DEC quad board rack

[Michael Zahorik]

Noel, I recently I picked up a dozen or so spare boards for my PDP8E. I was wondering about how to store them. Some guys recommend some poly bags, others say it is important to protect against humidity. You sure have a boat load of cards, have you had any failures while in storage? Thanks
Mike Zahorik


      From: Noel Chiappa via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
 To: cctalk at classiccmp.org 
Cc: jnc at mercury.lcs.mit.edu
 Sent: Sunday, December 31, 2017 8:32 AM
 Subject: DEC quad board rack
   
So, I've been making wooden racks to hold a lot of my DEC boards, and I've
finally come up with a nice design for one, which holds quad boards:

  http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/tech/jpg/QuadRack.jpg

which holds them vertically.

It's much better than the dual rack next to it, which holds them
horizontally, which has the issue that the distance between the sides needs
to be absolutely perfect, otherwise the boards tend to drop out of their
slots. With the boards held vertically, it's much less sensitive.

If anyone's interested in building one, I can whip up a drawing. (Note that
the slots are offset slightly to the left because one needs different
clearances for the solder and component sides.)

The one shown uses 3 pieces of 1"x8"x6' (not sure what that translates to in
that new-fangled French stuff :-). It would be tricky to make without a
radial-arm saw, though - although I suppose a router with a small bit could
be used, albeit tedious.

    Noel