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I employ the same technique on the termination headers. Hold the part with one hand, use the other to tack it in... ...and then go back and "do it right". Finally, we can solder in the SCSI connector. I have a trick for these too: 1. Pick a pin in a corner, and solder it into place. 2...

Not only did we lose a Tantalum capacitor on the original MiniScribe drive, but my SE/30 needed a hard drive bracket. To remedy these issues, I decided to build and install BlueSCSI. I absolutely love these little things, because for about $25 and a MicroSD card, you can have solid-state...

Fast forward one last time from May, 2021 to now (which is November, 2021)! We're finally back up to "current", and I'd like to get this restoration finished up as it has been dragging on for about 1.5 years now. As a first step, I pulled the serviced floppy drive out of storage, and installed...

With the eject motor reassembled, I turned my attention to the upper and lower carriages. To deal with the rust and corrosion, I scrubbed them down in some vinegar. After the vinegar, I used dishwasher soap and water, and then dried everything off with the air compressor. Not perfect, but...

Fast forward from June, 2020 to May, 2021. During this time, @eric has sent me a donor SuperDrive for this Macintosh SE FDHD. I specifically asked for one that hadn't been serviced, so that we could go through the process here. Here's the drive! It's a bit rusty too, but absolutely nothing like...

Next, it was time to service the floppy drive. Before tearing into it, I had pretty high hopes for it. Up until this point, I'd been able to resurrect every drive I'd come across. I'm not going to waste your time (or TinkerDifferent's bandwidth) on this one though... we'll stick to the quick...

At last, time to reassemble! Good thing too... at the time, my office had two torn-apart SE's, a torn-apart SE/30, and torn-apart external floppy drive! First, I hot glued the speaker back in. I find this method to be passable at best... sometimes, the speaker pops back out. I feel like epoxy...

I just used some automotive primer, and I masked off key areas to ensure proper grounding between all of the parts. More on this later. :p Next, it was time to recap the analog board. I don't always immediately jump to recapping the SE or SE/30 analog boards, but considering the mess that...

Same and same on the retrobrite and spare Apple badges! This machine in particular could use a new badge. Ultrasonic cleaners look super cool - I'd love to have one someday. Stay tuned. :) Before soldering the shield back onto the logic board, I decided to clean up the I/O ports a little...

Time for retrobrite! Here's what the Mac looked like at the beginning of the day. To prepare, I left some water out in my clear Sterilite container overnight. In the morning at 9 or 10 AM, it was about 24°C (75°F). We want about 35°C (95°F), which is where the reaction starts to happen. I...

With the sticker all taken care of, it was time to take the case outside for a final cleaning. I used my old standby: Dawn dishwasher detergent and a toothbrush. For stubborn marks and scuffs, I used baking soda on a wet paper towel like before. There wasn't a single surface on the Mac that...

Thanks! I enjoy writing these posts, and I hope that they encourage other people preserve vintage tech instead of trashing it, and maybe even serve as a guide to their own restoration projects. Me too! I really didn't have much hope for this one. At first, it looked pretty hopeless, but the...

After the partial reassembly, I let the machine sit all night and all day while I worked. When work was done, it was finally time for the moment of truth! I plugged it in all by itself with no peripherals, and then flipped the power switch... Nothing. Total silence. No activity whatsoever...

Thanks! I've been meaning to pick up some Evapo-rust or similar! Unfortunately, I'm not documenting this restoration as it happens (not yet, anyway - I'll be caught up to current events shortly). This portion of the restoration happened in May 2020 - the height of the pandemic, when we weren't...

Next, I popped the power supply board out of it's case. I somehow didn't get an "after" photo, but here's what the back of the power supply board looked like at first. It's pretty easy to remove, just three Phillips screws, unclip the low voltage wire bundle, and sneak it out of the case. I've...

Let's take a quick look at the rest of the parts. Here's a closeup of the rust on the power supply. Next, I'll be taking this apart to see how bad the damage is. I don't think it's as bad as the exterior suggests. I won't bother to fix this until we've verified that the machine will power on...

Okay, now that the chassis isn't going to give us Tetanus just by looking at it, let's talk about what I did with the front shell! Sadly I didn't get any photos of this part, but I took it outside with my daughters, some toothbrushes, and Dawn dishwasher detergent, and we scrubbed the front like...

Next, I took a small wire wheel on a cordless drill to both the shield and chassis. Big improvement, but there were a lot of small corners that I can't get into. I think sandblasting will be the ultimate solution here, but I need to find someone with a sandblasting cabinet. I would have liked...

After sitting in the vinegar all Sunday afternoon, I pulled the logic board out and took it back to the sink for a soap and water scrub. It's funny, a few years ago I would have never dreamed of putting a circuit board in the kitchen sink, much less hitting them with the garden hose like I did...

I'm glad you're here for the journey! And don't worry... the Apple II+ will get more attention soon, and eventually, the two Apple IIe's that you see above are slated for attempted resuscitation too.