tlug: Re: dust + Cleaning + Tapes

[gaijin@example.com (John Little)]

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tlug note from gaijin@example.com (John Little)
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% 
% If your house/apartment/mansion/whatever is anything like mine then dust
% is a real problem. The Sparc SLC has an open bay which is probably
% acting like a vacuum hose sucking in stuff. What should I do? Leave a
% tape in there or put on some kind of filter?
% 

Jim,

   I generally leave an old scratch tape loaded in the streamer for
   that very reason.

   There's not much else you can do, except take the side off the box
   (there's one big screw, designed to be opened with a coin - you don't
   even need a screwdriver to take this puppy apart) and vacuum out the
   accumulated crap once a year, or so. The head on the streamer can be 
   cleaned using a standard 1/2" tape cleaning kit. If you don't have
   one of those to hand, then a cotton-bud and the fluid from a floppy
   disk cleaning kit will do the job, but be sure to use a clean, dry
   cotton bud to give the head a final polish and don't let floppy
   cleaning fluid onto the rubber of the capstan pinch roller.

   BTW, the P-Boxes (the long, narrow peripheral boxes) use a QIC 150,
   150MB tape. They're available at "Laox" for about 2000Y each (check
   the metal bottom of the tape cardridge for a "6150" stamp to verify
   the capacity). The Shoeboxes (the smaller, oblong boxes with two
   fans) uses a QIC 11/22 60MB tape. Linux boot messages should
   identify each type correctly.



			-John-

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