Designer Kevin Noki recently spent several weeks creating his own homemade, functional Macintosh built from the ground up, which he dubbed the "Brewintosh." Designed to look like the Macintosh Plus, the machine Noki crafted features a 3D printed exterior and components, and it works like the real deal.
Watch on YouTubeIn a 47-minute video, Noki walks through the process that he used to create the device. As Ars Technica points out, Noki went completed more than 29 complex steps, each of which was a major task on its own. He started out by measuring every single surface and angle of a Macintosh Plus, modeling it in AutoDesk Fusion 360, and then printing the parts, putting them together, filling gaps, sanding, and texturing.
He modified a 10-inch thrift store screen to have LED backlighting and a dimmer knob, he crafted a power assembly, built in connectors, speakers, and other hardware, and designed a Mini vMac emulator using Linux. The whole process is fascinating to watch.
The Mac Plus is the exact right size and texture, it supports 3.5-inch disks, it supports appropriate Apple keyboards and mice, and has every other detail you would expect from a real Mac. Printing the components took over 48 hours, and the whole project spanned months.
