compucolor

I've heard the reverse from other people -- for their job, 'anything will do' provided it gets the problem moved to someone else, but for their hobbies they spend as much time as needed to do it right, becuase that's what they enjoy doing. For most of us here, classic computers are a hobby. We mess around with them because we enjoy it, we want to get them working and use them, but it doesn't really matter if it takes a few more days -- there's no deadline... Sure there are jobs we don't like (cleaning keycaps one at a time has to be high on that list for me...), but most of the time we're having fun. And it therefore makes sense IMHO to get things done in the best way we can... Personally, I always try to do things properly, whether I am being paid for it or not. Many a true word is spoken in jest. Nobody is likely to employ me again, so I might as well share what little knowledge I have here This is an in-line tube, right, not a delta-gun? It sounds a little unusual. Firstly with regard to adjustments, they rarely, if ever, drift. If something needs re-adjusting then there is a fault. Maybe an adjustment will provide a temporary fix, maybe not... There are several types of adjustmnets. There are those that, if you get them wrong, will do major damage -- like PSU voltage tweakers. There are those that take a lot of skill and equipment to set up properly (some of the mechanicla adjustmments in hard drives, for example). And there are those that are relatively easy to set up, and which don't do damage if you get them wrong. Your disk spindle speed pot is one of the last types. And in that case there is little harm in adjusting it to see what happens. What I want to discourage is the idea of tweaking things at random in the hope it'll fix the problem. It won't, you'll probably make things a lot worse. Of course in some circumstances, adjusting things and seeing the effect on the fault can give useful information. But only do this if you know you can set things up again afterwards. As regards a 'cavalier attitude' to hardware, it depends on how experienced you are. Some people might hear the noise of the spindle motor (say) and know it's running way off speed. The rest of us have to make measurements first :-). Experienced ASR33 hackers can probably test most spring tensions with their fingers -- and find the bit that's too stiff, or too tight, or... The rest of us do battle with a tension gauge and the service manual. And so on... -tony