15 Jul
2013
15 Jul
'13
1:41 p.m.
-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-
bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Tony Duell
Sent: 15 July 2013 19:27
To: cctalk at classiccmp.org
Subject: Re: PDP 8/L (was Re: Which PDP-8 is this? (ebay: 261232211533))
you
Have you ever restored a Teletype? If not, one
piece of advice whixh
will save you many, many tears: Keep that can of WD-40 far, far away
from the Teletype. The stuff will gunk up in quite a "lovely" manner,
making your life several new forms of hell.
I've rebuilt a couple of Model 33s and some non-Teletype machines (Creeds,
etc).
My advice is t oassume the old lubricant has gunged up and that yopu will
have to clean it out and relubricate -- not with WD40, of course.
Unless you had a mis-sepnt childhood and are happy taking the thing apart
and rebuilding it from memeory, I suggest getting the maintenance manuals
-- and parts list -- if you can. I think some are on bitsavers.
Then work slowly, take the machine apart into modules (in the Model 33, can split the mechasnim into the 'typing
unit', punch, reader and
keyboard.
Work on one apart at a time. Take it all apart, clean
the parts, apply
luybricant, put them nack together. The turn the machine by hand to check
everythign is working correctly, and set up those adjustments you can.
Then
power up and set it up properly.
The first Model 33 I did took a month or so. OK, I _didn't_ have the
manuals,
I
was working by intuition. And I did have other things
to do at the same
time
-- like 'A levels' (end of school exams). No I
could do one i na couple of
days.
Don't apply power and see what happens. If there are lubrication problems
(no lubricant, or hardened lubricant) you can do a lot of damage in a few
minutes.
-tony
Better still, join the Greenkeys mailing list. I did, and it was well worth
it. I could never have got my 33 working again otherwise, despite having all
the manuals.
One thing to be really careful of, don't ever take the cover off the
keyboard unless the keyboard is still installed in the sub-base. I would
also suggest that a complete strip down would be really challenging and only
the really confident, knowledgeable and patient should attempt such a thing.
Even the experts tell me some bits are quite tricky and not to dismantle
certain parts.
Regards
Rob