MacRock

by moose

not a real hack on the true sense of the word as no macs were actually harmed in the creation of the 'MacRock', just a new set of clothes for, what would have otherwise been, another beige box in the studio...

to create your 'MacRock' :

step 1 : look in your cupboard for an old beige machine - you must have one somewhere! if not then just log on to eBay & get a pm7300/200 160mb/2gb for less than $60... it is possible if you are patient & bid in the last 10 seconds like i did!

step 2 : take out all the buttons, lights etc that you don't want grey - you want to be able to see the lights & on switch don't you? spray the machine with undercoat - in my case a grey sandable primer by rust-oleum. **remember that 2 thin layers is better than 1 thick one**

step 3 : after that has dried, apply a thin coat of your chosen colour - in my case 'american accents - stone creation' by rust-oleum. apply a second coat later to get a weird stone speckled effect on the surface... remember that the cd tray must come out of the box so its probably best not to spray the cd-tray itself or the inside of the bezel if you are using 3d paint like the stone effect here. leave it as the undercoat and it'll look fine

step 4 : leave to dry overnight (probably best to start to drink some beer at this point) and your machine *should* look like this...

i even sprayed a micropolis scsi mini tower...

...and if you do it properly even the caps lock light on the keyboard will still work.

if you want to go a bit mental i know that there are a large colour range of speckled paints available - even purple! the grey in this case was actually chosen as the studio will be getting a grey coat itself very soon, and the covering on the box is very rough - will withstand minor scratches quite easily.

in case you're wondering, this pm7300 has been fitted with a LynxOne pci audio card and i'm using it as a 24-bit replacement for my 16-bit DAT machines in the private studio - pigpen digital 8. the LynxOne allows me to run a cable from the AES-EBU output on the yamaha 02r into bias peak to keep a fully digital signal path.