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WTB Feet for Power Macintosh G3 desktop
- Thread starter toples50
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You can always make your own.
Has anyone found a source for replacement rubber rectangular feet for Outrigger and other desktop Macs?
I bought a pack of rubber feet at Target (a store that sells a bunch of different stuff here n the US) that will probably work for this. It was in with some of the home decoration stuff, like, picture frames and little side tables. I believe 3M made the pack, but I put it somewhere and I'd have to go look.
They won't be the same shape or size, but that should be fine.
If you had a block of rubber, you could measure the footprint of the spot where the feet came from and then cut your own. Because these feet generally aren't visible, it shouldn't really matter what color or thickness you use, other than "enough to clear the fascia and internal frame plastics" -- which is the main reason to bother with the feet on these machines at all.
The generic term for these appears to be rubber or silicone feet or bumper pads. There are loads of different ones on Amazon. If you bought a big-ish pack of generic square ones, you could put two in each foot spot (I believe there are five) on your G3 or other 7x00 desktop. (this should include the 7100 and 650, as well.)
EDIT: I'm pretty sure Scotch is the brand from the pack I bought. On their web site, it's under "Surface protection", more here: https://www.scotchbrand.com/3M/en_US/scotch-brand/products/catalog/~/Scotch-Products/Surface-Protection/?N=4335+8733245+3294529207+3294857497&rt=r3
I'm going to use them as replacement feet for things like old external hard disks whose feet have disappeared over the years.
They won't be the same shape or size, but that should be fine.
If you had a block of rubber, you could measure the footprint of the spot where the feet came from and then cut your own. Because these feet generally aren't visible, it shouldn't really matter what color or thickness you use, other than "enough to clear the fascia and internal frame plastics" -- which is the main reason to bother with the feet on these machines at all.
The generic term for these appears to be rubber or silicone feet or bumper pads. There are loads of different ones on Amazon. If you bought a big-ish pack of generic square ones, you could put two in each foot spot (I believe there are five) on your G3 or other 7x00 desktop. (this should include the 7100 and 650, as well.)
EDIT: I'm pretty sure Scotch is the brand from the pack I bought. On their web site, it's under "Surface protection", more here: https://www.scotchbrand.com/3M/en_US/scotch-brand/products/catalog/~/Scotch-Products/Surface-Protection/?N=4335+8733245+3294529207+3294857497&rt=r3
I'm going to use them as replacement feet for things like old external hard disks whose feet have disappeared over the years.
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Yeah sounds like you have done the same thing I ended up doing a few years back. I have a drawer full of various size pads and bumpers and some have worked better then others. Mostly 3M but I have some other brands from stores like the Home Depot. I have had mixed results with these things with some of them actually sliding around and not staying in the place they were adhered to, even after cleaning the surface with isopropyl alcohol.
I noticed on my 8600 that it had lost all of the feet. I don't know what happened there as it was sitting in storage for 10+ years. I noticed on my 7200 that has all feet intact that one of them seems to be turning to mush. It's funny because it has only been sitting on a desk for the past several years.
The rubber idea is good idea. The worst thing with rubber would be it would harden and possibly leave marks. But I bet a synthetic version would be good too.
I'm going to have to research this a bit more.
The size of these are 25mm X 12mm X 5mm
I noticed on my 8600 that it had lost all of the feet. I don't know what happened there as it was sitting in storage for 10+ years. I noticed on my 7200 that has all feet intact that one of them seems to be turning to mush. It's funny because it has only been sitting on a desk for the past several years.
The rubber idea is good idea. The worst thing with rubber would be it would harden and possibly leave marks. But I bet a synthetic version would be good too.
I'm going to have to research this a bit more.
The size of these are 25mm X 12mm X 5mm
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Posting a year after the prior post for the sake of posterity:
Operation Headgap sells feet for PowerMacs of the 7200/7300/7500/7600/8600/9600/first generation G3 variety.
They are black, and have been cut from a piece of rubber.
The ones I received were somewhat irregularly shaped, and needed further trimming.
If you don't want to do the research or work yourself, it's one way to go.
Operation Headgap sells feet for PowerMacs of the 7200/7300/7500/7600/8600/9600/first generation G3 variety.
They are black, and have been cut from a piece of rubber.
The ones I received were somewhat irregularly shaped, and needed further trimming.
If you don't want to do the research or work yourself, it's one way to go.
Yeah, I was disappointed with Operators Headgap's feet not because they were black but because the cutting job was terrible. One day, I may investigate into making correct feet.
Just casually, my observation so far is that the 7200+, 8600/9600, and Beige G3 (both kinds) all use the same feet. They're basically just sizeable chunks of rubber. It's probably not really worth making it as a specific product, but a wiki idea would definitely be highlighting some suitable replacements, and perhaps measuring the depth of anything protruding from the bottom to see how big you really need the feet to be.
You could, for example, fill each of those spots with two smaller "button" type of feet, instead of bothering to cut a big rectangle, or just slam larger circular feet on there.
I still have the feet I linked up-thread several years ago but haven't put them on anything and, I have, in fact, forgotten why I originally bought them.
The feet for things like early-mid '90s Apple monitors and stuff like the Mac II family are probably in worse shape (other than just falling off) and need more specific cutting, but I don't know off hand if Apple predominantly used a single size or if there's anything like feet sticking up into chassis as attachment mechanisms going on there.
You could, for example, fill each of those spots with two smaller "button" type of feet, instead of bothering to cut a big rectangle, or just slam larger circular feet on there.
I still have the feet I linked up-thread several years ago but haven't put them on anything and, I have, in fact, forgotten why I originally bought them.
The feet for things like early-mid '90s Apple monitors and stuff like the Mac II family are probably in worse shape (other than just falling off) and need more specific cutting, but I don't know off hand if Apple predominantly used a single size or if there's anything like feet sticking up into chassis as attachment mechanisms going on there.
Many rubber feet cause discolouration of the surface they stand on (like a table with wooden/plastic/laquered surface). You can easily make custom feet from wine cork (natural corc, neither plastics nor composite corc made from ground corc leftover). Just cut it to the desired size and attach it with adhesive tape or some neutral bonding emulsion/glue. Natural cork will usually cause no issues regarding discolouration, as long as you use a glue that will not act in this way. For example, Pattex glue _will_ cause discolouration, diffusing through the porous corc. The cork itself is neutral to most surfaces. It can be cut with a sharp knive, better with a fine saw. Cork can be ground to exact dimensions easily with sandpaper. Just cut out a set of corc feet, grind the feet to the same thickness, attach them, and the Mac will happily stand on environmentally acceptable antiskid feet 
You would not even need to carve the cylindrical shape; just glue it in place ;-)
(This might give us a hint to what inspired the designer in the first place.)
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