As you maybe could see in my other post, I recently picked up a Mac TV (one of my holy grail items), however it was missing a few accessories, namely the mouse, and the keyboard's ADB cable.
Unfortunately, the black ADB accessories can be very expensive on eBay, and rarely come up for sale. So, my impatience and supply of extra ADB mice lead me to look into ways I could make a suitable replacement (originally thinking it would be short term). The biggest challenges I saw were matching the color / sheen and something that would work on the mouse cable (and possibly a coiled ADB cable).
I've head of vinyl dye used for car parts and it's ability to withstand being applied to flexible materials. Also, it felt like if a product could withstand the heat / wear and tear of being in a car, it should be able to withstand my vintage computer usage.
So I grabbed a non-working Apple Desktop Bus Mouse II, removed the serial number sticker from the bottom to get to the screw.
Once the screw is undone, the top shell can be lifted off. To make painting easier, I separated the mouse button from the rest of the top shell by lifting up on the back of the piece (where the two holes are with tiny posts holding it in place) while sliding it to the front of the mouse. The step isn't necessary, but it will make getting full coverage much easier.
On the bottom shell, I removed the mouse ball cover and mouse ball. I removed the ADB cable from the connector, then pulled the two boards out of the case so I don't need to worry about them getting painted. I left the wheels in place as I will be masking the inside of the bottom case with painters tape. With the shell empty, I actually but the mouse ball cover back in place, then put tape across the hole to prevent paint from getting into where the rollers are. I then taped the top side of the bottom case to prevent spray from coming in from the other side.
One thing I didn't do, but wish I had, was to remove the mouse glides. I was worried if I removed them, they would bend and no longer be adhesive. I may be able to find new glides, but I figure if it turned out bad, I could remove the ones with paint and replace them with unpainted ones from my bag of non-working mice. Overall, it's not bad, since I use a mouse pad. I may still remove the painted glides.
I then put painters tape over the metal end of the ADB connector on the mouse cable, and the internal connector I disconnected from the circuit board.
I then purchased a can of Duplicator flat black Vinyl and Fabric Specialty Coating for about $12 from my local auto parts store. I hung up all the parts (including the mouse cable) to I could try to hit them from every angle. The vinyl coating called for many light layers, but my first pass with on the top case I went too thick and you could see a little bit of bunching of the paint. However, I followed up with several light coats and the texture ended up evening out and the high spot is not terrible. Lesson learned, go very light and just keep hitting it with coats (probably 10-20 coats) to get full coverage and and even sheen.
Once it was fully dry, I was very impressed with how closely it matched the original keyboard. I think people would be hard pressed to tell that it wasn't factory finished this way (there are clues, like the inside of the mouse ball cover is still platinum, because I didn't want the paint to cause friction or come off when opening the mouse ball compartment for cleaning).
Additionally, the mouse cable turned out very nice, and the only real imperfection with it was that the cable had a slightly rougher texture than the unpainted cable. But I'm not touching my mouse cable that often, and even when I do, it's not sand paper rough!
So, with success on the mouse, I grabbed a spare coiled ADB cable, taped off the metal ends of the ADB connectors, and hung it up outside. Basically I repeated the process, except this time, on my last few coats, I pulled the bottom connector down to stretch out the coiled part of the cable so the paint could coat the inside of the coil. I wasn't sure how good coverage I could get, but two coats while stretching it lightly seemed to allow full coverage.
After letting it dry, I was able to set up my machine and I think it looks fantastic (certainly a lot better than having a platinum DB cable and mouse with my MacTV setup.
It actually turned out so well, I'm considering buying another can to coat the back case of the MacTV itself, because the one I got has significant scuffs all over and I think it would actually look better (see comparison of mouse to case below)
Unfortunately, the black ADB accessories can be very expensive on eBay, and rarely come up for sale. So, my impatience and supply of extra ADB mice lead me to look into ways I could make a suitable replacement (originally thinking it would be short term). The biggest challenges I saw were matching the color / sheen and something that would work on the mouse cable (and possibly a coiled ADB cable).
I've head of vinyl dye used for car parts and it's ability to withstand being applied to flexible materials. Also, it felt like if a product could withstand the heat / wear and tear of being in a car, it should be able to withstand my vintage computer usage.
So I grabbed a non-working Apple Desktop Bus Mouse II, removed the serial number sticker from the bottom to get to the screw.
Once the screw is undone, the top shell can be lifted off. To make painting easier, I separated the mouse button from the rest of the top shell by lifting up on the back of the piece (where the two holes are with tiny posts holding it in place) while sliding it to the front of the mouse. The step isn't necessary, but it will make getting full coverage much easier.
On the bottom shell, I removed the mouse ball cover and mouse ball. I removed the ADB cable from the connector, then pulled the two boards out of the case so I don't need to worry about them getting painted. I left the wheels in place as I will be masking the inside of the bottom case with painters tape. With the shell empty, I actually but the mouse ball cover back in place, then put tape across the hole to prevent paint from getting into where the rollers are. I then taped the top side of the bottom case to prevent spray from coming in from the other side.
One thing I didn't do, but wish I had, was to remove the mouse glides. I was worried if I removed them, they would bend and no longer be adhesive. I may be able to find new glides, but I figure if it turned out bad, I could remove the ones with paint and replace them with unpainted ones from my bag of non-working mice. Overall, it's not bad, since I use a mouse pad. I may still remove the painted glides.
I then put painters tape over the metal end of the ADB connector on the mouse cable, and the internal connector I disconnected from the circuit board.
I then purchased a can of Duplicator flat black Vinyl and Fabric Specialty Coating for about $12 from my local auto parts store. I hung up all the parts (including the mouse cable) to I could try to hit them from every angle. The vinyl coating called for many light layers, but my first pass with on the top case I went too thick and you could see a little bit of bunching of the paint. However, I followed up with several light coats and the texture ended up evening out and the high spot is not terrible. Lesson learned, go very light and just keep hitting it with coats (probably 10-20 coats) to get full coverage and and even sheen.
Once it was fully dry, I was very impressed with how closely it matched the original keyboard. I think people would be hard pressed to tell that it wasn't factory finished this way (there are clues, like the inside of the mouse ball cover is still platinum, because I didn't want the paint to cause friction or come off when opening the mouse ball compartment for cleaning).
Additionally, the mouse cable turned out very nice, and the only real imperfection with it was that the cable had a slightly rougher texture than the unpainted cable. But I'm not touching my mouse cable that often, and even when I do, it's not sand paper rough!
So, with success on the mouse, I grabbed a spare coiled ADB cable, taped off the metal ends of the ADB connectors, and hung it up outside. Basically I repeated the process, except this time, on my last few coats, I pulled the bottom connector down to stretch out the coiled part of the cable so the paint could coat the inside of the coil. I wasn't sure how good coverage I could get, but two coats while stretching it lightly seemed to allow full coverage.
After letting it dry, I was able to set up my machine and I think it looks fantastic (certainly a lot better than having a platinum DB cable and mouse with my MacTV setup.
It actually turned out so well, I'm considering buying another can to coat the back case of the MacTV itself, because the one I got has significant scuffs all over and I think it would actually look better (see comparison of mouse to case below)
