Plastic rot

From: William Donzelli <william_at_ans.net>
Date: Tue Dec 23 21:37:51 1997

> Some DEC machines use a similar foam either to hold the boards in place
> (the PDP8/e does this) or as a fan filter. Needless to say, when the foam
> disintegrates, it then puts more muck into the machine than it ever kept
> out. This is bad news on a demountable hard disk :-(.

Many larger machines use the stuff to kill some of the noise. IBMs
generally are loaded with it. But in the future, the Sun E150 may top
list in terms of gooiness.
 
> Most DEC collectors that I know remove this foam as soon as they get the
> machines. I always do. Sure, it's not original, but at least the machine
> will keep running.

Some of the stuff is rather stable - 30 years old and only a bit
discolored. At least the stuff is very easy to replace and restore. I
suppose the thing to do is find this stuff and get a bunch.

William Donzelli
william_at_ans.net
Received on Tue Dec 23 1997 - 21:37:51 GMT