[Irinikus]

I’ve been away for the last two weeks, but this evening I got around to dismantling the Apple IIC, which I have to admit was a little bit more tricky than I expected it to be!

Here are some photos that I took while dismantling it:












It unfortunately has the crappy Apple switches, but I’ll take on the challenge of lubricating and fixing them up!

The plastics have undergone their first stage of cleaning, but will take quite a bit of time to get as clean as they need to be for retrobright! They are starting to clean up well, so I’m happy!

[Irinikus]

Here’s where I am with the plastics: (I’ll spend tomorrow afternoon finishing up so that I can hopefully retrobright on Saturday)





It turns out that the only key that will need retrobright is the space bar!

I can’t remove the Apple logo, but this time I’ve opted to cover it with clear tape to protect it from the Hydrogen Peroxide:

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I've lubricated the switches with some Q20, and they're feeling 95% better!



After allowing the lubricant to soak in over night, the switches now feel pretty good. (I'll lubricate the switches again just before I reassemble the machine)

[robespierre]

It turns out that the only key that will need retrobright is the space bar!

That is usually the case, since the other keys are typically molded in PBT (polybutylene terephthalate), while the space bar is ABS. ABS is the main resin that suffers yellowing, for reasons that remain unclear.
The space bar is ABS because its length presents greater loading forces and requires extra toughness. A space bar in PBT might crack.

[Irinikus]

It turns out that the only key that will need retrobright is the space bar!

That is usually the case, since the other keys are typically molded in PBT (polybutylene terephthalate), while the space bar is ABS. ABS is the main resin that suffers yellowing, for reasons that remain unclear.
The space bar is ABS because its length presents greater loading forces and requires extra toughness. A space bar in PBT might crack.

Cool! That explains it!

[Irinikus]

Here we go again!





I’m attempting the “vapour technique “ on the power supply. (I’ve wrapped up the chord and have placed it in a sealed container with another container inside containing 50% Hydrogen Peroxide.)





This is purely an experiment! (to see if O(-2) with sunlight will do the trick?) (edited)

[Irinikus]

Here’s what it looks like after today’s work, compared to how it looked before:









It looks allot better, but it’s not perfect, so I’ll more than likely give it another go tomorrow! (Using the Peroxide that I would have used on the printer!)

The "vapour Process" seems to have worked a bit on the Power Supply, but it will need quite a few more treatments! (I cannot paint or submerge it, so this is the process that I'm going to have to follow!)

It was unfortunately partly cloudy the whole day!

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I just put the computer plastics next to the external disk drive and they match pretty well, so on second thoughts I think I'm going to leave it as is! (Please give me your thought on this?)





Here it is with the “Little Monitor”! (It’s a fine line to overdoing things!)

[robespierre]

Irinkus,
I think it looks very good. Something people sometimes don't understand is that Esslinger's "Snow White" design was not about the color, but the overall goal of achieving the most beautiful computer possible ("Who's the prettiest of them all?"). As such, the original color of the Apple IIc was not white but a shade of off-white or ivory.

In my mind, it's better to brighten slightly too little, rather than too much.

[vishnu]

All the ICs are on tenth of an inch centers. We do all our prototyping on tenth of an inch centers using wire wrap, we don't transition the design to surface mount PCBs until we get something we like. After it's on a PCB, we "dead bug" any necessary mods onto the board using hot glue. Obviously though, we don't ship dead bugged PCBs to the customer. We use ORCad for our designs, but only a couple of us have the licenses required for the actual PCB layout.

[Irinikus]

The initial test before refitting the plastics:



I'm happy to report that both the internal and external drives work!

[vishnu]

You should use the "contact woz" link on his website (woz.org) to send him a link to this, I bet he'd enjoy seeing it!