G4 Cube Laptop Optical Drive Bracket

[metta]

Hi Everyone,

I'm looking to replace my G4 Cube's optical drive with a laptop-style SuperDrive and before I take a stab at designing one myself, I was hoping somebody out there had an .stl file for the bracket to fit it into the Cube's optical drive area. With cubeowner now defunct, I can no longer access the forum posts discussing this. I've attached a picture showing this bracket which I found on: http://www.atpm.com/12.03/cube.shtml

If I can't find one, I'll be sure to post my own version of it for anyone else looking to do the same thing. Thanks in advance!

The bracket in question:

 

[metta]

http://www.atpm.com/12.03/cube.shtml is the correct link, there's a period in the URL - sorry.

 

[nottomhanks]

A friend of mine just successfully printed one of these, and with a slim SATA to SATA adapter, IDE to SATA adapter board, and SATA extension cable, I’m successfully running a laptop drive from 2010 and watching DVDs with VLC in 10.4.  It’s a bit of a tight fit, but it’s all working!  Just need to try booting to an Apple DVD and try burning a DVD to see what happens.

 

[Daniël]

A friend of mine just successfully printed one of these, and with a slim SATA to SATA adapter, IDE to SATA adapter board, and SATA extension cable, I’m successfully running a laptop drive from 2010 and watching DVDs with VLC in 10.4.  It’s a bit of a tight fit, but it’s all working!  Just need to try booting to an Apple DVD and try burning a DVD to see what happens.

Is there any chance you could share the STL? I'm now the owner of a Cube that also has an entirely weak optical drive, and would love to have printed one as well to be able to swap it out entirely.

 

[Stephen]

There's some anecdotal success of restoring normal ejection to the original G4 Cube drives by boiling the rubber belts; it shrinks them back to a diameter which is closer to the original diameter. I haven't tried it myself.

 

[metta]

A friend of mine just successfully printed one of these, and with a slim SATA to SATA adapter, IDE to SATA adapter board, and SATA extension cable, I’m successfully running a laptop drive from 2010 and watching DVDs with VLC in 10.4.  It’s a bit of a tight fit, but it’s all working!  Just need to try booting to an Apple DVD and try burning a DVD to see what happens.

I'd love those STLs as well if your friend still has them.

 

[nottomhanks]

I will ask him and find out.  Thanks!

 

[cadenya]

Did you find it? My cube cd drive doesn’t work either.

 

[Byrd]

Here's one design I found:

iMac G3 / Powerbook G4 / G4 Cube adapter for standard slimline optical drives by deBaer

Frame for mounting a standard slimline optical drive into slot-loading iMac G3 / Powerbook G4 / G4 Cube. You need (4) M2 countersunk head screws to mount the drive to the frame. To move the drive's slot up and down to fit the cut-out in the case, change the value of "abstand" in the OpenSCAD...

www.thingiverse.com

Good to hear you can use the SATA optical adapters in them now.