- Peeling Back the Mac
- Adding More Logos
- Filling in the Holes
- Applying Some Color
- The Results
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Filling in the Holes
After I finished the cuts, my Mac lid looked like Figure 5 and Figure 6.
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Figure 5 The final cut job (inside)
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Figure 6 The final cut job (outside)
At this point, I had to figure out a way to fill in the holes. After browsing the hallways of the local Wal-Mart for anything that had the same opaque look as the Mac logo, I finally decided on a cheap plastic container that had a moderately hard plastic bottom. I purchased it and returned to the "shop" to continue my efforts. Using the lid as my stencil, I created several small pieces of paper that were the exact size and shape of the newly created lid holes. Using the paper stencils for guidance, I next started cutting away at the plastic container with the dremel. Again, I had to be careful not to melt the plastic as I shaped the filler pieces.
After a about an hour of working the plastic pieces, I created a rough draft of the inserts. I tested each piece in the hole with the lid upside down and carefully shaved away any edges that remained. Thankfully, all five pieces (four flags and one penguin) fit in the holes almost perfectly!
The final step was to seal the filler piece into the hole with some super glue. I found the Crazy Glue Gel to work rather well; however, you will need to be careful because this type of glue does change the opaqueness of the plastic a bit. If you look carefully at Figure 7, you can see that the edges vary a bit in their "white" shade.
I resealed the lid back onto the Mac and took a look. With the lights on it looked pretty good. However, with the lights off I realized I had underestimated the light blocking capability of the lid. As a result, there was a square halo around each of the new logos due to light bleeding through the square cuts in the tin shield. After thinking about it for a moment, I decided that some electrical tape would quickly and efficiently block this light. So I placed a few larger pieces around the logos on the inside of the lid and then cut some roughly shaped pieces in the middle for the details. Figure 7 and Figure 8 provide shots of the modified lid.
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Figure 7 White logo with lights on
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Figure 8 White logo with lights off
Note that there is a darker part on the lower-left side of the Windows flag. This is a result of a wire strip that runs up the back side of the LCD, as Figure 9 illustrates. If you are considering a modification to your Mac, be sure to account for this wire! Unfortunately, I noticed this wire a bit too late to move the hole.
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Figure 9 LCD back side