used a long torx bit in a long screwdriver extension. Not perfect or elegant, but did the job!

The allens need to be torx, normal allens wont work.

The putty knife I believe is the advised tool for opening a mac mini, blunted off a bit of course!

I used an old credit card-style loyalty card to get the plus open, but it didn't give much resistance.

 

[Bunsen]

The allens need to be torx

Allen and Torx are two completely different things.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

[ nitpick clarification mode ]

The tool in the pic above actually is an allen wrench, sized to fit the torx screws and it works just fine. I have one that was included with the four 1MB SIMMs for my SE from Memory Plus(?) which came in a clever kit, packaged in a long zip-loc bag, with an antistatic wrist strap, along with the retractor in the picture. The tool in the pic very likely is a clamp, but retractor is the correct terminology for a surgical instrument that acts exactly as this tool does when employed as a Mac cracker. IIRC, a retractor has the same sort of widget as a hemostat, but to hold it open while spreading an incision, as opposed to clamping off a bleeder.

So the Mac Cracking Kit, had a great manual, a nice, single use, grounding strap and a pair of tools that were less than perfectly specified, but worked perfectly well for the procedures in which they were employed. The allen wrench was a very clever design, fitting into the twelve sided torx socket, as a twelve sided socket wrench works perfectly to drive a six sided nut.

Torx stock would be much more expensive and difficult (impossible?) to manufacture inexpensively in that bent T-handle configuration. The inexpensive, malleable "allen" stock (sized to fit the T-15 socket) gives a nice, twisting, cushioning, over-torque protecting action to the tool. Rounded vs. sharp edges notwithstanding, it is a very elegant engineering solution as the replacement for a real T-15 tool.

[ /nitpick clarification mode ]

:beige:

 

[Bunsen]

The allen wrench / fitting into the twelve sided torx socket, as a twelve sided socket wrench works perfectly to drive a six sided nut.

Huh. I can see how that would work -- and that's actually a useful tip in itself that will be filed away for future reference. A smaller allen would fit inside the cut-out in the top of a Torx.

 

[bengi3]

i love your basement,

this is the web page with some of my basement Macs:

http://www.webalice.it/beniamino.cenci.goga/

 

[bengi3]

but retractor is the correct terminology for a surgical instrument that acts exactly as this tool does when employed as a Mac cracker. IIRC, a retractor has the same sort of widget as a hemostat, but to hold it open while spreading an incision, as opposed to clamping :beige:

Indeed. I am a vet, now I work as microbiolgist (http://www.facebook.com/ispezionealimenti, but in early '90s I started as a vet in large animal surgery and the term retractor made sense. Now, in the light of these post, I believe that another term should be used.

Ben

 

[Mk.558]

Torx stock would be much more expensive and difficult (impossible?) to manufacture inexpensively in that bent T-handle configuration. The inexpensive, malleable "allen" stock (sized to fit the T-15 socket) gives a nice, twisting, cushioning, over-torque protecting action to the tool. Rounded vs. sharp edges notwithstanding, it is a very elegant engineering solution as the replacement for a real T-15 tool.

We still can't avoid the fact that using an allen tool on a torx screw is not a recognized "right" way. Sure it can work sometimes, sometimes it doesn't and can mangle the head. (I'd invite anybody to tackle some inverse torx bolts on a transmission bellhousing with conventional hex socket drivers.)

As for the manufactoring process, the tool change is minimal. You heat the end up (unless you want to do it cold forging) and smash the end in a die with a hydraulic ram. Deburr the end and move on to the next.

As for "retractor": If you're using it as something to hold something open, I'm garnering on "expander" or "wedge". An expander would be something similar to an outside snap ring, where you use a snap ring plier that can "expand" the snap ring until it can be removed.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Agreed, allen is not a recommended tool replacement for torx for general use. The operative words are, inexpensive, sized to fit, malleable, twisting action and over-torque protection, to which can be added low cycle count, and low torque application of the fasteners in question.

I've done a LOT of cold iron working on a significant percentage of the tools in the Whitney Catalog. For the stock in question, we're talking a low production run item for a specific purpose. I'll put a digital caliper on the "allen stock" in question and I have a sneaking suspicion it may not show up as a standard metric or fractional inch size.

BTW, the closer to round the stock, the lesser the resistance to the twisting motion that's designed into the tool for over-torque protection. The flutes on rounded corner torx stock would offer significantly more resistance, to the point of negating this feature.

As far as "retractor" goes, "case srerader" would have been just about right, but almost everyone has heard a surgeon in movies or on TV ask the scrub nurse for a "retractor," whilst very few would be familiar with tool nomenclature.

A "retractor" IS a spreader, but this is definitely a case where three syllables spread across two words would have been a much better choice than three syllables in a single word, even if it's the most correct word for a tool used in this application. [] ]'>

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

To sum up the medical retractor/mechanics tool/carpenter's clamp/case spreader terminology issue . . .

but retractor is the correct terminology for a surgical instrument that acts exactly as this tool does when employed as a Mac cracker. IIRC, a retractor has the same sort of widget as a hemostat, but to hold it open while spreading an incision, as opposed to clamping :beige:

Indeed. I am a vet, now I work as microbiolgist (http://www.facebook.com/ispezionealimenti, but in early '90s I started as a vet in large animal surgery and the term retractor made sense. Now, in the light of these post, I believe that another term should be used.

Ben

. . . we're ALL WRONG!!!!!! :lol:

It's a Filmmaking tool used by Grips! )

I just found my Mac Cracking/Memory (MacConnection) Installation kit and then googled the mfr/part# and discovered that it's a Pony Grip Clip #2 -#3202 w/o covers!

I may order the Pony Clamp 3201 with tip and grip covers (#1 Grip Clip) with finger friendly cushy covers for less $$$$$!!!!!!!!!!!! :

Pony clamps, made right here in the good 'ole USA . . .

(no offense meant to any of my comrades anywhere else across the planet, this is as opposed to Made in China only! I don't think I need to fear offending anyone in "Communist" China)

. . . are apparently sold for everything under the sun.

It's definitely a "Mac Cracker" or "Compact Mac Case Spreader" for all intents and our purposes . . . other than hacking of course! [] ]'>