Nobody expects the scanning electron microscope

Paul Wallich

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Oct 17, 2014, 11:58:13 AM10/17/14

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For complicated reasons, I now have a couple hundred pounds of parts of
same in basement and garage. Anyone need a vacuum pump? (The whole thing
probably weighed somewhere north of 400kg, and all I had was a
screwdriver and some allen wrenches.)

paul

songbird

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Oct 17, 2014, 3:33:56 PM10/17/14

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hahaha, you're my hero, and probably PB's too. :)

songbird

Plague Boy

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Oct 17, 2014, 8:47:13 PM10/17/14

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I have some failed hard drives that it would be interesting to recover
the data from. To protect our freedoms, of course.

--
PB
February 13, 2008:
Finished Ayn Rand. Brain doesn't work properly anymore. -Zach Weiner

Paul Wallich

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Oct 18, 2014, 10:28:45 AM10/18/14

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On 10/17/14 8:47 PM, Plague Boy wrote:
> On 10/17/14 3:33 PM, songbird wrote:
>> Paul Wallich wrote:
>>
>>> For complicated reasons, I now have a couple hundred pounds of parts of
>>> same in basement and garage. Anyone need a vacuum pump? (The whole thing
>>> probably weighed somewhere north of 400kg, and all I had was a
>>> screwdriver and some allen wrenches.)
>>
>> hahaha, you're my hero, and probably PB's too. :)
>>
>>
>> songbird
>>
> I have some failed hard drives that it would be interesting to recover
> the data from. To protect our freedoms, of course.

I think some of these parts might be useful for making the data
permanently unrecoverable.

(The main vacuum chamber body, which was apparently machined out of a
piece of metal about the size of a 5-gallon bucket, was one of the ones
I couldn't get. Both because of mass and because my allen wrench set
stops well short of carnival-ride sizes.)

songbird

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Oct 19, 2014, 1:10:18 AM10/19/14

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Paul Wallich wrote:

> Plague Boy wrote:
>> songbird wrote:
>>> Paul Wallich wrote:
>>>

>>> hahaha, you're my hero, and probably PB's too. :)
>>>

>> I have some failed hard drives that it would be interesting to recover
>> the data from. To protect our freedoms, of course.
>
> I think some of these parts might be useful for making the data
> permanently unrecoverable.

i have a stack of old disk drives sitting on the table
here that came from all the old machines i dropped off at
a recycle collection point. cleaned out half a closet full
of old stuff (from the early 80s until 2000 or so) and
wouldn't you know it that a few weeks later i could have
used a few of those parts.

> (The main vacuum chamber body, which was apparently machined out of a
> piece of metal about the size of a 5-gallon bucket, was one of the ones
> I couldn't get. Both because of mass and because my allen wrench set
> stops well short of carnival-ride sizes.)

i weep. do you get a second chance? perhaps you can
borrow some?

songbird

Paul Wallich

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Oct 19, 2014, 10:39:07 AM10/19/14

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On 10/19/14 1:10 AM, songbird wrote:
> Paul Wallich wrote:

[...]

>> (The main vacuum chamber body, which was apparently machined out of a
>> piece of metal about the size of a 5-gallon bucket, was one of the ones
>> I couldn't get. Both because of mass and because my allen wrench set
>> stops well short of carnival-ride sizes.)
>
> i weep. do you get a second chance? perhaps you can
> borrow some?

From one week to the next it went from "hmm, maybe we could take this
to someone's garage and revive it" to "We were going to load it on the
truck now, but we can give you another hour if you really need it."

I have no idea what junk place they took it to. Bet stainless steel has
a decent price per pound...

paul