[sdiy] East Coast Environment Destroys Gear

[David Anderson]

Ken,

> It's the act of letting stuff sit around for long
> periods of time unused which seems to be destroying it.

I think you've identified the true problem: time and disuse.

I have a reasonable collection of older and newer equipment, some in 
active use and some stored for a long time. All of it works but some 
equipment I've had to work on to keep it functioning properly.

Conductive pad switches are known to fail over time. Some fail from 
"excessive use" (more than anticipated by the engineers). Others from 
corrosion. I recall a computer terminal from the very early 80s 
(Infotron) that used a silvered mylar on a foam pad (on the key side) 
that was a huge PITA. The Alesis MMT-8 (and HR-16) were notorious for 
conductive pad failure.

Regardless, there are a variety of solutions. Most involve restoring the 
conductivity of the pad. Check out CaiKote:
http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/200-315

> I don't know
> what's happening to disk drive heads.  I'm going to have to open those
> up and see.

It might not be the drive heads. If, as you say, you haven't used it in 
8 years, my first suspicion is the lubricant on the head rails, 
lubricant in the motor, and pretty any lubricant in the drive :) I never 
worked on Apple drives, but I remember that the Commodore 1541 was 
notoriously finicky even when new. When I worked in a Commodore store in 
the mid 80s we were constantly fixing 1541s, usually adjusting the RPM. 
The 1541 flywheel has a tach pattern on it for expressly this purpose.

Lubricants need proper care or they break down, seize up, etc. I 
distinctly recall that the lubricants Tapco put in their pots ages ago 
(to make them "smooth") seized up horribly after a few years. A friend's 
otherwise really nice Tapco mixer set was rendered useless by the 
original pot lube.

Humidity makes a happy home for fungus. Fungus is generally bad for just 
about everything.

> And my harpsichord didn't self-destruct, just
> that all the keys stick.  Perhaps wood absorbing humidity has caused
> it to swell or something.

Yes, it has. I moved my grandfather's roll-top desk from Texas to 
Western New York a few years ago. In the last six months, one of the 
drawers seized from the wood swelling. It's in my basement workshop, so 
I'm running a dehumidifier next to it to keep it reasonably dry. I also 
noted that some white fungus had started to attack it.

Wood instruments like a delicate balance of humidity. Too dry and they 
crack and fall apart. Too wet... well, all kinds of problems.

David Anderson