There’s nothing fairly just like the utilitarian brilliance of traditional IBM ThinkPad laptops, impressed by Japanese bento containers and beloved for his or her toughness. And none is so beloved because the ThinkPad 701 series from 1995. With its two-part fold-out keyboard that squeezes a full-sized typing floor right into a design beneath 10 inches broad, it’s an unmistakable traditional. But it’s virtually 30 years outdated, so good luck utilizing it for something besides Space Cadet Pinball.

Enter modder Karl Buchka. This fan of the unique design took a damaged ThinkPad 701C and changed its motherboard with the one from the Framework Laptop, a modular design that’s turn out to be all the fashion in maker and right-to-repair circles. In a modding mission that’s taken six months to finish, Buchka has made the 701C’s housing and keyboard/Trackpoint mouse work with the Framework’s trendy Intel guts, together with USB-C, USB-A, and gigabit Ethernet ports, plus Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. His mission was noticed by Tom’s Hardware.

Because the 701C’s 640×480 LCD display leaves one thing to be desired by trendy requirements, Buchka took his mod one step additional and changed it with the display panel from an iPad 7, related to the motherboard through an inside eDisplayPort adaper. The fold-out “butterfly” keyboard and its Trackpoint mouse are plugged right into a Teensy microcontroller working QMK. It seems just like the construct makes use of a Framework laptop computer battery, too.

So far the modder has needed to create a brand new decrease case and hinge bracket through 3D printing to be able to make all of it match within the ThinkPad’s authentic dimensions. When the mod is in its remaining iteration, he says he’ll publish the design information on Github for others to emulate.