That ubiquitous black foam

[Paul Anderson]

Need another 785 or any parts?

On Fri, Sep 26, 2008 at 1:57 PM, Ian King <IanK at vulcan.com> wrote:

> I haven't seen anyone discuss this (nor is Google showing anything), so for
> all of you doing DEC restorations out there, I thought I'd pass along
> something I learned.
>
> DEC loved that black filter foam that falls apart after fifteen or so
> years.  I'm restoring a couple of VAX-11/785s and they were liberally dusted
> with black foam detritus.  So I took a piece that wasn't beyond recognition
> to a local shop here in Seattle called Friendly Foam (www.friendlyfoam.com).
>  They identified it as "40ppi (pores per [square] inch) reticulated foam."
>  They were also kind enough to sell me several square feet of it.  They
> warned me that yes, it will still fall apart after a couple of decades, but
> for now it looks sooo nice.  The machines I'm restoring have good paint, so
> with the new foam in place they look like they just left Maynard.  It's
> funny how the little touches make such a difference.
>
> BTW, they also found adhesive-backed foam that is an exact match for the
> stuff DEC used on the cardcage cover panels.
>
> I hope this helps everyone who's trying to keep their Olde Beastes healthy
> and happy.  - Ian
>
> UNIX is user friendly.  It's just selective about who its friends are.
> Ian S. King, Vintage Systems Engineer
> Vulcan, Inc.
> http://www.pdpplanet.org
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