You probably don't know much about filing, but there is no reason it would be any less accurate than CNC if done properly.
Also doubt this would affect strength, given the apparent thickness behind it, really depends on the interior, which is almost certainly also rounded for strength, and to prevent a week point for cracks to start.
You can get uniform curvature when filing. Ever hear of filing buttons? Or checking your work with a radius tool until you are in compliance? Stop talking about what filing can't do if you don't know anything about filing.
Really? Co-worker 4 is just repeating a pun. Using "sharpe" to mix the meanings of "good looking" and "literally sharpe" is a well known joke. Almost a dad-joke, a joke that's been done so many times that everyone recognizes when it's there to be done, but the person who actually does it out loud will annoy people with their predictability.
Not to well actually your well actually but they’re all anodized to prevent corrosion and scratches (the oxide layer is harder than the underlying aluminum) - the silver one is just undyed.
And in the pictures you can see a clear color difference between the anodized silver body and the exposed aluminum. It's subtle from a distance, but if you zoom in a bit its pretty obvious
You have to grind off the existing Al2O3 protective layer using sandpapers/sandblasters and/or power tools, then ultrasound + acetone wash the parts, then dump it into an acid bath while running electrical current through the pieces. Special dyes can be added for color. Then the pieces are boiled in regular water to further improve durability. The combination of the acid and electricity then boiling cause Al to form beehive shaped surface micropores, and dyes - actually inorganic, so pigments - gets electrically jammed into the pores. The whole outer surface become thick insulating layer of highly chemically resistant and mechanically rigid white/transparent Al2O3 once the process is complete. Voltage, current, waveform, temperature, solution acidity, etc etc affect colors and oxide thickness and shapes and sizes therefore aesthetics as well as durability. "Anodization" refers to this process of electro-acidic-heat formation of the oxide layer, not the coloring. The coloring powder is an extra.
Technically it can be done in a garage, but spot and/or intact application might be difficult. Strict color matching against Apple made things would be impossible.
I have an experiment at work that is generating gaseous hydroflouric acid at 800 degrees F. It's inside a triple containment system that takes a full day to set up and take apart, and we have all sorts of quality checks to validate that it is safe to access and has been fully titrated after the experiment has run. We accidentally ruined a very expensive ion chromatography machine a few weeks ago... Acid gasses are just no fun to work with.
To echo the sibling comment: approximately not, it's a strong acid bath which precludes operating electronics in it, and it's electrochemistry.
People do home anodizing all the time, but colored home anodizing on electronics is very rare.
The way to do it would be wrapping it in, say, a wet paper towel with your strong acid solution (but not sulfuric, because that would turn the paper into pure carbon foam) and running outside current from the laptop through the paper to a cathode, or vice versa.
You really can't fully disassemble current macbooks and put them back together without major tooling - the chassis is not just a wrapper, it's structural to the way they're interconnected, lots of glue and things like that.
This made me smile because in my book this is at every effect impossible, especially if the goal is getting a functioning laptop at the end of the process.
To be clear, it's impossible for me because I lack the knowledge, expertise and tooling to even think about doing it.
Depending on the field you want to gain knowledge it can mean: “famous last words” or “missing body parts”.
Nothing against the spirit of learning and challenge one’s skills. But especially people on YouTube show of quite dangerous things and sell them as everybody can do it. My list here:
Metal / Wood work on a lathe with off center or unbalanced pieces in a 3 jaw chuck.
Playing around with lithium batteries to build bigger battery packs (DYI Perks did this and even though he mentions the dangers of doing that (fire or electric shock) it’s still inspires people to do the same in their living rooms.
Then is playing with chemicals.
Again I’m not saying don’t do it. But one should ease into things not just grab a random set of chemicals and disassemble a laptop and hook up a power supply etc by just following a list from the internet.
Well, it's impossible to me given my natural born level of habilites with this kind of work, and the time I would need to invest to learn how to do it properly. Because it's not just a matter of buying some device and do it, you need to learn by trial and error, add more and more physical tools to your toolbox, have the dedicated space where to store and try all of it safely etc etc
13 year old me who anodised remote control car chassis completely agrees the process is quite simple.
In the context of a MacBook, it’s not. Removing just the aluminium components and leaving everything that doesn’t like baths undamaged is practically impossible for amateurs. I’m not sure it’s something many professionals would take on.
I think it could be possible for the bottom half. The lid would be way, way trickier (unless you have one with a broken screen already and know how to put the new one together).
I’m wondering what custom colours you could do with that process btw!
Practically anything! Vibrant colours work best, and there are techniques to do transitions, fades, and masking to get multiple colours, though I’ve never done those myself.
> Why the dye? I thought anodising's colour comes only from the voltage used, with no dye needed.
That's true for anodization processes for some other metals like titanium and stainless steel, but aluminum is dyed. Also the process is material specific. Anodization for Al is only possible because Al does that unique self organizing micropore thing.
It's pretty common if you have IT and finance teams that are paying attention. Sure a lot of shops let them waste away on a shelf, but that's what it is, waste. If you have fungible inventory that isn't likely to get used soon it is just a mistake it let it sit around unutilized. If it is cash, it is easier to utilize on other projects.
My previous company was overly cost sensitive, but large enough to not notice the waste. IT and procurement managed relationships with the vendor (Lenovo IIRC), and we had the workstations for 3 years officially but most people were 5-6 years. The hardware 100% just went back into storage when we cycled and would be given out to new hires when they joined. We were using Threadrippers with 128GB RAM and NVMe SSDs anyway...
My old mac was supposed to be donated to some place, but they had forgotten me to tell the iCloud lock is still on there. They wrote me on LinkedIn and as they were a good employer, I did unlock it
Ours are on lease, but the leasing company will release some from time to time for auctions at $DAYJOB. I've won 2. Using one, son flipped the other one for a couple hundred dollar profit.
Idk if it's common anymore, but some companies rent equipment rather than purchase it. So they'd have to return everything back to the rental company, who is expecting normal wear and tear, not intentional "customization."
The slight groove that was there on the middle of the base which allowed you to stick your finger to open the top had sharp corners that poked my wrists and i filed them both off on the first, and only, macbook I used in 2014 or so m
I think the main problem is that you lose the surface anodization and might end up with a more frail surface there (surface, the structural integrity is going to suffer but not much I guess)
I love the line “People like to freak out about this, so I wanted to post it here to make sure that everyone who wants to freak out about it gets the opportunity to do so.”
Co-worker 1: Interesting. I wonder if that voids the warranty. It's Apple you know.
Co-worker 2: May Jobs have mercy on their soul...
Co-worker 3: Not a bad idea. But not sure if that would cause problems with structural integrity of the laptop, like if you drop it or something.
Co-worker 4: The only downside I see is that you can no longer say "Hey, that's a sharp-looking laptop!"