Ok, I guess I'm publicly committing here... I'm planning on bringing several full size S-100 chassis and 8 inch floppies to VCF East 2025 (it's the Altair's 50th birthday). I've always, in the past, crammed my car full of stuff for VCF but this ain't gonna fit. So, I'm going to rent a van or a truck. The question is how to put this equipment into a van/truck without damaging it. I'm thinking about having foam-in-place boxes made for each chassis. This seems fairly safe to me, plus having heavy duty boxes with handhold cutouts will make them a lot easier to move. I have no idea how much this would cost so I'm asking here. Is there some way to do it cheap? Is there a service that does it well? Is there a better idea? Thanks, Bill S. -- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. www.avast.com
Depends on how annoyed you would be with a scratch. Some people have stuff restored to better than new. My stuff has the patina of use. I just put the stuff in the car with furniture blankets and other padding around it making sure if it has a fragile side such as front panel that its well protected from something heavy shifting into it if I have to slam on the brakes. Use ratchet straps to keep heavy stuff from moving. Yes doing this enough times something is going to get slightly more patina. The foam boxes should prevent that as long as no foam in wrong place accidents. On Fri, Dec 13, 2024 at 05:30:55PM -0500, William Sudbrink via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
Ok, I guess I'm publicly committing here...
I'm planning on bringing several full size S-100 chassis and 8 inch floppies to VCF East 2025 (it's the Altair's 50th birthday). I've always, in the past, crammed my car full of stuff for VCF but this ain't gonna fit. So, I'm going to rent a van or a truck. The question is how to put this equipment into a van/truck without damaging it. I'm thinking about having foam-in-place boxes made for each chassis. This seems fairly safe to me, plus having heavy duty boxes with handhold cutouts will make them a lot easier to move. I have no idea how much this would cost so I'm asking here. Is there some way to do it cheap? Is there a service that does it well? Is there a better idea?
Thanks,
Bill S.
-- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. www.avast.com
I just put the stuff in the car with furniture blankets and other padding around it making sure if it has a fragile side such as front panel that its well protected from something heavy shifting into it if I have to slam on the brakes. Use ratchet straps to keep heavy stuff from moving.
That's basically how I handle both personal vintage computers and industrial customers' equipment (as long as it's not especially fragile).
I'm thinking about having foam-in-place boxes made for each chassis.
We buy Sealed Air InstaPak-RT bags and do this ourselves for shipping fragile equipment, especially things with CRTs. We buy ours from ULINE to make sure they're the real thing and in date (they do expire). Make sure you buy the "RT" kind, it stands for "Room Temperature," the other, cheaper InstaPak bags require preheating. ***BE SURE TO WRAP THE EQUIPMENT IN PLASTIC OR HEAVY CLOTH WHEN FORMING*** These things expand with force, and if one ever bursts, it'll be like spraying a can of Great Stuff foam on your hardware! Wrapping the item also prevents the foam from entering holes/cutouts and making a shape that can't be removed without wrecking the foam. Thanks, Jonathan
I look forward to seeing this. We talked about your ideas briefly at The MD tech museum. I just use insulation and or soft foam to prevent things from shifting around. Use friction to keep everything in place Bill On Fri, Dec 13, 2024 at 6:04 PM Jonathan Chapman via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
I just put the stuff in the car with furniture blankets and other padding around it making sure if it has a fragile side such as front panel that its well protected from something heavy shifting into it if I have to slam on the brakes. Use ratchet straps to keep heavy stuff from moving.
That's basically how I handle both personal vintage computers and industrial customers' equipment (as long as it's not especially fragile).
I'm thinking about having foam-in-place boxes made for each chassis.
We buy Sealed Air InstaPak-RT bags and do this ourselves for shipping fragile equipment, especially things with CRTs. We buy ours from ULINE to make sure they're the real thing and in date (they do expire). Make sure you buy the "RT" kind, it stands for "Room Temperature," the other, cheaper InstaPak bags require preheating.
***BE SURE TO WRAP THE EQUIPMENT IN PLASTIC OR HEAVY CLOTH WHEN FORMING***
These things expand with force, and if one ever bursts, it'll be like spraying a can of Great Stuff foam on your hardware! Wrapping the item also prevents the foam from entering holes/cutouts and making a shape that can't be removed without wrecking the foam.
Thanks, Jonathan
participants (4)
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Bill Degnan -
David Gesswein -
Jonathan Chapman -
William Sudbrink