15 Oct
2003
15 Oct
'03
11:35 p.m.
Well,
I've made my comments about the IQ/Intellectual level of "most" of the
employees there
however, seriously, you can't expect these people to know what you are
talking about.
For those with an interest in "POSSIBLY" restoring your older computer
equipment.
Go to Home Depot, pick a Free copy of the "PRO" catalog and take it home and
thumb
through it. If you are really serious about, not paying off the national
debt to get stuff to
keep your equipment back in operation. I go there, on slow days, and just
walk around
looking at things, that COULD be used to make/repair other things.
Some of the items I have picked up and used were for:
6 meter portable beam antenna, 70 Cm Quad helical antenna, also for 1296,
1460 and
2304 Mhz antennas. Heavy duty Aluminum angle 1 X 1 for supports inside rack
cabinets. 2 in. dia X 1/4 in thick aluminum tubing, used for vertical
supports and also
to make stands for my antenna test range. Hardware, loads, but you have to
go there
with a plan, as there "are" some unlikely candidates that show up.
As for filters and filter materials, yes they indeed have various
configurations of HEPA
filters and also a lot of rather unique type as well.
I might also mention, there are some older folks that work in these places
that do indeed
know what the heck they are about, lots of them are former employees of the
very
"Old Fashioned" hardware shops you mentioned, I think it was adapt or go
hungry, that
brought them to the Home Depot, they are some of them very knowledgeable and
also
extremely helpful!
Just a THOUGHT
Jim
WB2FCN
General Practicioner of the Electronic Art!
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tony Duell" <ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
To: <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Wednesday, October 15, 2003 6:05 PM
Subject: Re: air filters
Oh, I don't know... It's no worse that going to one of those 'we build
computers to your specification' places and giving them the specification
for a PDP10 :-) :-) :-)
>
> Quothe John Lawson, from writings of Tue, Oct 14, 2003 at
02:13:43PM -0400:
> > PS: Just try asking a Home Depot Associate
for a HEPA Filter that
fits
your DEC RL02.... ;}
Isn't that a mean thing to do? ;-) After all, some of the clerks in those stores get rather confused when one asks
for some basic hardware
for home repairs, such as "real" windows panes---that is, wavy with
lead in them, or for the square center shaft of a doorknob... items
that one could find in "real" hardware stores. It never ceases to
Tell me about it :-(. Electronics shops are the same. At one time there
were places where you could get just about any component ever made... Now
we end up having to special-order 2.5mm jack sockets (OK, 3/32" submini
phone jacks to you) and quincuncial DIN plugs....
amaze me how much in the way of actual hardware,
from the right
washer, hinge, bolt or pulley, to the right type of paint, one could
find in a small hardware store with wooden floors and narrow aisles as
A simple test. Look for a thin layer of dust over everything. This means
the place hasn't been cleaned for decades, so there's a good chance that
useful parts, last made 30 years ago, will still be on the shelf
somewhere, rather than having been thrown out.
opposed to not being able to find what one wants
in those huge
so-called hardware stores that sell everything from warped knotty wood
And the princes i nthsoe sort of places (at least in the UK) are often a
factor of 2 or 3 higher than you pay in a _real_ hardware shop....
And don't get me started on the tools that such places fail to stock.
Those places seem to think that twist drills go up in 0.5mm steps,
whereas real tool shops stock them in at least 0.05mm steps, and possibly
0.01mm steps (!). They stock a couple of different pairs of pliers, a
real tool shop stocks several dozen. And so on...
As I've said before, I'm not rich enough to buy cheap tools, but that's
all these modern hardware stores seem to sell, so I don't bother...
-tony