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Comment by crazygringo | Hacker News Reader

> The PLA filament (PLA is short for polylactic acid) allows hobbyists to 3D-print nostalgic novelties, replacement parts, and accessories that match the original color of vintage Apple computers.

> Over time, original Macintosh plastics have become brittle and discolored with age, so matching the "original" color can be a somewhat challenging and subjective experience.

So it seems like the color is for 3D-printing stuff to look "new"?

Makes me wonder if there will be a "thirty years discolored" version as well, if you want to print a piece to replace something broken... or can you just leave it out in the sun for a couple weeks or something?

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> Makes me wonder if there will be a "thirty years discolored" version as well, if you want to print a piece to replace something broken... or can you just leave it out in the sun for a couple weeks or something?

Would probably just need to make this part of a build loop where you send it through a high intensity light/heat cycle such as when they beat up jeans for purchase by people who buy those.

"Would you prefer the color tone of the 1977 Apple II or perhaps a 1980 Apple III?"

Nitpick: the "Platinum" color in question was part of the "Snow White" design language introduced in 1984 (and originally using a different color before switching to Platinum) so this is the wrong filament for emulating the color of 1977 or 1980 Apple products.

I don't think you can assume that this color-matched material will discolor with age in the same way that the original material did.

Yeah, especially since this plastic here is PLA and not ABS, and also the yellowing apparently comes from the brominated flame retardant added to it.

A lot of the yellowing of vintage 1980s era Macs comes from their spending their early life installed in smoking-allowed workplaces.

That's okay though; in that case it can just be cleaned off. Better, the residue probably protects it from UV damage, so the plastic underneath is probably not in terrible shape.

> or can you just leave it out in the sun for a couple weeks or something?

I actually don't know if there's a good source for this, but I've heard that the yellow discoloration caused by UV rays actually happens because of the specific way that window glass is filtering the UV spectrum unevenly; that would at least partly explain why retrobrighting, where you literally put things out in the sun or expose them to UV-C light directly, seems to actually work, and some people claim that even just leaving yellowed plastic out in the sun with no cover also works to an extent.

Usually they leave it in the sun with retrobrite applied (which I believe is pretty much just hydrogen peroxide)

Yeah. I've done this a few times with plain old hydrogen peroxide. However, I also really do wonder if the hydrogen peroxide is even needed... it seems to help, but it's unclear. It's frustrating how unscientific retrobrighting is; it clearly works but it's so weirdly spotty that it's hard to conclude anything, with effort it usually works to some degree but when it does and doesn't work is a mystery (and people often mistake accidentally bleaching the parts for success, which muddies things even worse.)

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