14 Oct
2015
14 Oct
'15
4:34 p.m.
Brad,
A few montns ago, with a fair bit of help of the folks on this list, I did
up an Altair 8800 rebuild. And apparently you & I both saw the same videos,
as I got all hot and bothered about getting an ASR33 and using it to load
software - BASIC, for starters - into the Altair. And again, on members'
suggestion, I joined the Greenkeys list.
Too bad, but I was totally +shocked+ at the 'value' placed on ASR33 these
days!! Thousand dollars and more, not all all unusual.. and my resources
just can't justify that level of expenditure for what is generally a
'cheap' DIY hobby of sorts. Meanwhile, a Greenkeys member in St. Louis, MO
popped up with a very nice M15 (ex-Bell) that was Free to Good Home. I have
(or at least had, ha!) a good friend in St. Louis, and he was able to take
care of the pickup for me - and several months later, i arranged to have it
delivered to my house by a relative.
Now the M15 isn't a 33ASR, and lacks the paper tape punch & reader (though
devices do exist). But what it is, is a truly fantastic piece of
electro-mechanical engineering that borders on the "tight metal" genre of
some earlier business machines, such as the Felt & Tarrant Comptometer. If
you have general mechanical experience, I'd say the M15 is roughly on a par
with a 2-spd or even 3-spd automatic transmission, in terms of mechanical
complexity (the the tranny will have a higher parts count.. I think!).
So while they can be worked with, and documentation is plentiful, they are
a bit intimidating the first time you see one in action - or inaction, as
it may be - and they do NOT respond kindly to false moves or other
ham-fistery. But they are well worth learning, and don't yet seem to have
joined their later progeny in the financial stratosphere.
-Bill
On Wed, Oct 14, 2015 at 2:39 PM, william degnan <billdegnan at gmail.com>
wrote:
You can ship these in a box if you detach the pedestal
and put it on its
side, making sure the main unit is well padded and there is a weight
balance to the box, as you never know from what angle the box will
sit/fall/land/be carried. I shrink wrap the main TTY to ensure it stays
secure, then wrap in layers of bubble wrap and foam. I have shipped five
or six that way. You can also use two boxes. It's very easy to re-attach
the main unit from the pedestal, many have a reader motor in the pedestal,
but you just unscrew it.
On Wed, Oct 14, 2015 at 3:28 PM, ben <bfranchuk at jetnet.ab.ca> wrote:
On 10/14/2015 12:48 PM, Brad wrote:
few
How heavy are these things? They look like solid
steel in pictures.
That's one of the things that presents a big problem for me up here in
Canada... shipping from the US has gotten outrageously expensive.
Well for big things shipping I think it is about the same for the last years.
It is the US mail that is strange ... $3.00* for 3 weeks or $60 for
overnight. I expect still cheaper shipping than when new. Note you still
need a truck to get from the shippers warehouse.
Ben.
* I think books still send that way.
--
Bill