Powermac G5 Bench / shelf

[wottle]

I saw someone on reddit recently posted a picture of a bench in a school with two Powermac G5 towers as the base. I needed some more storage space for my Macs, and had two non-working G5s, and some woodworking tools. I really liked the idea to route the edges of the wood to fit in the curves of the metal legs of the G5.

So, for anyone wondering, the curve seems to best match a 1" radius round-over router bit. The 1.25" bit wasn't quite right, and the 1" ended up working very close to the actual metal. I used cedar because I thought it would be easy to use such a large bit with and I like the rustic look when finished.

Here's some pictures of the end result:

 

[retr01]

So, @wottle, those G5 Macs are just cases, nothing inside, right? Nice that it is in front of the fireplace!

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

Love it. Back in my late 20's, I had a blueberry imacg3 propped straight up on its end with the crt straight up looking through a glass top side table. I used it this way purely to stream stations though itunes with the puck mouse right on the glass.

Nerds would pay real money for that IMO. Or maybe just fabricating the boards and selling those to folks who have multiple powermac g5s or cmps.

 

[wottle]

Pe

So, @wottle, those G5 Macs are just cases, nothing inside, right? Nice that it is in front of the fireplace!

One holds the innards of a water cooled on that had so much corrosion ships were just falling off the board. The other powers on with no boot chime. I likely should have stripped the internal parts to make them less of a pain to move around, but they are still filled. Fireplace setting is just continuing my tradition of setting them up in the main living area until my wife tells me they need to go to my vintage Mac room...

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

I had a dream about these stacked on top of each other as a retro shelf of sorts - like 10 minutes ago lol & it woke me up. Weird dream in that I don’t remember too much about it other than I was a predator, my wife (who was normal) was giving birth to our child & there was a naughty alien in the hospital air duct hat I needed to dispatch … and yeah there was this shelf in the room for some reason. Weirdest part was I grabbed the alien and crushed its head with my hand & it’s acid blood misted my forearm & I recall the sensation of the acid as kind of like a mix of pins & needles & when you get oven cleaner on you. Anyhow, Shook it off & went back inside the room to meet my new baby.

It’s too early for a Sunday so I’m going back to sleep lol

 

[billedluh]

I saw someone on reddit recently posted a picture of a bench in a school with two Powermac G5 towers as the base. I needed some more storage space for my Macs, and had two non-working G5s, and some woodworking tools. I really liked the idea to route the edges of the wood to fit in the curves of the metal legs of the G5.

So, for anyone wondering, the curve seems to best match a 1" radius round-over router bit. The 1.25" bit wasn't quite right, and the 1" ended up working very close to the actual metal. I used cedar because I thought it would be easy to use such a large bit with and I like the rustic look when finished.

Here's some pictures of the end result:

This Looks good. I've been wanting to try this since I have half of the parts taking up space already. Did you feel the need to reinforce it at all or just assume the box is beefy enough for two people to sit on?

 

[wottle]

This Looks good. I've been wanting to try this since I have half of the parts taking up space already. Did you feel the need to reinforce it at all or just assume the box is beefy enough for two people to sit on?

The G5's are pretty sturdy. If you did need to re-inforce, I'd say the only part that would need it would be the bottom legs. maybe put some wooden blocks cut to size. The downside is you'd be able to see the wood from the front and back.

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

The G5's are pretty sturdy. If you did need to re-inforce, I'd say the only part that would need it would be the bottom legs. maybe put some wooden blocks cut to size. The downside is you'd be able to see the wood from the front and back.

Definitely good advice. If I sat on that, I’d squish the G5s poor little legs like an accordion without tight wood inserts.