[dwsutton]

Well I finished putting a apple logo on my Mini 9. I bought a used laptop lid on ebay and then using a heat gun removed the plastic logo. using the old lid as a template, marked the edges then using a dremel tool with a cutting adapter ( like a router base ) and a carbide bit cut out the design. 1200 grit sandpaper to the small remaining silver Dell logo then polish. I have gotten many comments

David[attachment=0:2a8qkj0t]macphoto.jpg[/attachment:2a8qkj0t]

[UnaClocker]

Sweet. Doing that without a laser is definitely hard core. Good job.

[mechdrew]

How did you get it to glow? Does it automatically do that when you remove the plastic, or was there a film you had to remove from the LED first?

[Suasexed]

Looks good in the smaller pic, but when you enlarge it is looks rather dodgy... :? Good attempt though!

[dwsutton]

Originally Posted by mechdrew

How did you get it to glow? Does it automatically do that when you remove the plastic, or was there a film you had to remove from the LED first?

Yes, the glow is from the back of the led screen. There is really two layers - a foam type of sticker and the foil on the back of the case. It also has a sticker that I removed but Im not sure if that would have shown up or not. The cutout was perfect until I buffed it with too stiff a buffing wheel and it slightly enlarged the right edge but not enough to notice unless you were looking REALLY close. Live and learn. with the attachment on the dremel it is not that difficult. If you take your time it would be perfect. If I was to do it again I would set the old lid on the top and mark it with a sharpie on the outline which makes it easier to determine what to remove and what to leave alone. The hardest part was taking the mini apart and reassembling it after cutting the hole.

[Prime]

Very cool. If I can get my hands on an Ice Blue lid I am going to do the same thing. Bravo.

[Eligos]

Sounds like it was quite the job there. Impressive!

[mechdrew]

Okay, sounds simple enough. So is the back of the LED just exposed or did you put any kind of protection on it? Like on real Macs they put a transparent plastic apple there. I was thinking of either slipping a thin layer of plastic there or finding some kind of clear acrylic to paint over it (as well as help remove edges.)

[Reno_apple]

If anyone wants to laser out their logo I've attached a DXF of the cut profile. I haven't tried this on plastic yet but did do a test cut on sheet metal (and it worked pretty good). I hope to cut my dell mini lid at the end of next week but should have some data early next week on a plastic cut. I am going to do some test cuts on my old Macbook lid. One word of advise if you're going to cut this on a laser I'd recommend having the laser start in the center of the cut rather on an edge. As you can see from the photo the edge isn't quite right where the laser started. The apple logo is installed in the sheet metal.
http://rapidshare.com/files/211876829/Apple_Logo.dxf

-Chris

[Prime]

Thx for the DXF. If/when I get a new lid for this thing I'll pass it on to whoever I get to do the cut. Much appreciated.