Be careful handling computer racks

Tony Duell wrote: Cuts, lacerations and bruises tend to be all too common when working on any computer, not just old iron. The copper heatsink in my machine (Zalman CNPS9500AT if you want to look it up) has a bunch of sheets of thin copper radiating out from the centre of a fan/heatpipe assembly. It's also about 2" from the back panel of the machine.... just close enough for you to catch the back of your hand on it when plugging in the front panel headers. Can't remember the last time I burned myself working on a PC though. On "old iron", never (I haven't had the joy of working on a PDP or similar, though "some form of PDP11" is still on my "things I want to have owned at least once in my lifetime" list). Last time I burned myself with a soldering iron was when I was trying to fix the Jupiter Ace (which reminds me, I still haven't managed to get Lee Davison to return that thing... grrrr...) Can't say I've burned myself with a soldering iron since I swapped the Antex XS out for a 660TC, though. Unfortunately the original iron/handpiece blew; I swapped it for a TC50 (50W temperature controlled) and whatever "new style RoHS compliant" plastic they're using now is nowhere near as heat-insulating as the old stuff. At about 300C, the handle can only be held comfortably for a few minutes at a time. Take it up to 400C and that goes down to seconds -- it must be getting to 50 or 60C at least. Thankfully the further back you go from the tip the cooler the plastic is -- if you hold the iron about halfway between the end of the plastic grip and the cable, it's fine. Makes it a bit of a pig to control, though. I've had a play with SIMH and a PDP11 assembler, does that count? :) -- Phil. classiccmp at philpem.me.uk http://www.philpem.me.uk/