6 Mar
2014
6 Mar
'14
7:44 a.m.
On Wed, Mar 05, 2014 at 03:38:13PM -0500, Paul Koning wrote:
On Mar 5, 2014, at 3:17 PM, Kyle Owen <kylevowen at gmail.com> wrote:
The RK05 maintenance manual gives a cleaning
procedure. I have done it.
See document 95.
http://www.pdp8online.com/pdp8cgi/query_docs/query.pl?Search=rk05
Looks like that scan may have been of a copy of the manual. Bitsavers may
have a better scan.
The manual says water may damage the oxide binder.
I also used a bright light, lens brush and "air" can to remove as much
leftover dust after cleaning. For unknown condition packs I then mounted
the pack with the drive cover off so I could watch the platter for warp
as I spun it up. After the heads loaded I used the readrk05 program in
my dumprest http://www.pdp8online.com/ftp/software/dumprest/ to go over
the entire disk surface quickly keeping finger un unload button. I would
normally get a ping or two on the first pass or two when it knocks of a
leftover piece of dust then it would be quiet. If the packs were stored in
the bags and have not visible dust when you shine a light in through
the door I don't know if cleaning helps. I was doing this on dirty packs.
I didn't do it but flipping the switch to disable the head motion and leaving
it spinning for a while may also help get any reamaining dust off.
...
That leads to another perhaps relevant question: cleaning. I hear people
have successfully cleaned these in the kitchen sink. Is deionized or
distilled water preferred over tap water? Any tips on this? Non-powdered
latex gloves should be worn, I imagine? We can start a new thread on this
if one would prefer.