Has anyone succesfully removed a grill vent from the top of a Compact Mac?

[SteveHere]

I'm working on fixing up a Mac 128K I found locally on Facebook Marketplace. The case is a bit rough, one of the top grill vents is mostly missing. I guess i never noticed before that these top vents are not one piece with the body of the bucket.

So I'm thinking about using a heat gun to warm up a grill vent on a donor machine (Mac Plus) and trying to slowly push the grill out in one piece. Seems like a bit of a long shot that I'll be able to remove it given the age of the plastics but I thought I'd ask anyone here if they'd ever had success separating the top grill vent from the body of an early Macintosh?

Another idea was to print a replacement grill. I have a 3D printer but I don't have the modeling skills to draw that part. Does anyone know if there is an existing model for this part on the Internet?

 

[SteveHere]

In case anyone tries this in the future, let me describe my observations here. I should clarify that I used a paint stripper heat gun on low, not a hot air soldering unit. Heating the plastic does indeed soften it, but the unsupported vent areas become flexible first. I've stopped before damaging the vents on the Mac Plus, but I'm afraid the edges of the vent are not at all loosened by the heating, so I'm going to call this a failed experiment and move on to another idea.

Ideas welcome. 3D Printing? Make something out of a flat sheet of plastic? I welcome any suggestions for replacing a broken vent.

 

[robin-fo]

Ideas welcome. 3D Printing? Make something out of a flat sheet of plastic? I welcome any suggestions for replacing a broken vent.

I‘d go for high quality resin printing. Maybe make a prototype using your own printer and then order it from Shapeways

 

[MOD70]

I had one of these vents pop off recently, whole and undamaged. I've just taken a quick look at it under some magnification and can see that you have three things to work against in trying to remove undamaged. There's a small plastic spot weld (looks black) at on end, they do use glue (might even be plastic weld, like with PVC piping) but it doesn't look to be all around the seam. Finally they have over-sprayed the grey screening paint which has seeped down into the seam.

The fact that mine came off clean means it can be done, but I wouldn't want to wager on it. I think mine came off with a slight shock i.e. I dropped the case (undamaged) onto the carpet (unintentionally). I haven't yet decide how I will refit mine.

Here are some pictures that may help.

 

[SteveHere]

Just to close the loop on this repair, at VCF Midwest I saw that Joe's Computer Museum had nice 3D printed vents...

Top Grill Replacement for Classic Mac (128/512/Plus) - Joe's Computer Museum

Hey, those grills on the top of the 128 and Mac Plus? They break. But now, you can replace them! Designed by Philip Lord. https://github.com/Neoncluster/Apple-Macintosh-Plus-128k-512k-grill-vent-replacement

jcm-1.com

I purchased one and installed it into my machine. My bucket is yellowed so it's not a perfect color match, but much better than the cardboard I had in there before.