How to open a Power Macintosh 61XX Series Case Without Breaking It

 Opening a Power Macintosh 6100 is dangerous.  These machines are of such an age that the plastic tabs on the back of the case break off frequently.  Sadly, I've just broken two more this weekend.

That being said, I was successful at opening to cover on one of these computers without breaking the tabs, I was so excited.

In hindsight, I really wish I'd have used my heat gun to soften the tabs a bit before trying to open the case, but I did come up with another hack that I thought might be worth sharing.  (Or maybe I saw this somewhere else and I'm just not remembering where.)

If you do manage to get the case open, you'll see a couple of hooks that face backwards at the back...

One hook just over the power supply, and one over the Expansion Bay.  A quick few minute with the Dremel and you can zip those right off, as shown below...

The cover is now loose, but gravity will hold the cover down, or whatever you put on top, and there's no longer any danger of breaking the tabs on the cover.