Macro Black

CD Drive In

The CD drive front was made from the standard ClearPC single bay drive cover, bought as an extra. To make it fit, the side pieces were cut off with a hacksaw. Removing the side pieces left a small stub which was sanded flush using 1000 grit wet and dry paper. Once flush, any marks were polished out using Brasso metal polish.



A1mm hole was then drilled into the back of the panel to accommodate a short length of fibre optic to transmit the light from the drives activity led. Because the panel is transparent it is easy to find and mark the position for the hole. I used a CD marker pen for marking the plastic. The marker will not rub off in your fingers but is easily polished away afterwards.

Looking closely you will notice the hole is only drilled about two thirds of the panel depth and not right through the panel. This was to retain a completely flush front surface. Before painting the back of the panel the fibre optic was replaced with a dummy piece to prevent the paint filling the hole. Once the paint had dried the dummy was replaced with the original fibre optic.



An eject button actuator was made from a rubber foot and double sided sticky backed foam pad. The foam pad came as part of an old mouse house kit, (Remember them?), and was intended to stick the house to the side of a monitor. The foam sticks well and has just the right amount of flexability needed.

The finished front panel was affixed to the CD tray using two layers cut from the mouse house sticky pad. Here you can also see the fibre optic for the activity led indicated by the red arrow.



The standard green activity LED was replaced with a modern blue one. Here the original CD drive frontage has been removed and discarded. The finished panel fitted and lit up showing drive activity. In this picture the floppy drive front is also in place. How that was done comes next...