Dangers of shifting classic computers (was: AT&T PC 6300 Plus Unix box) (fwd)

From: Aaron Christopher Finney <af-list_at_lafleur.wfi-inc.com>
Date: Thu Oct 7 14:06:25 1999

I guess my types of experiences fall into the categories of electric
shock, muscle strains, smashed body parts, poison, and loss of sleep.

I am not too bright. And I think of myself as sort of a tough, rugged,
manly-man type of guy most of the time (hangover from playing rugby, I
guess). Anyway, I have moved some things that should have required 3 or 4
people by myself (eg refrigerators, pool tables, etc) and really injured
my back moving a Cipher 880 9-track drive a year or so ago. Agony! Not to
mention being virtually useless for more than two weeks and having to go
to physical therapy.

I'm also generally too careless with electricity. I have been zapped by
stupidly reaching into things and touching capacitors so bad that I've
actually almost lost consciousness a few times. Now that I have a family I
*try* to be more careful, but old habits die hard.

I've broken a couple of fingers and toes by dropping things on them; it's
amazing how much damage the hard, steel edge of a cabinet can do from just
a few inches.

My poison episodes have been dandies! The most recent was that black widow
bite I posted about recently. The other was a *large* hp printer boxed in
a wooden crate (recent model, 5si/mx with paper sorter, etc). When I
removed it, I noticed that it was covered with some oily liquid.
Completely dismissing this as somthing inert, I spend several hours
working on it; sticking my head inside the cabinet, running my hands on
it, eventually ending up with that oily liquid all over my hands, face,
head, and I'm sure some was ingested from my hands/lips. Then I got sick.
REALLY sick. Sick, like I wanted to die sick. It turns out that the guy
who send it had sprayed poison into the crate to kill the wasps that had
taken it over and neglected to tell us...

Aaron


On Thu, 7 Oct 1999, Peter Pachla wrote:

> Hi,
>
> >....This machine will alwas have a special place in my collection
> >though, since it is so heavy I sprained a muscle in my back while
> >lifting it so bad that I needed several weeks of therapy to cure.
> >One of the hazards of the old computer collector...
>
> Quite, I've managed to injure myself a number of times shifting medium/large
> sized machines over the years.
>
> I trapped a nerve in my back both times I shifted my old PDP-11/23+ (in an
> H960 cab with a pair of RL-01s). And please, believe me, shifting a PDP-11/34
> by yourself is NOT a good idea....my back muscles still wince at the thought.
>
> Also managed to strain a couple of back muscles when I moved my SGI 4D/70GT
> into the house. There were two of us moving that beastie and we'd taken all
> the boards out of it first (they're about the weight of my 11/53 on their
> own).
>
>
> Not to mention that I've been in agony for a week now with a trapped nerve in
> my shoulder. But then again there really was no way to disassemble that "Space
> Invaders II" machine which I was moving out of the house....
>
> Anyone else hurt themselves, lost limbs etc??? ;-)
>
>
> TTFN - Pete.
>
> --
> Hardware & Software Engineer. Sound Engineer.
> Collector of Arcade Machines, Games Consoles & Obsolete Computers (esp DEC)
>
> peter.pachla_at_virgin.net |
> peter.pachla_at_vectrex.freeserve.co.uk |
> peter.pachla_at_wintermute.free-online.co.uk | www.wintermute.free-online.co.uk
> --
>
>
Received on Thu Oct 07 1999 - 14:06:25 BST