10 Dec
2025
10 Dec
'25
5:02 p.m.
Hey all -
I came across a big box of 12 of these disks which my dad acquired through
work back in the 70s, and squirreled them away in the attic after they had
copied the data. 4 of them have a broken metal access door. I opened one of
the broken ones (in a clean of an environment as possible) to see what was
going on inside. It looks like the door is held on by plastic divets that
have broken off. They might be able to be repaired with small screws. I
have no idea if these are functional or not. I am offering them up for free
for anyone that can use them. I'm willing to ship or you pick up in San
Diego.
Here is a link to photos of them:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1wnzqjAtiq44MGU-wDJR-AQdzu-Mkyii8?us…
-Kurt
11 Dec
11 Dec
7:33 a.m.
On Dec 10, 2025, at 8:02 PM, Kurt Nowak via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
Hey all -
I came across a big box of 12 of these disks which my dad acquired through
work back in the 70s, and squirreled them away in the attic after they had
copied the data. 4 of them have a broken metal access door. I opened one of
the broken ones (in a clean of an environment as possible) to see what was
going on inside. It looks like the door is held on by plastic divets that
have broken off. They might be able to be repaired with small screws. I
have no idea if these are functional or not. I am offering them up for free
for anyone that can use them. I'm willing to ship or you pick up in San
Diego.
Here is a link to photos of them:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1wnzqjAtiq44MGU-wDJR-AQdzu-Mkyii8?us…
-Kurt
They look like 12 sector packs, so while they probably are not RK05 formatted given IBM
ancestry they would likely be useable in an RK05 drive. The "access door" is
just a shutter for the air inlet, to keep the dust out. If the door is missing the
platter isn't as protected but would still be useable. That assumes of course that
there is no contact between door and platter when the pack is installed in a drive.
If I had an RK05, or a 360 model 44 :-) I'd be interested.
What system were these used on? I see a label that says "1130".
paul
10:04 a.m.
Well I've not placed one into an 1131 console since oh... the summer of
1968, but they do look 1130 disks.
The 1131 drive is quite mechanically complex (voice coil and ratchet),
watched an IBM SE (in white shirt and tie, with Tek portable scope) open
one for servicing.
See more at http://ibm1130.org
Contrast with the Wang calculator disk drive which looks like a little
top loader, you took the platter out of a paper sleeve, gave it little
wet pad wipe and dropped it onto the spindle. No cartridge at all. At
the time I was struck by the different platter packaging approaches.
-Robert
On 12/11/25 7:33 AM, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote:
On Dec 10, 2025, at 8:02 PM, Kurt Nowak via
cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
Hey all -
I came across a big box of 12 of these disks which my dad acquired through
work back in the 70s, and squirreled them away in the attic after they had
copied the data. 4 of them have a broken metal access door. I opened one of
the broken ones (in a clean of an environment as possible) to see what was
going on inside. It looks like the door is held on by plastic divets that
have broken off. They might be able to be repaired with small screws. I
have no idea if these are functional or not. I am offering them up for free
for anyone that can use them. I'm willing to ship or you pick up in San
Diego.
Here is a link to photos of them:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1wnzqjAtiq44MGU-wDJR-AQdzu-Mkyii8?us…
-Kurt
They look like 12 sector packs, so while they probably are not RK05
formatted given IBM ancestry they would likely be useable in an RK05 drive. The
"access door" is just a shutter for the air inlet, to keep the dust out. If the
door is missing the platter isn't as protected but would still be useable. That
assumes of course that there is no contact between door and platter when the pack is
installed in a drive.
If I had an RK05, or a 360 model 44 :-) I'd be interested.
What system were these used on? I see a label that says "1130".
paul
9:02 a.m.
Thanks for all the info, especially info on the spring loaded access door.
The vacuum venting makes sense but I'm still perplexed as to how the
read/write head gets access to the magnetic surface. As I stated in my
original posting, 4 of them seem to have broken off. Do you think it's best
to open the rest of the broken ones up (in a very clean dust free area) and
remove them or leave them in there flopping around risking damage during
transit? They are pretty easy to open up.I was thinking of carefully taping
shut the opening with masking tape and a small patch of plastic.
Also, they have been claimed already, sorry. A portion will be donated to
CHM.
-Kurt
On Fri, Dec 12, 2025 at 12:33 AM Christian Corti via cctalk <
cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
On Wed, 10 Dec 2025, Kurt Nowak wrote:
I came across a big box of 12 of these disks
which my dad acquired
through
work back in the 70s, and squirreled them away in
the attic after they
had
These are disk cartridges from an IBM 1130 system.
Christian
13 Dec
13 Dec
10:28 a.m.
On Dec 12, 2025, at 12:02 PM, Kurt Nowak via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
Thanks for all the info, especially info on the spring loaded access door.
The vacuum venting makes sense but I'm still perplexed as to how the
read/write head gets access to the magnetic surface.
The metal lid on the bottom has nothing to do with the heads.
The heads access the cartridge via the opening in the rear, which is normally covered by a
plastic cover that latches in a groove in the bottom cover of the cartridge. Pressure
against the top edge of the cover (horizontally towards the spindle) releases it, and it
is then pushed upward, with the long plastic strip that extends most of the way over the
top of the cartridge flexing to allow that. In the drive, this hs done by an arm that
swivels upward to produce that horizontal-then-vertical pressure.
You can only see this if you insert a pack into a drive that has the top cover removed,
otherwise it happens invisibly in the back of drive as you insert the pack through the
loading slot.
paul
10:30 a.m.
On Dec 12, 2025, at 12:02 PM, Kurt Nowak via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
.... Do you think it's best
to open the rest of the broken ones up (in a very clean dust free area) and
remove them or leave them in there flopping around risking damage during
transit? They are pretty easy to open up.I was thinking of carefully taping
shut the opening with masking tape and a small patch of plastic.
I would suggest not messing with them. Just store them in a container that keeps dust
out. At the time I used these packs, normal practice was to store them in oversized
zip-lock bags if you wanted extra protection, or simply in the open in a rack similar to
what tape reels are stored in (just with wider slots).
paul
14 Dec
14 Dec
3:58 p.m.
If you have broken doors that are loose inside the pack I would remove them
before shipping. They will likely damage the pack.
The RK05 manual (similar pack) says to turn the screws backwards until you
can feel they are in the original threads before screwing them in.
On Sat, Dec 13, 2025 at 01:30:23PM -0500, Paul Koning wrote:
On Dec 12, 2025, at 12:02 PM, Kurt Nowak via
cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
.... Do you think it's best
to open the rest of the broken ones up (in a very clean dust free area) and
remove them or leave them in there flopping around risking damage during
transit? They are pretty easy to open up.I was thinking of carefully taping
shut the opening with masking tape and a small patch of plastic.
I would suggest not messing with them. Just store them in a container that keeps dust
out. At the time I used these packs, normal practice was to store them in oversized
zip-lock bags if you wanted extra protection, or simply in the open in a rack similar to
what tape reels are stored in (just with wider slots).
paul
End of cctalk Digest, Vol 1077, Issue 1
*************************************** 
15 Dec
15 Dec
1:50 a.m.
On Sun, 14 Dec 2025, David Gesswein wrote:
The RK05 manual (similar pack) says to turn the screws
backwards until you
can feel they are in the original threads before screwing them in.
This is common practice for every screw and material (wood, metal, plastic
etc.).
Christian
1 p.m.
> The RK05 manual (similar pack) says to turn the
screws backwards until you
> can feel they are in the original threads before screwing them in.
On Mon, 15 Dec 2025, Christian Corti via cctalk wrote:
This is common practice for every screw and material
(wood, metal, plastic
etc.).
It is a sad comment on our society that there could be a need to tell
people.
Are there really people who were not taught that the first time that they
encountered a threaded fastener?
1:13 p.m.
On Dec 15, 2025, at 4:00 PM, Fred Cisin via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
Well... I remember growing up my father told me that some people think a hammer is a
suitable tool for inserting a wood screw. Apparently in Holland this practice is known as
"American screw driving". Hmmm...
paul
> The RK05 manual (similar pack) says to turn
the screws backwards until you
> can feel they are in the original threads before screwing them in.
On Mon, 15 Dec 2025, Christian Corti via cctalk wrote:
This is common practice for every screw and
material (wood, metal, plastic etc.).
It is a sad comment on our society that there could be a need to tell people.
Are there really people who were not taught that the first time that they encountered a
threaded fastener? 
1:35 p.m.
I have never seen a screw being hammered and i take offense at that statement. It’s
European snobbery.
Sent from my iPhone
On Dec 15, 2025, at 13:14, Paul Koning via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
On Dec 15, 2025, at 4:00 PM, Fred Cisin via
cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
Well... I remember growing up my father told me that some people think a hammer is a
suitable tool for inserting a wood screw. Apparently in Holland this practice is known as
"American screw driving". Hmmm...
paul
> The RK05 manual (similar pack) says to turn
the screws backwards until you
> can feel they are in the original threads before screwing them in.
On Mon, 15 Dec 2025, Christian Corti via cctalk wrote:
This is common practice for every screw and
material (wood, metal, plastic etc.).
It is a sad comment on our society that there could be a need to tell people.
Are there really people who were not taught that the first time that they encountered a
threaded fastener?
1:48 p.m.
On Mon, 15 Dec 2025, Wayne S via cctalk wrote:
I have never seen a screw being hammered and i take
offense at that statement. It’s European snobbery.
sixty years ago, I met a kid from North Carolina who said that he had
worked for a summer for a boat builder, and that THAT (hammering screws)
was better results than nails, or turning screws. I did not respond to
him. So, apparently it has been done, as a cheating shortcut for those
who want the look of screws, but the laziness of hammering them.
16 Dec
16 Dec
3:06 a.m.
On 15/12/2025 21:48, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote:
On Mon, 15 Dec 2025, Wayne S via cctalk wrote:
I was told a long time ago that hammering in screws was more effective
in securing wood than either nails or properly inserted screws, but that
it rendered them difficult to remove later if required.
This seems to make sense as of you think about it the hammering will
tend bend the crest of the thread up slightly as its hammered in,
creating a slight "barb" effect.
I guess it depends on the screw and the wood. On softwood it probably
isn't a good way to work. There are screws designed to be hammered in,
for example for door frames.
Dave
I have never seen a screw being hammered and i
take offense at that
statement. It’s European snobbery.
sixty years ago, I met a kid from North Carolina who said that he had
worked for a summer for a boat builder, and that THAT (hammering
screws) was better results than nails, or turning screws. I did not
respond to him. So, apparently it has been done, as a cheating
shortcut for those who want the look of screws, but the laziness of
hammering them.
15 Dec
15 Dec
1:57 p.m.
Birmingham screwdriver is a UK term for a hammer, reflecting perceptions of relative
craftsmanship
More concerning is the fashion for powerdriving wood screws, always #10 and too long,
always buried in the wood and never piloted or csk.
Martin
-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Koning via cctalk [mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org]
Sent: 15 December 2025 21:14
To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org
Cc: Paul Koning <paulkoning(a)comcast.net>
Subject: [cctalk] Re: IBM 2315 Cartridges
On Dec 15, 2025, at 4:00 PM, Fred Cisin via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
Well... I remember growing up my father told me that some people think a hammer is a
suitable tool for inserting a wood screw. Apparently in Holland this practice is known as
"American screw driving". Hmmm...
paul
> The RK05 manual (similar pack) says to turn
the screws backwards
> until you can feel they are in the original threads before screwing them in.
On Mon, 15 Dec 2025, Christian Corti via cctalk wrote:
This is common practice for every screw and
material (wood, metal, plastic etc.).
It is a sad comment on our society that there could be a need to tell people.
Are there really people who were not taught that the first time that they encountered a
threaded fastener?
1:50 p.m.
On Mon, Dec 15, 2025 at 4:00 PM Fred Cisin via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
In this specific case, the threaded fasteners are self-tapping and are
likely to shed plastic shavings so I understand why the caution is
there.
Yes, it's good practice for all threaded fasteners, but it's
especially important when loose debris will make your day turn out
extra sad.
-ethan
> The RK05
manual (similar pack) says to turn the screws backwards until you
> can feel they are in the original threads before screwing them in.
It is a sad comment on our society that there could be a need to tell
people.
Are there really people who were not taught that the first time that they
encountered a threaded fastener? 
11:07 p.m.
i guess it is such a sad comment. at 76 years old I was never taught that,
including in shop class in high school.
<https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail>
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On Mon, Dec 15, 2025 at 3:00 PM Fred Cisin via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
wrote:
--
--Carey
> The RK05
manual (similar pack) says to turn the screws backwards until
you
> can feel they are in the original threads
before screwing them in.
On Mon, 15 Dec 2025, Christian Corti via cctalk wrote:
This is common practice for every screw and
material (wood, metal,
plastic
etc.).
It is a sad comment on our society that there could be a need to tell
people.
Are there really people who were not taught that the first time that they
encountered a threaded fastener?
16 Dec
16 Dec
1:59 p.m.
> It is a sad comment on our society that there
could be a need to tell
> people.
> Are there really people who were not taught that the first time that they
> encountered a threaded fastener?
On Tue, 16 Dec 2025, Carey Schug wrote:
i guess it is such a sad comment. at 76 years old I
was never taught that,
including in shop class in high school.
It is interesting, and a little horrifying, that it wasn't taught.
Surely it wasn't that the shop teacher didn't know to do it?
Or, maybe it was so deeply ingrained that it didn't occur to mention it?
My mother (farm raised) told me.
Even my father (city boy from NYC, "call the super"), who didn't even know
that there is more than one size of Phillips screwdrivers, told me.
But, for half a century, I have been saying that the demise of erector
sets (or equivalent in other countries) after they changed from a motor
with a whole bunch of gears to a plastic battery motor, means that
mechanical competence is going, going, gone
(Likewise, modern kids don't all know what "CLOCKWISE" means! (reasonably
mentioned about Jake in "Two And A Half Men".))
("When you are standing on your head, and seeing with a mirror, to know
which way to turn the drainplug, imagine a watch face on it.")
--
Grumpy Ol' Honda Fred ("wrote the book", but only literally)
cisin(a)xenosoft.com
2:36 p.m.
Do you need a formatter tool if you want to cross from IBM to DEC rp03?
The 1130 had one, 5 fixed / 5 removable. Ran hundreds of Fortran and
programming jobs every day.
On Tue, Dec 16, 2025 at 1:59 PM Fred Cisin via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
wrote:
> It is a
sad comment on our society that there could be a need to tell
> people.
> Are there really people who were not taught that the first time that
they
> encountered a threaded fastener?
On Tue, 16 Dec 2025, Carey Schug wrote:
i guess it is such a sad comment. at 76 years
old I was never taught
that,
including in shop class in high school.
It is interesting, and a little horrifying, that it wasn't taught.
Surely it wasn't that the shop teacher didn't know to do it?
Or, maybe it was so deeply ingrained that it didn't occur to mention it?
My mother (farm raised) told me.
Even my father (city boy from NYC, "call the super"), who didn't even know
that there is more than one size of Phillips screwdrivers, told me.
But, for half a century, I have been saying that the demise of erector
sets (or equivalent in other countries) after they changed from a motor
with a whole bunch of gears to a plastic battery motor, means that
mechanical competence is going, going, gone
(Likewise, modern kids don't all know what "CLOCKWISE" means! (reasonably
mentioned about Jake in "Two And A Half Men".))
("When you are standing on your head, and seeing with a mirror, to know
which way to turn the drainplug, imagine a watch face on it.")
--
Grumpy Ol' Honda Fred ("wrote the book", but only literally)
cisin(a)xenosoft.com
17 Dec
17 Dec
12:07 a.m.
On Tue, 16 Dec 2025, Jim Davis wrote:
Do you need a formatter tool if you want to cross from
IBM to DEC rp03?
The 1130 had one, 5 fixed / 5 removable. Ran hundreds of Fortran and
programming jobs every day.
A 2315 cartridge has only one platter, used in the 2310 disk drive, the
forerunner of many similar drives like the RK05 from DEC.
Christian
1:29 a.m.
Yep, I had a few. The other platter sits under the cart, fixed, but using
the same spindle air handling and actuator. I don't remember if the RK05
had the extra fixed platter. I think not.
Cheers, Jim
On Wed, Dec 17, 2025 at 12:07 AM Christian Corti via cctalk <
cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
On Tue, 16 Dec 2025, Jim Davis wrote:
Do you need a formatter tool if you want to cross
from IBM to DEC rp03?
The 1130 had one, 5 fixed / 5 removable. Ran hundreds of Fortran and
programming jobs every day.
A 2315 cartridge has only one platter, used in the 2310 disk drive, the
forerunner of many similar drives like the RK05 from DEC.
Christian
10:09 a.m.
On Dec 17, 2025, at 4:29 AM, Jim Davis via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
Yep, I had a few. The other platter sits under the cart, fixed, but using
the same spindle air handling and actuator. I don't remember if the RK05
had the extra fixed platter. I think not.
No. The only DEC drive that had removable plus fixed on the same spindle was the RC25. I
remember when RSTS added support for one of those to be your system disk. Having to spin
down the system disk in order to swap out the removable cartridge required some
interesting OS magic. (Basically, it had to freeze things while you did the drive spin
down/up sequence.) Supposedly we did that work because we had a big customer who wanted
to put one of those systems on each of their submarines. :-)
There was an RK05F, I think, but that was just an RK05 with the cartridge permanently
installed as far as I remember; not the schizoid drive like the RC25.
By the way, on the possibility of using those packs on other drives: RK05 has 12 sector
tracks, so 12 sector slots not counting the index slot. I thought I saw 12 but someone
said 8, if so those packs would be incompatible with the RK05.
Some vague memory says that the IBM 360/44 had a 16 sector pack, but I may be confused
with the RK08.
paul
10:19 a.m.
On Wed, Dec 17, 2025 at 6:09 PM Paul Koning via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
The RK05F is very similar to a normal RK05. It has one platter,
actually in the plastic housing of a normal catridge, and no
user-removeable platter.
The front panel has no door, but has the normal switches and lights of an RK05.
There is no loading mechanism, or cartridge door opening thing.
Instead, the cartridge door is opened by hand when the drive is
assembled, and a plastic wedge fitted to keep it open. 2 tension
springs are fitted under 2 of the screws that hold the cartridge
together These are hooked onto the chassis to hold the pack down. The
hub is locked to the spindle with the normal magnetic ring.
There are electronic modifications to give twice as many cylinders and
allow the unit to appear to the controller as a pair of normal RK05s.
Needless to say when you switch from one 'drive' to the 'other'
(actually halves of the same platter) it has to do a seek.
I am told that if you remove the platter/cartridge from an RK05F and
put it back, it may not centre accurately enough to read the old data
reliably (this is why the removeable RK05s don't have 400-odd
cylinders). So you can field-repair them, replace heads, etc, but you
should do a backup first, then do a full format and restore the data
afterwards.
FWIW the HP7900 uses a similar pack (24 sector notches?) with a fixed
platter in the same unit.
On Dec 17, 2025, at 4:29 AM, Jim Davis via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
Yep, I had a few. The other platter sits under the cart, fixed, but using
the same spindle air handling and actuator. I don't remember if the RK05
had the extra fixed platter. I think not.
No. The only DEC drive that had removable plus fixed on the same spindle was the RC25.
I remember when RSTS added support for one of those to be your system disk. Having to
spin down the system disk in order to swap out the removable cartridge required some
interesting OS magic. (Basically, it had to freeze things while you did the drive spin
down/up sequence.) Supposedly we did that work because we had a big customer who wanted
to put one of those systems on each of their submarines. :-)
There was an RK05F, I think, but that was just an RK05 with the cartridge permanently
installed as far as I remember; not the schizoid drive like the RC25.
By the way, on the possibility of using those packs on other drives: RK05 has 12 sector
tracks, so 12 sector slots not counting the index slot. I thought I saw 12 but someone
said 8, if so those packs would be incompatible with the RK05.
Some vague memory says that the IBM 360/44 had a 16 sector pack, but I may be confused
with the RK08.
The RK05 used with the RK08 controller does indeed use 16 sector packs.
I've never seen an RK05F with anything other than 12 sectors though,.
-tony
4:21 a.m.
On 2025-12-17 1:07 a.m., Christian Corti via cctalk wrote:
On Tue, 16 Dec 2025, Jim Davis wrote:
Who knows what vintage software can be found on said disks.
A evil one could contain BASIC and a star trek program for the IBM 1130
console. Ben.
Do you need a formatter tool if you want to cross
from IBM to DEC rp03?
The 1130 had one, 5 fixed / 5 removable. Ran hundreds of Fortran and
programming jobs every day.
A 2315 cartridge has only one platter, used in the 2310 disk drive, the
forerunner of many similar drives like the RK05 from DEC.
Christian
5:19 a.m.
I didn't know the 1130 even had BASIC. PSU had FORTRAN, Ratfor, Cobol,
Algol, asm and APL, I trashed the console printer with the broken APL ball.
IBM guy schooled me, Kindly.. Also totaled the reader/punch with a clowns
staple and a card knife self help attempt. BOFH.
On Wed, Dec 17, 2025 at 4:22 AM ben via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
wrote:
On 2025-12-17 1:07 a.m., Christian Corti via cctalk
wrote:
On Tue, 16 Dec 2025, Jim Davis wrote:
Who knows what vintage software can be found on said disks.
A evil one could contain BASIC and a star trek program for the IBM 1130
console. Ben.
Do you need a formatter tool if you want to cross
from IBM to DEC rp03?
The 1130 had one, 5 fixed / 5 removable. Ran hundreds of Fortran and
programming jobs every day.
A 2315 cartridge has only one platter, used in the 2310 disk drive, the
forerunner of many similar drives like the RK05 from DEC.
Christian
16 Dec
16 Dec
4:33 p.m.
On Dec 16, 2025, at 4:59 PM, Fred Cisin via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
I have a $10 set of 100 screwdriver bits, including some quite odd ones like
"triwing".
> It is a sad comment on our society that there
could be a need to tell
> people.
> Are there really people who were not taught that the first time that they
> encountered a threaded fastener?
On Tue, 16 Dec 2025, Carey Schug wrote:
i guess it is such a sad comment. at 76 years
old I was never taught that,
including in shop class in high school.
It is interesting, and a little horrifying, that it wasn't taught.
Surely it wasn't that the shop teacher didn't know to do it?
Or, maybe it was so deeply ingrained that it didn't occur to mention it?
My mother (farm raised) told me.
Even my father (city boy from NYC, "call the super"), who didn't even know
that there is more than one size of Phillips screwdrivers, told me. But, for half a century, I have been saying that the
demise of erector sets (or equivalent in other countries) after they changed from a motor
with a whole bunch of gears to a plastic battery motor, means that mechanical competence
is going, going, gone
Yup. I fondly remember my childhood Meccano set, green strips of metal and little screws
with square nuts. The motor was a spring powered mechanism.
(Likewise, modern kids don't all know what
"CLOCKWISE" means! (reasonably mentioned about Jake in "Two And A Half
Men".))
("When you are standing on your head, and seeing with a mirror, to know which way to
turn the drainplug, imagine a watch face on it.")
Eek. But do you know why clockwise is the direction it is? My father referred to it when
he used as a synonym "with the sun" (in Europe, that is).
paul
4:45 p.m.
On Tue, Dec 16, 2025 at 7:34 PM Paul Koning via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
Eek. But do you know why clockwise is the direction
it is? My father referred to it when he used as a synonym "with the sun" (in
Europe, that is).
When I made a sundial in the Southern Hemisphere, I got it wrong the first time.
-ethan
4:42 p.m.
On Tue, Dec 16, 2025 at 4:59 PM Fred Cisin via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
By the time I got to High School (early 80s), Shop Class was a thing
of the past. If you wanted a Vocational Education, you had to
transfer to The Vocational School for half-days. All the other High
Schools were academic classes (and extra-curricular activities) only.
Shop (and Home Ec) were pushed to the one location.
I learned to back-thread either from my Dad or at work (or both).
-ethan
> It is a
sad comment on our society that there could be a need to tell
> people.
> Are there really people who were not taught that the first time that they
> encountered a threaded fastener?
On Tue, 16 Dec 2025, Carey Schug wrote:
i guess it is such a sad comment. at 76 years
old I was never taught that,
including in shop class in high school.
It is interesting, and a little horrifying, that it wasn't taught.
Surely it wasn't that the shop teacher didn't know to do it?
17 Dec
17 Dec
10:21 a.m.
On Mon, Dec 15, 2025 at 9:00 PM Fred Cisin via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
It even applies to mundane things like screw caps on bottles. I keep
on seeing people have problems screwing the cap back on a bottle of
water or similar where, if they turned it anticlockwise (as we say
this side of the Pond) until the threads engaged it would go on first
time.
-tony
> The RK05 manual (similar pack) says to turn
the screws backwards until you
> can feel they are in the original threads before screwing them in.
On Mon, 15 Dec 2025, Christian Corti via cctalk wrote:
This is common practice for every screw and
material (wood, metal, plastic
etc.).
It is a sad comment on our society that there could be a need to tell
people.
Are there really people who were not taught that the first time that they
encountered a threaded fastener?
29 Dec
29 Dec
11:02 p.m.
Update - they person who wanted them had a change of heart, so they are
available again for anyone who wants them. I'd be willing to send no more
than 4 in a box. I'd hate to just toss these things in the garbage but it
looks like it may come to that.
-Kurt
On Fri, Dec 12, 2025, 09:02 Kurt Nowak <knowak(a)alumni.calpoly.edu> wrote:
Thanks for all the info, especially info on the spring
loaded access door.
The vacuum venting makes sense but I'm still perplexed as to how the
read/write head gets access to the magnetic surface. As I stated in my
original posting, 4 of them seem to have broken off. Do you think it's best
to open the rest of the broken ones up (in a very clean dust free area) and
remove them or leave them in there flopping around risking damage during
transit? They are pretty easy to open up.I was thinking of carefully taping
shut the opening with masking tape and a small patch of plastic.
Also, they have been claimed already, sorry. A portion will be donated to
CHM.
-Kurt
On Fri, Dec 12, 2025 at 12:33 AM Christian Corti via cctalk <
cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
On Wed, 10 Dec 2025, Kurt Nowak wrote:
I came across a big box of 12 of these disks
which my dad acquired
through
work back in the 70s, and squirreled them away in
the attic after they
had
These are disk cartridges from an IBM 1130 system.
Christian
31 Dec
31 Dec
1:51 p.m.
Hello,
I will be greatly interested in getting those cartridges if they are still
available. I will be getting soon my first DEC RK05 drive, unfortunately I
won't have any rk cartridges to it. I'm aware that those are 8-sector but
the RK11 requires 12-sectors ones.
However, that could be overcome with simple microcontroller inside drive
logic, mimicking those required 12+1 sector pulses with sync to 8+1 pulses
from the real platters. I don't also worry about interchangeability,
because without proper heads alignment my rk05 won't be able to reliable
read or write cartridges written on another rk05 drive anyway.
Looking forward to getting your replay
Best regards
Mikolaj
On Tue, Dec 30, 2025, 14:06 Kurt Nowak via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
wrote:
Update - they person who wanted them had a change of
heart, so they are
available again for anyone who wants them. I'd be willing to send no more
than 4 in a box. I'd hate to just toss these things in the garbage but it
looks like it may come to that.
-Kurt
On Fri, Dec 12, 2025, 09:02 Kurt Nowak <knowak(a)alumni.calpoly.edu> wrote:
Thanks for all the info, especially info on the
spring loaded access
door.
The vacuum venting makes sense but I'm still
perplexed as to how the
read/write head gets access to the magnetic surface. As I stated in my
original posting, 4 of them seem to have broken off. Do you think it's
best
to open the rest of the broken ones up (in a very
clean dust free area)
and
remove them or leave them in there flopping
around risking damage during
transit? They are pretty easy to open up.I was thinking of carefully
taping
shut the opening with masking tape and a small
patch of plastic.
Also, they have been claimed already, sorry. A portion will be donated to
CHM.
-Kurt
On Fri, Dec 12, 2025 at 12:33 AM Christian Corti via cctalk <
cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
On Wed, 10 Dec 2025, Kurt Nowak wrote:
I came across a big box of 12 of these disks
which my dad acquired
through
work back in the 70s, and squirreled them away in
the attic after they
had
These are disk cartridges from an IBM 1130 system.
Christian
2 Jan
2 Jan
12:25 a.m.
On Wed, 31 Dec 2025, Kurt Nowak wrote:
I will be greatly interested in getting those
cartridges if they are still
available. I will be getting soon my first DEC RK05 drive, unfortunately I
won't have any rk cartridges to it. I'm aware that those are 8-sector but
the RK11 requires 12-sectors ones.
Forget it. A 2315 cartridge is only a low-density disk (1100 bpi). RK05
are high-density (2200 bpi).
There are several IBM 1130 owners on this list. I wonder why noone has
claimed the cartridges. I would if I weren't on the other side of the
pond.
Christian
1
days inactive
23
days old
31 comments
15 participants
participants (15)
-
ben -
Carey Schug -
Christian Corti -
David Gesswein -
David Wade -
Ethan Dicks -
Fred Cisin -
Jim Davis -
Kurt Nowak -
Martin Bishop -
Mikołaj Bułka -
Paul Koning -
Robert Marinelli -
Tony Duell -
Wayne S