• Cleaning gold contacts

    From Louis Ohland@21:1/5 to All on Sun Jul 30 08:35:04 2023
    Folks, I have NO knowledge of whether this is true or not.

    https://archive.org/details/micro-cornucopia-magazine-1985-08/page/n12/mode/1up

    S-100 Toolbox by Dave Hardy

    Like all bus-oriented, plug-in systems, S-100 boards and frames have
    connectors that sometimes get dirty. In fact, about 50 percent of all of
    the S-100 problems I have had in the last 10 years have been because of
    dirty edge connectors on S-100 boards, or damaged sockets in an S-100 frame.

    There's not much you can do about a bad socket (except replace it), but
    edge connectors can be cleaned with some isopropyl alcohol and a rag.
    Because the pads on most edge connectors are plated with a few mils of
    gold, it is not a good idea to simply rub off the dirt and tarnish with
    an eraser.

    Having been the victim of bad edge connectors that had been erased by
    well meaning users, even the idea of using a pencil eraser on a
    gold-plated connector used to make me cringe, not only because of the
    damage to the gold plating, but also because of the oily residue left
    behind by the eraser.

    But about a year ago, I discovered that one eraser, the Mars Staedtler
    Rasor 52730, not only cleans the connector without damage to the gold
    plating, but also leaves no residue.

    Since that time, I have used the Mars eraser with excellent results, and
    have decided to make it a permanent resident in my S-100 toolbox.

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  • From Louis Ohland@21:1/5 to Louis Ohland on Sun Jul 30 17:37:14 2023
    https://web.archive.org/web/20101230211113/http://staedtler.com/Mars_rasor_gb.Staedtler

    Researching

    Louis Ohland wrote:
    Mars Staedtler Rasor 52730

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  • From RickE@21:1/5 to Louis Ohland on Sun Jul 30 19:32:09 2023
    On Sunday, July 30, 2023 at 6:36:33 PM UTC-4, Louis Ohland wrote:
    Mars Staedtler Rasor 52730

    Those white erasers were "the standard" for drafting work, as they erased cleanly. However, there's really no "magic" in that particular model, there were other white erasers that worked just as well, a common one being the Eberhard Faber "Magic Rub"
    1954.

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  • From Louis Ohland@21:1/5 to RickE on Sun Jul 30 21:54:24 2023
    I was unable to find the 527 30 with IA, but that comment was from 1985,
    IIRC. Just trying to ID the composition of the eraser.

    RickE wrote:
    On Sunday, July 30, 2023 at 6:36:33 PM UTC-4, Louis Ohland wrote:
    Mars Staedtler Rasor 52730

    Those white erasers were "the standard" for drafting work, as they erased cleanly. However, there's really no "magic" in that particular model, there were other white erasers that worked just as well, a common one being the Eberhard Faber "Magic Rub"
    1954.


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  • From Louis Ohland@21:1/5 to Louis Ohland on Mon Jul 31 06:10:05 2023
    https://archive.org/details/sim_reprographics-design-imaging_1970-08_43_8/page/4/mode/1up

    J.S. Staedtler is providing 527 30 Mars-Rasor technical erasers that are identical in texture to the familiar block-form 526 50 Mars-Plastic...

    Louis Ohland wrote:
    Staedtler Rasor 52730

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  • From Louis Ohland@21:1/5 to Louis Ohland on Mon Jul 31 06:35:03 2023
    The holder is 527-30, the bone-white color refill is 527-35 [graphite].
    Refill 527-40 is for ink.

    Louis Ohland wrote:
    I was unable to find the 527 30 with IA, but that comment was from 1985, IIRC. Just trying to ID the composition of the eraser.

    RickE wrote:
    On Sunday, July 30, 2023 at 6:36:33 PM UTC-4, Louis Ohland wrote:
    Mars Staedtler Rasor 52730

    Those white erasers were "the standard" for drafting work, as they
    erased cleanly.  However, there's really no "magic" in that particular
    model, there were other white erasers that worked just as well, a
    common one being the Eberhard Faber "Magic Rub" 1954.


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  • From gfretwell@aol.com@21:1/5 to All on Mon Jul 31 10:34:04 2023
    On Sun, 30 Jul 2023 17:37:14 -0500, Louis Ohland <ohland@charter.net>
    wrote:

    https://web.archive.org/web/20101230211113/http://staedtler.com/Mars_rasor_gb.Staedtler

    Researching

    Louis Ohland wrote:
    Mars Staedtler Rasor 52730

    They make something called Stabilant 55 that you mix with 100%
    isopropanol and it does a great job of cleaning and improving
    connections without taking the plating off.
    IBM told us to never use an eraser on a gold contact. We used IBM
    Cleaning fluid (Trichloroethane 1.1.1)

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  • From IBMMuseum@21:1/5 to All on Mon Jul 31 11:34:11 2023
    They make something called Stabilant 55 that you mix with 100%
    isopropanol and it does a great job of cleaning and improving
    connections without taking the plating off.
    IBM told us to never use an eraser on a gold contact. We used IBM
    Cleaning fluid (Trichloroethane 1.1.1)

    Trichloroethane is some nasty stuff, however - "DeoxIT" is a good, modern product to use.

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  • From gfretwell@aol.com@21:1/5 to ibmmuseum@gmail.com on Mon Jul 31 23:23:35 2023
    On Mon, 31 Jul 2023 11:34:11 -0700 (PDT), IBMMuseum
    <ibmmuseum@gmail.com> wrote:

    They make something called Stabilant 55 that you mix with 100%
    isopropanol and it does a great job of cleaning and improving
    connections without taking the plating off.
    IBM told us to never use an eraser on a gold contact. We used IBM
    Cleaning fluid (Trichloroethane 1.1.1)

    Trichloroethane is some nasty stuff, however - "DeoxIT" is a good, modern product to use.

    Yeah after 25 years,, they took the "gold can" away from us. The old
    guys said it was safer than carbon tetrachloride that they used before
    ;)

    We were always using the gold can, for just about everything and we
    ain't dead yet.

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  • From RickE@21:1/5 to gfre...@aol.com on Tue Aug 8 16:45:59 2023
    On Monday, July 31, 2023 at 11:23:57 PM UTC-4, gfre...@aol.com wrote:

    Yeah after 25 years,, they took the "gold can" away from us. The old
    guys said it was safer than carbon tetrachloride that they used before
    ;)

    I used "carbon tet" for many things back in the 1960s, it was a great cleaner. But as a demonstration of how dangerous it could be in closed spaces, I used to kill butterflies for my collection using an old peanut butter jar (yes, they used to be made
    out of glass with metal lids). Put a few drops on a tissue, put the tissue in the jar then add a thin cardboard circle to cover the tissue, put in the butterfly and screw down the lid. Within 10 seconds the butterfly would be dead, and it died so
    quickly that it didn't have a chance to injure itself. The "typical" butterfly killing chemical, nail polish remover, took much longer to work, the butterflies would beat themselves inside the jar and far too often you wound up with a specimen that wasn'
    t worthy of mounting to the butterfly board. Triclor was indeed safer (and less effective as a cleaner), though it certainly needed to be used with care. Isopropyl alcohol is even safer, way less effective as a cleaner, but has not yet fallen
    completely afoul with the safety police.

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