[vcf-midatlantic] Trenton / museum report

[Evan Koblentz]

It was a VCF-ful weekend!

Saturday -- Todd and I worked the VCF table at the Trenton show. Lots of 
our members stopped by (I miss saying "MARCHins"). My talk about "the 
present and future of computer history" was well attended. Jeff G., 
Herb, and Justin all reported doing well in the sales room. Dean, Drew, 
and I went to the banquet.

Sunday -- Tony, Jeff G., Dean, Drew, and I all worked in the new museum 
space. We focused on two projects: preparing the double doorway for 
paint and building a workbench. A lot of times, InfoAge volunteers (and 
people in the Army before us) would add layer after layer after layer of 
paint. We decided to do it right -- we're stripping the old paint almost 
down to the wood. We also built most of the workbench. There were a few 
mistakes along the way (thanks to incompetent leadership... me!) but it 
turned out fine. Jeff G., Tony, and I are all going back Tuesday to 
finish the door and improve the workbench.

The picture at http://vcfed.org/evan/benchbottom.jpg shows a storage 
shelf that we built to go under the workbench. It's 16" tall and 12" 
deep. Yes, I know it's strange to have the shelf hanging by the brackets 
instead of sitting on top of them. There was a good reason why we did 
this :) and we'll be able to put them back the regular way on Tuesday.

The picture at http://vcfed.org/evan/benchmain.jpg shows the main bench 
over the lower shelf. It's 33" tall, 24" deep, and almost level! :)  We 
are making two improvements on Tuesday: stabilizing the bottoms of the 
three front posts so they don't wiggle around, and extending the right 
side another 20" to the wall. Original plan was to put a file cabinet 
between the right side and the wall, but it won't fit because of old 
pipes and a radiator. In theory we could move the whole bench to the 
right and put a file cabinet on the left side... but we like it where it 
is, and we have another file cabinet elsewhere on-site anyhow. Jeff G. 
observed that the bench looks "rustic" (he was being nice!)... perhaps 
we'll paint it.

Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the doors.