Massive (filthy) find in South Carolina

[JDW]

@wottle
Did you get all the bits of tiny dirty particles out prior to deyellowing? May need to use 409 or 100% IPA (something strong, but not brutal) to get the teensy tiny grime out, as that can cause lackluster deyellowing results. You may need to use the rough side of a dish washing sponge too. Something hard but not so rough it would scratch the plastics in any perceivable way.

Also, I have found submerging with the Retrobright mix to be more effective than using a gel form. But in my case, I use 3% H2O2 mixed with OxiClean. Other people simple use strong H2O2 hair cream (like 8-bit Guy) and no OxiClean. OxiClean enhances the H2O2. And in addition to direct sunlight, having your deyellowing session done on a warm or hot day helps a lot. Seems like heat is very important to get the best results, not just UV alone.

 

[wottle]

@wottle
Did you get all the bits of tiny dirty particles out prior to deyellowing? May need to use 409 or 100% IPA (something strong, but not brutal) to get the teensy tiny grime out, as that can cause lackluster deyellowing results. You may need to use the rough side of a dish washing sponge too. Something hard but not so rough it would scratch the plastics in any perceivable way.

Also, I have found submerging with the Retrobright mix to be more effective than using a gel form. But in my case, I use 3% H2O2 mixed with OxiClean. Other people simple use strong H2O2 hair cream (like 8-bit Guy) and no OxiClean. OxiClean enhances the H2O2. And in addition to direct sunlight, having your deyellowing session done on a warm or hot day helps a lot. Seems like heat is very important to get the best results, not just UV alone.

I started with a spray down with a hose, and a mild soap. it was still very dirty in some areas (mostly the front and the top near the front. Also, the case had some sharpie that came off with a bit of IPA and soft rubbing with a magic eraser like product. Weirdly enough, there were numbers on the side in yellow that didn't look like sharpie / ink, and as I cleaned, nothing would take it off. I ended up having to use a razor blade scraper, as it appears it was a paint that was actually raised on the surface. It came off, but the removal did leave some scratches where I did the cleanup. I tried using a rough side of a kitchen sponge on the really dirty bits, and it simply was not coming clean. So I decided the case looked bad enough that going aggressive with the magic eraser would likely not make it worse. So I put some elbow grease and really went at it hard. It definitely got Mose of the areas clean of the surface coating. I suspect it was actually a mixture of dirt and probably paint, since these were in a shop that did auto restoration. I'm going to get some baking soda and see if a solution of that and maybe some type of detergent will do a better job. I may also try soaking the case for a bit to see if that aids with the cleaning.

These are a whole different level of dirty than I've dealt with, and I've had some other "barn finds" that have required a good amount of cleaning.

As for the retro-brighting, I definitely use a slower, less aggressive approach. It's winter here, so daylight and heat are not on my side, and I've had bad results with outdoor retrobrighting with the peroxide cream. Short of me ordering an industrial size 50 gallon drum of liguid peroxide, I'm going to stick with cream, wrapped in plastic, in my UV light box. It's certainly possible that the lower temp in my workshop may have caused the redrobright to not be as effective. I originally planned to put a little heater attached to the UV light box to warm it up, but decided against it because I was a bit worried about the risk of a fire. I'll likely do another cleaning round on the darker areas of the case, then another round in the UV box. I'll also be grabbing some of the other top cases and testing other cleaning and retrobrighting methods as I work through the pile. I'll definitely have more cases than working machines when this is all done.

 

[Trash80toG4]

All my MAXELL pulls are in this cork stoppered glass bottle. Been waiting well over five years for the first one to 'splode. Hoping it'll set off a chain reaction in the containment.

BTW, LOVE what you did with that fx board, fabulous!

 

[wottle]

I definitely agree that the Maxells leak the worst of any of the brand Apple used (I have a page here going over them all: https://macdat.net/repair/kb/batteries_macintosh.html). Maxell and Tadiran are the most common in vintage Macs, followed probably by Sonnenschein (the blue ones) and SAFT (the white/black or white/teal ones). Saft appears to be the next worst after Maxell.

I just think it's doing a lot of speculation to suggest that Maxell deliberately cost-cut something when we don't know what went on in their R&D building back in the day - it could have very well been a design element that Maxell thought would extend the life of the battery that ended up making them leak in the long run. Or another problem in the supply chain that didn't have anything to do with them. Or it could be that they cheaped out on something - we don't know. In any case, just get 'em out

If you need more data for your spiciness index, here's a nice lineup of the batteries I've pulled out of these machines, by type. My experience in this batch matches yours. Every single Maxell was in terrible shape. The Safts also did not fare well (at least one survived). The Tadiran batteries did well except for one, and the blue Sonnenschein actually did the best - no leakage in any. (I think there was some rust transfer from the holder on a couple) There was one that was in such bad shape I couldn't even tell what it had been. It may be black, or maybe just turned black...

I wanted to get the Quadra 650 opened since it could be a fill in for my Quadra 800, so I opened it up, removed the battery, and all looked good. It powered on and I got video out, so hopeful I can clean it up and use the logic board in the Q800 case if needed. The awesome surprise when I opened it up was yet another PC Card. This one was a Reply board with an extension to work in the Q800/Q650 case, and it has a Cyrix 586 CPU.

I didn't get a chance to test it, but it looked to be in decent shape. I think it would be very cool to have a Quadra 800 with a 586 in it. So that will be my goal for that machine.

 

[3lectr1c]

I'd love to use that photo on the page - thanks for posting! I think I'm going to adjust the Tadiran to a 2/5 and the Sonnenscheins to a 1.5/5. I can't ID that completely destroyed battery from the photo either. Could you post a closer up photo (or photos?) - I'm just curious.

 

[Volvo242GT]

If you need more data for your spiciness index, here's a nice lineup of the batteries I've pulled out of these machines, by type. My experience in this batch matches yours. Every single Maxell was in terrible shape. The Safts also did not fare well (at least one survived). The Tadiran batteries did well except for one, and the blue Sonnenschein actually did the best - no leakage in any. (I think there was some rust transfer from the holder on a couple) There was one that was in such bad shape I couldn't even tell what it had been. It may be black, or maybe just turned black...

View attachment 18998


I wanted to get the Quadra 650 opened since it could be a fill in for my Quadra 800, so I opened it up, removed the battery, and all looked good. It powered on and I got video out, so hopeful I can clean it up and use the logic board in the Q800 case if needed. The awesome surprise when I opened it up was yet another PC Card. This one was a Reply board with an extension to work in the Q800/Q650 case, and it has a Cyrix 586 CPU.

View attachment 18999

I didn't get a chance to test it, but it looked to be in decent shape. I think it would be very cool to have a Quadra 800 with a 586 in it. So that will be my goal for that machine.

Cool that it works... That should be a nice system once you're done. Re: the shielding, I think some people have done that. I'm not sure if that'll cause your monitor to start looking like it has an internal earthquake going on, or if it'll cause radio interference, but, worth a shot.

Battery that's too destroyed almost looks like another Maxell from what I can see written on it. So far, I've yet to see a Varta CR14250 in sad shape (in fact, my IIgs still has its original battery in good working order). Probably because they're a different lithium composition, hence the CR instead of the LS identifier used on newer lithium batteries.

 

[ScutBoy]

Your IIfx has the same weirdness as mine: All of the SMD caps are tantalum except for those two electrolytics over by the RAM slots.

That's the way mine was when I got it.

 

[wottle]

That's the way mine was when I got it.

So, I decided to do some more testing with the board and tried to power it on. A component started glowing, then popped. Turns out it was one of those tantalums (the one at C1). It popped good, and ripped loose a pad when doing so.

Fortunately, it appears they designed the board to accept tantalums or electrolytic for many of the caps. So, I removed the fragments of the tantalum, cleaned it up, tried to glue down the original cap's pad, and then replaced it with an organic polymer cap on the other sets of pads. After replacing, the PSU seemed to power on fine, but I hadn't plugged in anything speaker wise. So I plugged in a speaker I had lying around and I got a chime! I will definitely be recapping the PSU, but it seems, at least for now, that the logic board is booting. Grabbed a video card and it booted up just fine. Now I need to recap the PSUs.

Really need to figure out how to bulk order my caps so I can try to keep the costs down. I have a bunch of 47uF 16v caps so many of the logic boards I can start tackling, but the PSUs are such a hassle to determine all the caps because there's such a variety of brands for many models.

 

[wottle]

I'd love to use that photo on the page - thanks for posting! I think I'm going to adjust the Tadiran to a 2/5 and the Sonnenscheins to a 1.5/5. I can't ID that completely destroyed battery from the photo either. Could you post a closer up photo (or photos?) - I'm just curious.

Feel free to use it. Or I can try to take a better photo once I’ve gotten through all the machines.

I’ll also try to grab some better photos of the black one. There’s actually a hole in the side because it was fused to the battery holder and the flathead punctured it as I was prying it loose.

 

[Volvo242GT]

That's the way mine was when I got it.

And both of the ones I've had.