Dan FitzGerald

Last night, I got an amazing suprise! I was working at a Hackerspace when somebody gave me this little guy out of the blue. It's a Mac 128K, produced around June, 1984, with the Mac Plus 1MB conversion kit!

It needs a little love, but it's the appropriate next difficulty level for me -- case needs to be cleaned and retrobrighted (which I dont know how to do yet), there is some light surface rust and corrosion on the frame, some rust and corrosion on the board, and it needs to be recapped. It even still has the original electrolytics in its' video circuitry (and boy are they _shot_). The case yellowing indicates that this was used with a Kensington System Saver, and that may be coming to me as well!

I got all of this simply because I mentioned that I needed a new flyback transformer for my 512Ke and this was going to become a fish tank. However, now I need a flyback for my 512Ke _and now_ a cap kit for this little guy 🥰

Dec 3, 2022 at 12:43amWeb
Show threadLikesOldMacsDec 3, 2022
@d_j_fitzgerald that's awesome!! I hope you can get it running again 😁
Show threadAshDec 3, 2022
Whew, great surprise!
Show threadPup ArlenDec 3, 2022
@d_j_fitzgerald Exciting! I know it may be difficult due to the size, but I’d caution against the peroxide cream/Saran wrap method of retrobriting - that large of a surface makes streaking or splotching more likely. I’d try the submersion method - although I’m not completely convinced that the UV component matters. I think the heat generated in the typical process does more - I’ve wondered for a while if peroxide with a sous vide heater might work just as well or better 🤔
Show threadkolliDec 3, 2022
@d_j_fitzgerald nice! Free gifts are always welcome and an enjoyable surprise. You don't get them very often. My best free items were a EACA Video Genie computer from 1981 and a (Intel) Mac Mini from 2006 so far.
Show threadDan FitzGeraldDec 3, 2022
@kolli when I announced at work that I was going to my first Vintage Computer Fest East, a random hardware logic designer messaged me on Slack and gave me her mint condition original Macintosh that she had lovingly saved in the original box and packing materials. Every styrofoam insert, every cardboard sleeve, every manual, every audio casette.
Show threadDan FitzGeraldDec 3, 2022
@kolli she gave me everything but her original sales receipt, which she held on to for sentimental reasons. She gave me a color copy of it though.
Show threadDan FitzGeraldDec 3, 2022
@kolli _that_ was the best free Macintosh. Even if you cant actually _do_ anything with it (the original Mac was a groundbreaking but useless machine... 4 applications and 128K of RAM? Thanks, Steve...)
Show threadCharlieGDec 3, 2022
@kolli @d_j_fitzgerald You can do some work on it. My grandfather wrote a book on his. You need disk-based MacWrite or WriteNow or Word though, and a second drive.
Show threadDan FitzGeraldDec 3, 2022
@CharlesMGascoigne @kolli those I have. The original owner wrote her Master's thesis on it
Show threadPhilip of MastodonDec 3, 2022
@d_j_fitzgerald My first work computer. Ecstatic when I got the Ram expansion. Allowed Multifinder finally
Show threadDan FitzGeraldDec 3, 2022
@prsturgeon I have so many Mac compatible RAM DIMMs that when I am done with this thing, its going to be a 4MB Plus
Show threadPhilip of MastodonDec 3, 2022
@d_j_fitzgerald You, sir, have godlike powers
Show threadDan FitzGeraldDec 3, 2022
@prsturgeon don't thank me, thank the IBM PC/AT RAM expansion card that takes _almost_ similar chips that I desperately was trying to fully populate.
Show threadPhilip of MastodonDec 3, 2022
@d_j_fitzgerald A few years later, when my boss gave me a Mac II with 2.5 megabytes of RAM and a 20 megabyte hard drive, I told him I would never ask for a faster machine. He held me to it for quite a while.
Show threadALDec 3, 2022
@d_j_fitzgerald I think I have something like this in my attic. I picked it up along side the road one day. I thought it was cool because I had bought one years ago for real money. I also was going to make a mac #fishTank but never got to that project.
Show threadDan FitzGeraldDec 3, 2022

@mral never make the fish tank unless the machine is unsalvageable. This little guy, if you plug it in and turn it on has video seusires. It looks awful, but it's likely that it only needs a simple recap of the electrolytics in the famously overtaxed video system.

I'd save the fish tanks for an SE, SE/30, Classic, or Classic II that has suffered a full-blown Varta lithium ion battery corrosion.

Show threadALDec 3, 2022
@d_j_fitzgerald thanks for the tip. my house sorta a #technologyMuseum. I have old ibm stuff. I used to work for IBM before the layoff in 94. soon I will be down sizing, once I get over my cupidity towards this stuff.
Show threadCharlieGDec 3, 2022
@d_j_fitzgerald so good. There’s something about the first Macs — no words on the front, the little keyboard, the warm brownish colour. Love them.
Show threadTommy ÞDec 3, 2022
@d_j_fitzgerald OMG, turning that into fish tank would be a sin. Retro bright, I have done it many times but there are concerns that it makes the plastic more brittle. Also, note, I managed to get a (not too bad) chemical burn from a case that had been rinsed and dried!! I didn’t know that was possible.
Show threadRicardusDec 4, 2022

@d_j_fitzgerald you don't need to buy a cap kit from some phony YouTuber whose trying to make money off you by overcharging for their "kits." Just go to mouser and do an order. If you have questions just ask on here.

It's super easy.