5 Mar
2012
5 Mar
'12
9:10 p.m.
Thanks to the recent adoption of yet-another-DEC-halfrack, a DEC SA600
rack needs to go. Here are some pics:
https://picasaweb.google.com/102190732096693814506/DECSA600Rack
The cable frame and the SDI cables on it are no longer here.
It's a bit of an odd rack, having held the massive RA90 hard drives in
its previous life. I believe once those brackets are removed, normal
rack holes remain, but I can't be certain. As seen in the pics, I
cleaned it of most of its rust and it looks pretty good. Purists will
want to repaint it.
Local pickup only in the NW Chicago suburbs. It's about 5' high and
weighs a lot more than it looks like it should. Be prepared for a
battle getting it up the stairs.
-j
5 Mar
5 Mar
11:25 p.m.
On Mon, Mar 05, 2012 at 11:10:37PM -0600, Jason T wrote:
its previous life. I believe once those brackets are
removed, normal
rack holes remain, but I can't be certain. As seen in the pics, I
Yes, they are normal rack holes. I keep an RL02 drive in mine (and a
microvax 3800, but with a rather improvised wooden mount :)
It's not _that_ heavy and few U smaller than an H960
/P
6 Mar
6 Mar
7:06 a.m.
On Tue, Mar 6, 2012 at 2:25 AM, Pontus Pihlgren <pontus at update.uu.se> wrote:
On Mon, Mar 05, 2012 at 11:10:37PM -0600, Jason T
wrote:
Interesting re-use.
its previous life. ?I believe once those brackets
are removed, normal
rack holes remain, but I can't be certain. ?As seen in the pics, I
Yes, they are normal rack holes. I keep an RL02 drive in mine (and a
microvax 3800, but with a rather improvised wooden mount :) It's not _that_ heavy and few U smaller than an
H960
An empty H960 is still pretty heavy, but I did manage to get one up
the stairs solo once. Won't be doing that again. :-)
If I needed a rack, it looks like a nice one for a
non-workshop/non-datacenter installation. I had to wedge that same
H-960 into a commercial basement in a 1900s storefront (my mother
rented the main floor for her typing business) and between the slope
of the floor and the low ceiling, it was difficult to place the H-960.
I, however, am not looking for a rack and don't know anyone else right
now who is looking. For my own stuff, I'm in the middle of cleaning
and loading one of the table-top sized DEC racks that used to contain
a PDP-11/03 and RX01. It's about 12U (twice as tall as an RX01) and
has a Formica/particleboard top. Makes a nice coffee table.
-ethan
7:47 a.m.
On Tue, Mar 06, 2012 at 10:06:22AM -0500, Ethan Dicks wrote:
I, however, am not looking for a rack and don't
know anyone else right
now who is looking. For my own stuff, I'm in the middle of cleaning
and loading one of the table-top sized DEC racks that used to contain
a PDP-11/03 and RX01. It's about 12U (twice as tall as an RX01) and
has a Formica/particleboard top. Makes a nice coffee table.
Sounds neat, I'd like to see a picture of that, unless its to much of a
hassle.
Regards,
Pontus.
8 a.m.
On Tue, Mar 6, 2012 at 10:47 AM, Pontus Pihlgren <pontus at update.uu.se> wrote:
On Tue, Mar 06, 2012 at 10:06:22AM -0500, Ethan Dicks
wrote:
> I, however, am not looking for a rack and don't know anyone else right
> now who is looking. ?For my own stuff, I'm in the middle of cleaning
> and loading one of the table-top sized DEC racks that used to contain
> a PDP-11/03 and RX01. ?It's about 12U (twice as tall as an RX01) and
> has a Formica/particleboard top. ?Makes a nice coffee table.
Just refreshed my own memory - it was sold as a "PDP11V03". Having
problems finding the DEC "H" number for the enclosure. It's been
discussed on this list before, but I don't remember the exact part
number.
Sounds neat, I'd like to see a picture of that,
unless its to much of a
hassle.
Not my picture:
http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/attachment.php?attachmentid=6791&am…
(registration with vintage-computer.com is probably required)
-ethan
10:13 a.m.
On 03/06/2012 05:00 PM, Ethan Dicks wrote:
http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/attachment.php?attachmentid=6791&am…
(registration with vintage-computer.com is probably required)
I'm already registered :)
Indeed a nice coffee table!
/P
1:51 p.m.
On Tue, 6 Mar 2012 10:06:22 -0500
Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> wrote:
An empty H960 is still pretty heavy, but I did manage
to get one up
the stairs solo once. Won't be doing that again. :-)
I have a H960 in my
flat, 2nd flor. When I got it, I removed the
riverts. (There are 28 of them.) So the top and the four side posts
came loose. The side panels and the back cover are removable anyway.
So I put everything upstairs in parts. Then I used ordinary M6 screws
and nuts in place of the riverts to put the thing together again.
Simple and works well.
I did the same when I got my "low boy" DEC rack...
--
\end{Jochen}
\ref{http://www.unixag-kl.fh-kl.de/~jkunz/}
2:59 p.m.
On Tue, Mar 6, 2012 at 4:51 PM, Jochen Kunz <jkunz at unixag-kl.fh-kl.de> wrote:
On Tue, 6 Mar 2012 10:06:22 -0500
Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> wrote:
I could have done that but those are such large pop rivets that I
didn't want to disturb them.
In the end I did succeed, but had the rack slipped (which it almost
did do!) I would probably have severely regretted the consequences.
Fortunately the lesson was learned without pain. I never again tried
to move up a flight a stairs a rack that's over 5% taller than me and
nearly as heavy as me by myself without straps/ramps/wheels/mechanical
and/or human assistance.
Is there clearance between the side of the H960 and the grey sides for
the M6 bolt heads, or does your rack lack the hang-on metal sides?
-ethan
An empty H960 is still pretty heavy, but I did
manage to get one up
the stairs solo once. ?Won't be doing that again. ?:-)
I have a H960 in my flat, 2nd flor. When I got it, I removed the
riverts. (There are 28 of them.) 
7 Mar
7 Mar
7:31 a.m.
On Tue, 6 Mar 2012, Ethan Dicks wrote:
In the end I did succeed, but had the rack slipped
(which it almost
did do!) I would probably have severely regretted the consequences.
Fortunately the lesson was learned without pain. I never again tried
to move up a flight a stairs a rack that's over 5% taller than me and
nearly as heavy as me by myself without straps/ramps/wheels/mechanical
and/or human assistance.
ObRackMisadventure...
In 1994 I became the proud owner of a VAX 8250. (I even got to remove it
form the machine room at Mannesmann Tally in Kent)
One of the three racks held a TU81+ tape drive and nothing else. Since my
friend and I were breaking the machine down and moving it to the upstairs
of my house, we removed the tape drive from the top of the cabinet and
proceeded to nearly kill ourselves squeezing this huge cabinet up a tiny,
residential staircase. Only after getting to the top of the stairs do we
discover the two 50+ lb steel balance plates that are bolted to the
insides of the frame. *facepalm*
The other two racks were shoved straight up the staircase after taping a
section of carpet to the top corner of the cabinet to act as a
"gliding surface". My back still twinges thinking about that day. The
four RA-81 drives were no picnic either. :)
g.
--
Proud owner of F-15C 80-0007
http://www.f15sim.com - The only one of its kind.
http://www.diy-cockpits.org/coll - Go Collimated or Go Home.
Some people collect things for a hobby. Geeks collect hobbies.
ScarletDME - The red hot Data Management Environment
A Multi-Value database for the masses, not the classes.
http://www.scarletdme.org - Get it _today_!
Buying desktop hardware and installing a server OS doesn't make a
server-class system any more than sitting in a puddle makes you a duck.
[Cipher in a.s.r]
10:23 a.m.
On Tue, 6 Mar 2012 17:59:21 -0500
Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> wrote:
In the end I did succeed, but had the rack slipped
(which it almost
did do!) I would probably have severely regretted the consequences.
Fortunately the lesson was learned without pain. I never again tried
to move up a flight a stairs a rack that's over 5% taller than me and
nearly as heavy as me by myself without straps/ramps/wheels/mechanical
and/or human assistance.
Well. Remove everything that you can remove easyly so that
only the
four posts, bottom and top are left over. Lay the rack on its left or
right side. Step _into_ the rack so that you look at the bottom. Pick
it up, so that the posts stay horizontal. You have to try a bit to find
the right position to grab to have the whole thing in balance. Now
walk. Surprisingly easy. I even got a rack upstairs that way.
Is there clearance between the side of the H960 and
the grey sides for
the M6 bolt heads, or does your rack lack the hang-on metal sides?
There is plenty
of space. The rivertrs aren't that small too.
Ohhh, sorry. I just noticed that my racks are not H960. They look much
more than the aforementioned SA600 rack. That confused me. So they may
be of the H9612 / H9613 variety. Actually the H960 is welded. My
PDP-11/34A came in a H960. I had to leave the rack behind as I could
not dismount it. It didn't fit my car... :-(
--
\end{Jochen}
\ref{http://www.unixag-kl.fh-kl.de/~jkunz/}
11:18 a.m.
On 03/07/2012 01:23 PM, Jochen Kunz wrote:
Well. Remove everything that you can remove easyly so
that only the
four posts, bottom and top are left over. Lay the rack on its left or
right side. Step _into_ the rack so that you look at the bottom. Pick
it up, so that the posts stay horizontal. You have to try a bit to find
the right position to grab to have the whole thing in balance. Now
walk. Surprisingly easy. I even got a rack upstairs that way.
I chuckled when I read that H960s are hard to move...I've moved lots
of them exactly this way. It really is the best way to do it if you
can't just roll it somewhere. They've gotta be the lightest racks
(empty) in the industry.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA
11:37 a.m.
I've moved hundreds of H960's and learned a lot of tricks- mostly
good. I could 2 on the floor of my van and a 3ed on top.
Anybody else on here ever move an 11/70 in a corporate cab down
several flights of stairs in a commercial building? Remember, they
don't come apart- CPU, memory, expansion all in one.
Paul
On Wed, Mar 7, 2012 at 1:18 PM, Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> wrote:
On 03/07/2012 01:23 PM, Jochen Kunz wrote:
Well. Remove everything that you can remove easyly so that only the
four posts, bottom and top are left over. Lay the rack on its left or
right side. Step _into_ the rack so that you look at the bottom. Pick
it up, so that the posts stay horizontal. You have to try a bit to find
the right position to grab to have the whole thing in balance. Now
walk. Surprisingly easy. I even got a rack upstairs that way.
?I chuckled when I read that H960s are hard to move...I've moved lots of
them exactly this way. ?It really is the best way to do it if you can't just
roll it somewhere. ?They've gotta be the lightest racks (empty) in the
industry.
? ? ? ? ? ? ?-Dave
--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA
9:58 p.m.
On 03/07/2012 08:37 PM, Paul Anderson wrote:
I've moved hundreds of H960's and learned a
lot of tricks- mostly
good. I could 2 on the floor of my van and a 3ed on top.
Anybody else on here ever move an 11/70 in a corporate cab down
several flights of stairs in a commercial building? Remember, they
don't come apart- CPU, memory, expansion all in one.
Paul
holy... I've moved one.. but never down a flight of stairs, where there
casualties?
Although, we are all amateurs compared to the fellas with CNC machinery
in their garage. Admittedly no-one probably ever moved a CNC mill up a
flight of residential stairs...
/P
10:06 p.m.
On 03/08/2012 12:58 AM, Pontus wrote:
That sort of stuff is movable. One trick a machinist friend of mine
did to move a big Bridgeport mill is to get it up onto a few small
pieces of thin steel rod, like 1/4" or less. By what mechanism he got
it up onto them I don't know. But then he'd just roll the monstrosity
across the floor, moving one around to the front when it popped out the
back. A common implement in those circles is called, I believe, a
"Johnson bar" which is sorta like a handtruck but with FAR greater
leverage and small steel wheels with an immense weight rating.
Those guys know the tools of their craft every bit as well as we know
ours. :)
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA
I've moved
hundreds of H960's and learned a lot of tricks- mostly
good. I could 2 on the floor of my van and a 3ed on top.
Anybody else on here ever move an 11/70 in a corporate cab down
several flights of stairs in a commercial building? Remember, they
don't come apart- CPU, memory, expansion all in one.
holy... I've moved one.. but never down a flight of stairs, where there
casualties?
Although, we are all amateurs compared to the fellas with CNC machinery
in their garage. Admittedly no-one probably ever moved a CNC mill up a
flight of residential stairs... 
10:40 p.m.
On Mar 7, 2012, at 10:06 PM, Dave McGuire wrote:
On 03/08/2012 12:58 AM, Pontus wrote:
That sort of stuff is movable. One trick a machinist friend of mine did to move a big
Bridgeport mill is to get it up onto a few small pieces of thin steel rod, like 1/4"
or less. By what mechanism he got it up onto them I don't know. But then he'd
just roll the monstrosity across the floor, moving one around to the front when it popped
out the back. A common implement in those circles is called, I believe, a "Johnson
bar" which is sorta like a handtruck but with FAR greater leverage and small steel
wheels with an immense weight rating.
Ah, yes! It's also known as a J-Bar (I guess because it looks like a capitol J). I
have one. It's amazingly useful in moving loaded racks when you have a *small* ledge
or gap to get over. Mine is more like a 6' pry bar with wheels at the leverage point.
The "blade" is ~6" wide and 4" deep (just right to get under racks
and such). It has a 6' wooden handle (again about 6" wide at the bottom and
tapers to ~4" and is 2" thick). The "wheels" are 6" heavy duty
solid wheels. I think I paid ~$100 for it new. It's seen a lot of use! Worth every
$0.01 I paid. Friends who've helped me move equipment (mine and theirs) love it too
(it's probably my most borrowed tool).
Basically you put the blade under what you're trying to move and "lever" it
up so that some of the weight is on the wheels of the J-Bar. Because the J-Bar's
wheels are much larger (and probably in much better shape than some of the casters on the
racks) it makes rolling the rack over "rough" terrain much easier. Usually I
use it when I'm moving stuff into/out of a lift gate truck. There are
"gaps" to get over that usually results in a lot of straining without the
J-Bar.
TTFN - Guy
I've
moved hundreds of H960's and learned a lot of tricks- mostly
good. I could 2 on the floor of my van and a 3ed on top.
Anybody else on here ever move an 11/70 in a corporate cab down
several flights of stairs in a commercial building? Remember, they
don't come apart- CPU, memory, expansion all in one.
holy... I've moved one.. but never down a flight of stairs, where there
casualties?
Although, we are all amateurs compared to the fellas with CNC machinery
in their garage. Admittedly no-one probably ever moved a CNC mill up a
flight of residential stairs... 
2:51 p.m.
On 3/7/12 10:23 AM, "Jochen Kunz" <jkunz at unixag-kl.fh-kl.de> wrote:
Ohhh, sorry. I just noticed that my racks are not H960.
They look much
more than the aforementioned SA600 rack. That confused me. So they may
be of the H9612 / H9613 variety. Actually the H960 is welded. My
PDP-11/34A came in a H960. I had to leave the rack behind as I could
not dismount it. It didn't fit my car... :-(
--
Jochen, that's why you always bring a tow rope. Seems to me those old DEC
casters ought to be good for 20-30 km/h?. :-)
8 Mar
8 Mar
11:26 a.m.
On Wed, 7 Mar 2012 22:51:06 +0000
Ian King <IanK at vulcan.com> wrote:
Jochen, that's why you always bring a tow rope.
Seems to me those old DEC
casters ought to be good for 20-30 km/h?. :-)
Well. Would have been interresting
to tow a H960 at 20km/h over a
distance of more then 100 km on the german Autobahn... ;-)
The next problem was: There is simply no space left in my flat. It's
getting a real problem. :-(
--
\end{Jochen}
\ref{http://www.unixag-kl.fh-kl.de/~jkunz/}
4673
days inactive
4675
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16 comments
9 participants
participants (9)
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ethan.dicks＠gmail.com -
geneb＠deltasoft.com -
ggs＠shiresoft.com -
IanK＠vulcan.com -
jkunz＠unixag-kl.fh-kl.de -
mcguire＠neurotica.com -
pontus＠Update.UU.SE -
silent700＠gmail.com -
useddec＠gmail.com