I Tried Making the First-Ever Transparent Magic Mouse…

What would a Magic Mouse look like if you could see straight through the top?

Apple's smooth white shell hides the hardware underneath. I wanted to make it transparent, but getting that clear finish turned into a much bigger job than simply removing some paint.

The Magic Mouse before the clear-shell modification.

Getting Started: There Was a Lot of Glue

The first job was getting inside. There was a lot of glue in the mouse, and removing it still left the touchpad to get to.

Under the top was an orange flexible circuit board. In the video, I describe it as having more than 130 capacitive touch sensors. That is the layer that detects your fingers on the mouse's surface.

Opening the mouse reveals the orange touch circuit.

The flexible touch circuit separated from the top shell.

The orange layer was strongly adhered too, but I managed to get it off. Then I could try making the shell clear.

Scratching Off the Paint Wasn't Enough

With the touch layer off, I tried scratching away the paint to make the shell clear. Then I found it was made of acrylic. That attempt was not going to work.

The first attempt was to scratch away the coating.

Next, I tried the laser machine.

The Laser Almost Worked

The laser left the shell almost clear. Unfortunately, it was also slightly burnt.

The laser attempt to remove the coating.

The shell after the laser attempt.

So I started from scratch, this time using sandpaper.

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Back to Sandpaper and Polish

Using sandpaper, I managed to remove most of the paint. Then I applied polish and got everything ready to put back together.

With everything ready, I put the mouse back together. Technically, it worked. The white top was now transparent enough to see the orange touch circuit underneath.

Working on the shell during the sanding and polishing stage.

The reassembled shell reveals the orange touch circuit underneath.

But the finished result did not look good at all. The exposed orange circuit, imperfections in the acrylic and the rough overall finish made it look more like a prototype than an upgrade. The reveal was supposed to be the payoff, but the result made it pretty clear this was not an improvement in looks.

Final Thoughts

The transparent Magic Mouse does not look good at all. The exposed orange touch circuit, cloudy acrylic and rough finish make the whole thing look more like a prototype than something Apple would ever ship.

Still, that was the point of trying it. After all the glue, scratching, laser damage, sanding and polishing, at least now we know what a transparent Magic Mouse actually looks like.