Attaching DEC Handles, the Right Way

[Ethan Dicks]

On Wed, Apr 26, 2017 at 5:06 PM, Systems Glitch via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
>> It's one of these:
>> http://www.grommetmachinery.com/stimpson-479-machine.html
>
> Glad to hear it was saved from the scrap heap!

Indeed.  I knew it was not a cheap item, and looking online today,
it's a mere $2300!

> A very cool machine, reminds me of the manual punch we had to go along with our trip punch at a previous job.

I've wanted to look into buying additional dies for mine.  All I have
is the 1/8" tubular rivet setter.  The bottom die has a 1/8"
projection that the rivet slides down prior to setting.  Some years
before I started, someone broke that off (it would be easy to do if
you were about to press the pedal and let the PCB slip from your hands
- the weight and torque would easily stress the projection).  I heard
replacement dies were around $250.  I haven't had a project that was
important enough to research other types of dies.

>> Stu Phillips, a friend of ours did the insertion of metal metal Southco
>> extractor handles on our boards for the Microdata 1600.
>
> The blue handles on the MDB Unibus prototyping boards I've got are Stu Phillips handles.

Ah.  I probably have some I can check for makers marks.

> They are indeed riveted on, but I don't know if MDB did their own riveting. With the amount of DEC-compatible stuff they made, it wouldn't surprise me.

We did our own riveting at a smallish company, so I expect they did too.

-ethan