iMac removable screen - 2012-2020 hardware mod

[eexodus]

I miss the iMacs of 2009-2011. Despite their high GPU failure rates they were easy to get in to and upgrade. Specifically upgrading hard drives with SSDs. It is not an impossible task with 2012-2020 iMacs, but its sort of a one-and-done thing. You can really only remove and replace the adhesive tape like twice before the glue build up becomes hard to reassemble. Have a user that needs to upgrade from 250 GB to 500 GB, then 500 GB to 1 TB? Not really feasible. Forget to clip off the excess adhesive near the bottom mic of the 2017+ models? Time to get scraping.

I'm wondering if anyone has tried to create a hardware mod that tries to replicate the magnetic screen removal of the 2009-2011 models? Or even just a sleek looking 'dock' like mechanism that could physically hold the display in place. I wouldn't expect the hardware mod to create a flat surface like it comes from the factory, but as long as it can securely keep the screen held in place despite its weight (especially with the 27-inch models) then I see some real usefulness out of the ability to remove the screen without dealing with adhesive every time. With the popularity of 3D printers I imagine it wouldn't be too difficult to design a brace-face to hold the display in-place without adhesive. I would buy one!

 

[TwoH]

The screens can be a real pain to take apart when they have bad third party tape applied to them, yeah.
But if you have some good foam-type tapes very similar to Apple Original, then you can very easily take the screens off as many times as you’d want without any issue

 

[dcmaccam]

If I ever have the need to remove the screen of my iMac I am going to try a small bead of silicon. That should hold it on and be not too difficult to remove.

 

[maerz001]

If I ever have the need to remove the screen of my iMac I am going to try a small bead of silicon. That should hold it on and be not too difficult to remove.

Silicon is very hard to remove. and on top of the old silicon film new one does not stick

 

[dcmaccam]

I would not put it all the way round, just a couple of beads. Probably would not expect to have to remove it more than once or twice. Won’t be doing this till my warranty runs out.