Recently I talked about the potential of 3D printing to repair, convert and adapt other objects, but it would be crazy of me to ignore its reproduction capability. With that in mind, YouTuber and enthusiast Kevin Noki shared one of the best 3D printing projects I've seen so far. It's called Brewintosh, a replica of the original Macintosh, printed from scratch on a modified Ender 3, and equipped with modern hardware…
Old hardware is increasingly difficult to acquire and maintain. Besides fighting stratospheric prices, users are forced to cannibalize other machines to get parts, or as an alternative, build their own replacements. There's also the possibility of gutting a retro computer and using modern hardware, but those modifications are usually not reversible. Fortunately, Kevin Noki on YouTube decided to take another route: making a complete replica. His platform of choice was the original Macintosh, a great candidate because of its compact format, but Kevin didn't take any shortcuts here…
Brewintosh: A Fantastic 3D-Printed Macintosh
It all started with the purchase of a Macintosh Plus on eBay, which served as a reference for getting the most important measurements. An endless session in Fusion and 48 hours of printing later, Kevin had all the case parts. The post-processing of the pieces was brutal: sanding, filler, twelve hours of waiting, more sanding, metal pins to stabilize the join of the two halves, an overdose of cyanoacrylate, more filler, more sanding, printing and painting. Add to that the reproduction of symbols for the front of the case, and a final texturing, combining opaque and glossy sections.
On the hardware side, Kevin bought a 10-inch LCD monitor with a POS format that is widely used in supermarkets and stores. After disassembling the screen and extracting its guts, he installed a piece of acrylic on the front of the case, trying to simulate the appearance of a CRT tube. Kevin explains that the panel received an LED conversion, and he added a dimmer to the setup to change its brightness manually.
The original plan was to use a Raspberry Pi as the brain of this computer, but the shortage and crazy prices led Kevin to use an HP thin client, purchased for only 12 euros on eBay (much cheaper and more powerful than the average Raspberry Pi, I should add). He also installed USB hubs and card readers, which in turn require power supplies. Kevin modified them all (including the thin client's power input) to reduce their connections to one.
A modified USB floppy drive and an Arduino controller solved the automatic floppy ejection detail, and a special converter (Teensy + Pro Micro) allows the use of ADB keyboards and mice (in addition to the original Mac keyboard). Another interesting detail is the installation of an ATtiny85 to turn on the computer and the screen, as well as play the classic Mac startup sound. On the software side, Linux and the Mini vMac emulator handle the heavy lifting.
In summary, it was several months of work, but the final result is extraordinary. The emulator works perfectly with floppies, and honestly it feels like a real Mac. We hope to see more from Kevin in the future, who seems to have returned to YouTube after a long pause.
Kevin Noki on YouTube: Click here
Source: Tyler McGee via Mastodon
