Hardware Hacking Projects for Geeks

25

2

How to Build an

Aquarium Inside

a Macintosh

What You Need

• An old Mac (the “all-in-one”

beige box)

• Plexiglas sheets

• Fish tank accessories

• A few hand tools

• Fish

• Other items listed in

Exhibit A

How to Build an

Aquarium Inside

a Macintosh

One of the best-looking personal computers yet designed is the original

Apple Macintosh. It not only had one of the most innovative user interfaces

of its time, it also had a very unique and friendly-looking case design. This

was a computer that bordered on “art.” Well, that old Mac you once used is

probably in the garage now or buried in some closet never to be powered on

again, so why not turn it into something useful?

In this hack, I’ll show you how to turn your old Macintosh into a working

aquarium. You’ll remove the electronics from the Mac and craft your own

Plexiglas fish tank, customized to fit snugly inside the case. When you’re

finished, you’ll have an aquarium and a new use for an old computer. Since

you’ll be removing all the components from inside the Mac, these plans will

work fine even if your Mac is broken.

This hack is easy to complete and should take no more than a weekend to

build, once you have all the supplies.

I would like to thank Jim Lower for providing the basic plans from his web

site: http://www.techquarium.com/.

And, after some research, it appears that Andy Ihnatko was the first to build

and document a Macquarium. He is a Mac pundit and runs this web site:

http://www.cwob.com/.

Cost

Time

Difficulty

$50–100

a weekend

easy

Credits

Photographs and portions of the text in this

chapter copyright © 2003 Jim Lower.

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