[vcf-midatlantic] Hard drive art

Wed Apr 17 19:59:56 EDT 2019

I have my feet in a lot of different hobbies, but this debate is common to
pretty much all of them.

It's especially common in the vintage TV\CRT hobby and antique radio
fields.  There are "fishtankers" who turn the TVs into aquariums, or
dioramas, and there are the upcyclers who turn console radios into mini
bars.  there are also the folks that try to do the industrial/steampunk
look, with various degrees of craftsmanship invested.  Then there are the
parts folks who rip working things apart to sell the valuable things, like
the high-value tubes ripped out of oscilloscopes, or pulling knobs, or old
crts from common vintage TVs,  etc.  The car parts as art people were
already mentioned - trunk sofas, bumpers for wall shelves, etc.  There are
also those that take stock cars and turn them into movie cars (time
machines, general lees, and so on).

Facebook groups show this argument time and time again.  There's no
shortage of "white knights" who claim how awful it was that something was
"arted", but are also quite often the same people that are not willing to
drive out of their way to pick up something offered up for free, or have no
space to store more stuff because they are already at capacity.

It all comes down to the same thing - there is a lot of stuff out there in
the world, the vast majority of society likes to march onward rather than
look backward, and those of us who wish to preserve things from the past
for what they were, are a minority.  We as individuals can't save it all,
and frankly, not everything needs to be saved.

I personally am in the "look backward" camp.  I have a lot of artifacts
from a lot of different hobbies.  I clearly appreciate history, but I also
appreciate the "arters".  At the end of the day only so many people care
about working 50s TVs and room-sized computers, and if additional small
pieces of these things survive in artwork form, then it still keeps more
out of the landfill and it survives into the future a little bit longer.

I think there is enough stuff out there for everyone.  There's room for the
art folk and the historians, and it sounds like in this case we have one
who is conscious of the hobby and has done their research and is still
making some of the stuff available to the hobby.

Respectfully,

Matt

On Wed, Apr 17, 2019 at 7:13 PM Dave McGuire via vcf-midatlantic <
vcf-midatlantic at lists.vcfed.org> wrote:

>
>   It's most likely nickel, not FeO2 that had been removed.
>
>             -Dave
>
> On 4/17/19 7:05 PM, Brian Brubaker via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
> > The 4 27" platters I got , I'm 99" sure someone previously removed the
> top
> > layer from them as they now look silver not like the one in the link
> > included below. My plan is to make 4 tables out of them, similar to the
> one
> > in the link below, but with my own art added on top, in a clear resin
> > epoxy.
> >
> >
> https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://stupidevilbastard.com/2005/11/old_hard_drive_platter_made_into_table/&ved=2ahUKEwi9rtjEndjhAhWKmeAKHUPBAewQFjAAegQIAhAB&usg=AOvVaw0yhgvX93uO1BTSKKzdyrse
> >
> > On Wed, Apr 17, 2019, 12:47 PM Brian Brubaker <brianbrubaker at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> >> I definitely buy drives from ebay, and sometimes the drives are
> >> working. The two rarest drives/platters I've bought were a .85" drive,
> >> aka the smallest drive with moving parts, and 4 27" platters from an
> >> IBM 350. The majority of the drives I've bought are sold as scrap, the
> >> small percentage of larger industrial drives most all came from
> >> California. Most of these larger drives were listed for sale on e-mail
> >> for 6+ months, occasionally lowering their prices to a point where I
> >> could justify buying them. The other times I made offers and they
> >> accepted. Most of the time I ended up spending more on shipping then
> >> the drives themselves.
> >>
> >> I started making my art out of a love of hard drives, I shared it here
> >> with the thought of all people this group might be able to appreciate
> >> what I'm trying to do. If I was wrong, I won't bother the group again.
> >>
> >> On Wed, Apr 17, 2019 at 12:15 PM Dave McGuire via vcf-midatlantic
> >> <vcf-midatlantic at lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>   I understood from one of his posts that he was purchasing drives on
> >>> the market, for sometimes serious money.  If I misinterpreted his
> >>> statement, please let me know, in which case I will apologize and move
> >> on.
> >>>
> >>>             -Dave
> >>>
> >>> On 4/17/19 10:54 AM, Drew Notarnicola via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
> >>>> No need to be mean to the guy.  If he's using scrap parts then I don't
> >> see
> >>>> what the big issue is.
> >>>>
> >>>> On Tue, Apr 16, 2019 at 4:24 PM Dave McGuire via vcf-midatlantic <
> >>>> vcf-midatlantic at lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>>> On April 16, 2019 4:10:56 PM Brian Brubaker <brianbrubaker at gmail.com
> >
> >>>>> wrote:
> >>>>>
> >>>>>> It seems you've missed my intentions, all I'll say is I thought of
> >> all
> >>>>>> people you all could appreciate my art, if I was wrong, I'm very
> >> sorry
> >>>>>> to have bothered you.
> >>>>>
> >>>>>   I'm sure you are a talented artist.  I for one would likely
> >> appreciate
> >>>>> your art a lot more if you didn't destroy what I've worked for years
> >> trying
> >>>>> to preserve when you create it.
> >>>>>
> >>>>>   At the very least you could learn something from the reactions
> >> you've
> >>>>> gotten, but you don't seem to have that capacity either.
> >>>>>
> >>>>>> Before you start calling someone unintelligent you might want to
> >> avoid
> >>>>>> threats in a digital medium.
> >>>>>
> >>>>>   Predictable.  New to the net, too, I see.
> >>>>>
> >>>>>  ...and, I take that as a threat!
> >>>>>
> >>>>>             -Dave
> >>>>>
> >>>>> --
> >>>>> Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
> >>>>> New Kensington, PA
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> --
> >>> Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
> >>> New Kensington, PA
> >>
>
>
> --
> Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
> New Kensington, PA
>