Altair Fan

[Tony Duell]

> 
> Tony Duell wrote:
> 
> >>harddrives go up on me (Admittingly, IBM DEATHSTARTS), one
> >>motherboard that ate ram for Breakfast!
> > 
> > 
> > Now, you see, I'd have wanted to figure out what was wrong with said 
> > motherboard _before_ it damaged more than one set of RAMs.
> 
> Hang on though, a motherboard is a cheap(-ish) off-the-shelf component.
> What do you do if a bearing goes bad?  Do you buy a new bearing, or do 
> you build up the track with weld, grind it back, and have it hard chromed?


Depends on the bearing. For a ball or roller race, I replace it -- it's a 
standard part. For something like a phosphor bronze bush, I might well 
make my own replacement. It would depend on the ease of getting the 
original part, the lead time on it, etc...

There is one other bif difference. If I need a ball race for a 10-year-old
motor, I can almost certainly get it, off the shelf. If not, then it's 
not too hard to modify the motor housing to take a bearing I can get.

Now just try getting a new motherboard for a 10 year old PC. One that 
will use the same processor, memory, and expansion cards. I think you'll 
have problems. Heck, even the case and PSU might need to be changed. I 
have no intention of replacing the whole machine every time some trivial 
component fails. 

> > I guess it does. I don't -- yet -- haev a clean room to repair 
> > winchester-type hard drives. Although I have considered some kind of 
> > 'clean box' to work on the physically larger winchseters, like the 8" and 
> > 14" drives in some of my classics.
> 
> That actually sounds like an useful and easy thing to make.  Something 
> like a big glovebox, possibly.  You might not get your 14" drives in. 

Exactly...

> You may be able to adapt a sandblasting cabinet - it's designed to keep 
> dust *in*, so it should be OK at keeping dust *out*.

Incidentally, one of the older demountables -- I think it was the DEC 
RK01 -- used a standard car air filter as the absolute filter. You might 
get away with something like that, and a suitable fan, to run the 'clean box'



> 
> >>Of course, can't refute the argument about the internet
> >>connection :)
> > 
> > 
> > Or the space. The dexktop area needed by a laptop and printer is not that 
> > much smaller than that needed by a desktop PC + not-too-large monitor + 
> > printer.
> > 
> 
> It's still not a lot of space.

And it's still more than I have feee...

-tony