Oxidation

[Chuck Guzis]

On 19 Jan 2009 at 19:07, Roger Holmes wrote:

> I always through they were rubber covered, but from the picture it  
> looks like I'm wrong. My 836 (like an 026) came without its drum and I  
> was told that all leased machines had their drums removed and the  
> customer got to dispose of the rest. Maybe it was rubbish. A couple of  
> them have come up on eBay in the last five years and both went for  
> silly money which to me means there are more keypunches than drums.

Definitely not rubber covered, but with some sort of chemical or 
electrolytic (i.e. not paint) finish.  Whether it was simple 
anodizing with a pigment, alodine, or something else, I don't know.  
It would seem that whatever was used needs to be conductive, so 
perhaps the brown color was intrinsic to the process.

Cheers,
Chuck