I really like to look at repurposing sites, of furniture, clothes and now computer scrap. Lately Apple owners have gone nuts with the old imac, which isn't very functional anymore, but is fondly remembered. I have 2. One was my first Apple computer and the other is from Goodwill. The Goodwill one hardly worked to start with and was loaded with nothing much but games I didn't know how to play. So I started pulling apart the keyboard to see if I could make one of those iMac clocks. People use one side of the keyboard, drill a hole thru the center and attach the clock -- using a clock kit from a hobby shop.


Macs are really well made! It took all day, in breaks from work, to take that little keyboard apart. It's heavier than the usual PC keyboard, partly because inside is a steel plate. A plastic plate with "anatomy" to support all the keys was attached to the steel plate with an absolute constellation of tiny screws. It also had tiny rubber things under every single key to keep them bouncy. Then there was a circuitboard at the top.

The clock is made just using the bottom of the keyboard -- the colored plastic piece with the big apple on it. The keyboard has a kickstand on back, but I didn't like that there, so I managed to snap it off and reattach it on the other side. So my clock (when it becomes a clock) can stand up.

But I realized then it means the hands of the clock have to be really short. I'll have to take a clock kit and cut the hands down.

By the time I got the plastic piece stripped, I was tired and put it aside after cleaning everything. The inside was filthy. I soaked and disinfected all the little plastic keys, which I may use for jewelry.

Maybe tomorrow I'll be able to get the clock kit. However, I'm uncertain of my ability to drill holes neatly in plastic in the exact spot I want -- and the hole has to be made in the very center of the apple. I'll practice on some other plastic things, and decide. It might become something else.

And now I know I will absolutely not be breaking down the other part of the computer, which would take me about a century. I'll sell it to someone else who wants to make it into an aquarium or something...