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Update: oh god they have a screw pitch checker!!!!! Finally I can figure out which standoffs to get for my PowerBook...

Same! Instead of exhaustively measuring things, was just thinking of separately copying curved parts onto engineering paper, scaling it to the correct size, and compositing multiple images like that in Photoshop to get front views and profiles. (I don't have a scanner, so I sure hope that my iPhone camera and perspective correction will work...) I blew a little money on it, and I'll report back.

I think I found the little mini curve duplicator tool you're looking for! A company named MicroMark makes small version of trades tools... https://www.micromark.com/6-Contour-Gauge

Mazel tov! Thanks for keeping on posting your progress, sutekh – I want to do a hardware project this winter, and this thread is good inspiration.

Ooh, that's a good idea! Maybe cover the whole thing in calcium chloride, like mummifying a corpse. Same process eh?

Hmm, I'm thinking about alternatives as well: I live in a really humid climate, and I'm wary of using an oven. I wonder if simply putting the screen in an airtight container with a really good desiccant, like a molecular sieve, could work, leaving in the screen as long as possible, repeating as many times as required. Apparently these are used to extract water from ethanol!

Thanks for the video, I have another PB180 coming along its merry way, in unknown condition... Would you be able to use a microfiber cloth, wet it with IPA/xylol/Goof-Off, and apply pressure onto the LCD screen to remove the adhesive traces? Other than that, I can really only think of soaking it for a long period...

Forgive me if this is a simple question, but how do y'all measure the radius of curved edges/fillets for reproduction? I'm trying to figure out how feasible it would be for me to make a repro version of a PowerBook 1xx screen rear case, and with a good set of calipers seems like the toughest part would be measuring the radius of the curved edge fillets.

Thanks for the tips, everyone. Gave the 3D printed insert a try – I did screw up, though, since now the inserts are rotating loose inside the case lid, even after JB Welding them down Anyone know any good way to fix in a screw insert in some ABS?

This is beautiful! Now if only there was a way of turning off Platinum...

All – after coughing on my PowerBook 180, the dreaded hinge failure seems to have happened. I'd like to replace the lid of the PB180 (i.e. the top case which the screen hinges screw onto.) Would y'all happen to know whether other PowerBook models have compatible parts, and if so which? PowerBook 180s seem to be expensive, while other models as-is are around the $50 mark.

Two things come to mind – first, what error messages do you get? A Sad Mac screen will have an error code that might tell us something. Second, I notice the shunt on the expansion card is on "SIMM NOT INSTALLED" – what happens when you move it to "SIMM INSTALLED", with the extra RAM in, and try to boot? What happens without the extra SIMMs?

As someone who's learning, too, how did you remove the '020? I imagine you'd use hot air + lots of flux, but I'd be extremely worried about putting too much thermal stress on '020, I'd expect it to be the most fragile component.

All – any good recommendations for a DIN-8 to USB serial adapter that I can use to connect an eMate, or a Mac printer port to a modern Mac? I used to use a Keyspan 8-pin serial to USB adapter every time I needed to connect one of my old Macs to my rMBP. Unfortunately, I updated to Catalina, and Keyspan's drivers no longer seem to work – they haven't been updated since Yosemite (I think), and now Catalina requires 64-bit drivers.

FWIW, I don't think Classics/Classic IIs have ever had foil shielding.