Stripping an RA80

[Jarratt RMA]

> 
>     On 31 December 2016 at 17:26 Tony Duell <ard.p850ug1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 
>     I am probably going to be flamed for this....
> 
>     My VAX11/730 has an R80 disk drive as you might expect. I dismantled this
> many
>     years ago to move it and never reassembled it. Over the years (in
>     particular during
>     a house move), the smaller parts (screws, the brackets and clevis pins for
> the
>     gas struts, and ribbon cables) have got lost.
> 
>     A friend of mine (Philip) was having a clearout and gave me an RA80
>     (SDI interface,
>     of course). I don't run SDI drives anywhere (I think I have a UDA50
> somewhere),
>     but a lot of parts are the same as in the R80.
> 
>     My first thought is to strip this RA80 (that's why I got it!). This
>     will provide me
>     with most of the missing parts (all that I would have to make is the
>     26 way ribbon
>     to the controller cable -- the 60 way one is still in the R80 chassis). So
> after
>     stripping I think I would be left with 4 classes of part :
> 
>     1) Those I need for the R80 -- brackets, screws cables, etc
> 
>     2) Those that could be useful spares for the R80 :
>     HDA
>     Spindle Motor
>     Belt
>     Belt Tensioner
>     PSU
>     R/W PCB
>     Servo PCB
>     Microprocessor PCB (the ROMs are different, of course, but the the
>     PCB is the same and could be a source of components. I don't swap boards
>     anyway)
>     AC and DC power harnesses
>     Fans
>     Motor capacitor
> 
>     3) Those that are of no use in the R80, but are not too hard to store
>     Personality board
>     Control panel
>     SDI cabling
> 
>     4) Those that I don't need and which are a pain to store
>     Cbassis parts.
> 
>     Is there any reason to keep the bare, stripped, chassis, or should I let
> it go
>     as scrap metal?
> 
>     Does anyone run an RA80 and think any of the bits in list 3 (certainly) or
> 2
>     (I may want to keep these, in particular the HDA if it's good) are useful
> to
>     them? Of course I don't know if the parts are still good.
> 
>     Or should I preserve the RA80 as it is, and just use it as patterns for
> the
>     missing bits. Try to find a source of the UNC screws, make up the cables,
>     make up brackets, etc. I would only do that if there is a very good
> reason.
> 
>     -tony
> 


If I may say so, this doesn't sound like you at all :-)

I don't have an RA80, nor am I ever likely to unless I suddenly acquire a lot
more space (and time, and money), however, it would seem a shame to scrap an
RA80 if the missing parts could be re-fabricated.

Regards

Rob