It's been such a long time, but I wanted to give this thread some closure. Remember this thread? Well, the supplier came forward with another several boxes of spares, and a lot of crushed, broken and dropped machines. One MacBook Pro with some serious structural damage was a perfect match, with identical specifications.
So, we extracted the board, and the twisted machine donated its 2.5GHz engine.
The fans and heatsink were removed as well and kept as spares. The existing fans were opened, cleaned and sanded to smooth out any casting imperfections. The heatsink surfaces were polished and tinted. Then the board was reinstalled with a thin spread of Arctic Silver 5. The machine has been loaded with OS X Mavericks, running iStat Menus 4 with the idle fan speed increased to 3600rpm. It runs cool. Peaking at 68C cool.
The damaged machine also donated its battery - a NewerTech NuPower with only 35 cycles. With 96% health, this battery has a lot left to give.
As the replacement components were all reused and recycled from other machines, this machine cost nothing to repair. A free Mac.
This machine became my sound production machine. It's been connected to my amplifiers for GarageBand, it's been connected to mixing desks and broadcast consoles for audio playback, and it's even served as a bridge to the Cassette Interface on my Apple II. It was absolutely worth saving.
However, there is one more thing.
I mentioned having several boxes of spares, and several crates of smashed up machines. These were surplus components from a number of Apple dealers and independent repairers that were no longer required, and when they were offered, we immediately jumped at the opportunity. Working together with independent Mac technicians, collectors and hobbyists around the Adelaide area, we succeeded in finding homes for the majority of these parts over the course of 2013. Collectively, we saved countless broken MacBook Pros, MacBooks, iMacs, iBooks and PowerBooks from landfills and returned them into circulation, into the hands of their owners and collectors.
This MacBook Pro was simply one of many. Among the rescued were (among others, difficult to recall every last one):
- 1x Macintosh 512Ke
- 1x Macintosh Classic
- 2x iBook G4/800
- 1x PowerBook 180c
- 1x PowerBook G4 Titanium/400
- 3x PowerBook G4 (15")
- 3x PowerBook G4 (17")
- 3x MacBook (Pre-Unibody)
- 3x MacBook (Polycarbonate Unibody)
- 4x MacBook Pro (Pre-Unibody 15")
- 1x MacBook Pro (Pre-Unibody 17")
- 1x MacBook Pro (Unibody 13")
- 2x MacBook Pro (Unibody 15")
- 2x iMac G5 ALS (20")
- 1x iMac Core Duo (20")
- 1x Power Mac G3 Minitower (Beige)
- 1x Power Mac G4 Sawtooth
- 1x Power Mac G4 Digital Audio
It was absolutely an effort, some of us (as in, myself and fellow friends and techies) spending late nights in my converted workspace with a screwdriver in hand installing everything from display panels to power supplies, and it resulted in a few weeks there where I was unable to move even in my own home. However we kept crates of otherwise functional components out of landfill, and we managed to repair a lot of old Macs in the process, resulting in some very thrilled owners, hobbyists and collectors.
It was quite an experience, to say the least.
While most of the machines were moved on to new homes, some of the machines never left - I'll go over those in yet another conquests thread soon.
Cheers,
~ Mic.
So, we extracted the board, and the twisted machine donated its 2.5GHz engine.
The fans and heatsink were removed as well and kept as spares. The existing fans were opened, cleaned and sanded to smooth out any casting imperfections. The heatsink surfaces were polished and tinted. Then the board was reinstalled with a thin spread of Arctic Silver 5. The machine has been loaded with OS X Mavericks, running iStat Menus 4 with the idle fan speed increased to 3600rpm. It runs cool. Peaking at 68C cool.
The damaged machine also donated its battery - a NewerTech NuPower with only 35 cycles. With 96% health, this battery has a lot left to give.
As the replacement components were all reused and recycled from other machines, this machine cost nothing to repair. A free Mac.
This machine became my sound production machine. It's been connected to my amplifiers for GarageBand, it's been connected to mixing desks and broadcast consoles for audio playback, and it's even served as a bridge to the Cassette Interface on my Apple II. It was absolutely worth saving.
However, there is one more thing.
I mentioned having several boxes of spares, and several crates of smashed up machines. These were surplus components from a number of Apple dealers and independent repairers that were no longer required, and when they were offered, we immediately jumped at the opportunity. Working together with independent Mac technicians, collectors and hobbyists around the Adelaide area, we succeeded in finding homes for the majority of these parts over the course of 2013. Collectively, we saved countless broken MacBook Pros, MacBooks, iMacs, iBooks and PowerBooks from landfills and returned them into circulation, into the hands of their owners and collectors.
This MacBook Pro was simply one of many. Among the rescued were (among others, difficult to recall every last one):
- 1x Macintosh 512Ke
- 1x Macintosh Classic
- 2x iBook G4/800
- 1x PowerBook 180c
- 1x PowerBook G4 Titanium/400
- 3x PowerBook G4 (15")
- 3x PowerBook G4 (17")
- 3x MacBook (Pre-Unibody)
- 3x MacBook (Polycarbonate Unibody)
- 4x MacBook Pro (Pre-Unibody 15")
- 1x MacBook Pro (Pre-Unibody 17")
- 1x MacBook Pro (Unibody 13")
- 2x MacBook Pro (Unibody 15")
- 2x iMac G5 ALS (20")
- 1x iMac Core Duo (20")
- 1x Power Mac G3 Minitower (Beige)
- 1x Power Mac G4 Sawtooth
- 1x Power Mac G4 Digital Audio
It was absolutely an effort, some of us (as in, myself and fellow friends and techies) spending late nights in my converted workspace with a screwdriver in hand installing everything from display panels to power supplies, and it resulted in a few weeks there where I was unable to move even in my own home. However we kept crates of otherwise functional components out of landfill, and we managed to repair a lot of old Macs in the process, resulting in some very thrilled owners, hobbyists and collectors.
It was quite an experience, to say the least.
While most of the machines were moved on to new homes, some of the machines never left - I'll go over those in yet another conquests thread soon.Cheers,
~ Mic.