Modding The Real Wood iPod -by ZapWizard

[ZapWizard]

Ok this has been a fun side project for me.

I have had a 20GB 4th gen iPod since they came out, but I have never liked the white finish.

As part of Project Redwood (Check my website) I am also applying a wood finish to just about everything on my desk to have a matching set. And the iPod was not excluded.

To view a gallery of all these images click the link below:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zapwiza...s/476089/show/

Please read the thread before posting questions.

[ZapWizard]

First off the original iPod:



Note the white click wheel that was made to replace the gray wheel.
The dock was painted black, as it will sit inside a wooden cover. (not yet made)

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First the iPod was taken apart.
To do this; follow a guide on a battery replacement website.

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Once I had the shell seperated I could start to work on the new faceplate.

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I did not want to simply apply a wood veneer, or a fake finish to the iPod. I wanted to use real wood. To do this I needed to carefully carve out a duplicate faceplate out of a raw piece of wood.

The wood I am using is African Padauk. It is a high quality hardwood that is very easy to work with, and naturaly red in color.

[ZapWizard]

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This entire project was done by hand using a Dremel rotary tool.

First the edges of the wood were curved using a router attachement.

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Next, the wheel was traced out in the proper place and cut out.

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Then the hole for the screen was measured and cut out.
I did this by first drilling holes to remove the bulk of the material.

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An exact duplicate. (well as exact as can be done by hand)

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By far the hardest part was carving out the back of the faceplate.
The final thickness was only 2mm thick.
During this process the wood split four times, and was glued back using gorilla glue.
The thick piece at the top of the wood is actualy just done drying in this photograph.

[ZapWizard]

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Next a new screen has to be fabricated.
This was done using a piece of lexan plastic, and was hand cut by dremel to fit the hole in the wood.
It took two attempts to get a peice that fit well.

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In order to get the glossy finish that would approximate the finish on a normal ipod I coated the wood with three coats of Envirotex Lite.
The dust cover in this photo touched the coating while it was setting and that area was sanded off before the final coat.

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A click wheel and select button were then cut out of African Padauk Veneer and given the same treatment. They are different in color as the veneer came from a different peice of wood.

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[ZapWizard]

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The iPod was the carefully fitted back together. It is still fully functional.
Hot-glue was used to hold the LCD and Click-wheel PCB onto the wood.

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The iPod fits together nearly as perfect as before.
A little hot-glue was used to fill any gaps.

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I used a very thin and strong double-sided tape to hold the click wheel and select button in place.
Also a good air-less contact is nessicary to ensure that the touch-sensativity of the click wheel is preserved though the thicker coating on top.

[ZapWizard]

Some final eye candy:







To view a gallery of all these images click the link below:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zapwiza...s/476089/show/

[Rocket733]

Wow, that's insane. I'm impressed, love the wood.

[notatoad]

that is incredible. does the top have plastic clips to hold it in place, or is it all wood?

[ZapWizard]

Originally Posted by supertoad

that is incredible. does the top have plastic clips to hold it in place, or is it all wood?

Check out the image and you tell me.
http://photos17.flickr.com/20390457_1c4d5c7b43_o.jpg

About half of them broke off due to my poor planning on the first coat of envirotex, but they hold the face on. I did use a bit of hot-glue to fill in some gaps as it is hand-made and has a few nicks.

O*F*F

T*H*A

H*O*O*K

Sweeet work Zap

[Gascan1888]

By far the greatest I-pod mod EVER !!!

[Snood]

...... so mass production of these starts when!? i'll be first in the queue!!..... seriously though, this is amazing and i'm sure there would actually be a market for wooden modded iPods.

Snood

[CaseyBlackburn]

Very Awesome Zap.

[guy]

thats awesome, as previously posted best ipod mod.

[toidiochysp]

that is so sweet, words cant describe how cool that is.

[woodshop]

you know if you had plained the surface flat you wouldn't have gotten that bit in the corner from the beading bit.

sry just had to find something had to defend my name :P) Tis really nice though this project remined me i wanted to vineer my keyboard like you did with the other project. I must say i'm not all to crasy about the suttle color change for the buttons.. i would've went more drastic with maybe some Rosewood, Bolivian or Bocote if i was goin to be a bit on the crazy side.

[Noot]

Great work. It looks awesome.

[frodo]

Looks AMAZING, want do to that for my samsung yh-920 aka "the ipod killer" lol

im impressed that you did that all by hand! shows some real skillz!

[rewris]

wow mang. Much respect to you. that was very, very well done

[TekMonkey]

That looks amazing.

I was actually going to link to this in the ipodlounge forums, but I see you already have.