No one can see it, just use painted wood or something that holds it in place, eh?
On Thu, Jul 9, 2015 at 8:18 AM, Noel Chiappa <j...@mercury.lcs.mit.edu> wrote: > > From: Steven Malikoff > > > a replica PDP11 masthead panel for the DEC H960 rack. > > That would be great! (I'd buy one! Or more!) But how are you going to > produce > the plastic housing? I suspect that's going to be harder than the inset > coloured panel. > > > I need some help from the list, if possible - I would like the > > dimensions of the width and height. > > The inset (the coloured part) is 8.45 cm high (it's slightly smaller than > the > inset in the plastic housing, by about .5 mm); alas, I don't have a metric > ruler long enough to measure the width directly, but in Imperial it's > 3-21/64" by 18-9/16". > > I don't have a good way to accurately measure the radius in the corners, > but > it seems to be about 8.5 to 9.5 mm. > > > I also would like to know of the outer edge of the masthead is a > beige > > colour, or even silver. > > The raised edge around the inset panel is painted a dull silver - like the > old > silver paint, but with a touch of grey in it. The edge itself is 4.1mm > wide, > according to my calipers. > > > The panel would be the inner bit with the radiused corners, the edges > > being a seperately cut panel which is in front of the the detailed > one. > > Not sure I follow this? The entire top unit, including the raised edge > around > the coloured inset, is a moderately complex injection moulded plastic > piece; > behind the front, it's kind of like a box that's open at the back, and > there's > a ridge around the back edge on three sides; the bottom edge is shorter, > and > the top edge is extended further back. Finally, there are a couple of > internal > tabs where it actually connects to the H960. > > If you want an original to copy, TopLine has one for sale on eBay (ignore > the > ridiculous price they've got on it, they are very reasonable). > > > I would also like to know how deep the recess is for the front. I > > suspect the same as the filler panel bezel edge, about 3mm. > > 4.0 mm by my 0.5 mm ruler. > > > And also the depth of the plastic backing. > > You mean, how thick is the plastic in the housing? 2.7 mm in one place, 2.8 > mm in another, 2.3 mm in a third? > > > Interestingly, IYWR, in previous thread we'd mentioned how other people > produced their own insets; one for a terminal server, and one for the LISP > Machine. I looked at my LISP Machine one, which I had assumed was in a > similar housing, but it's not! It does indeed fit on an H960 (the early > LISP > Machines were built in H960's), but it's quite different. > > It's in an extruded aluminium unit (of constant cross-section), with no end > pieces (although the bottom plate has small squared cut out of the > corners); > the extrusion's cross-section is exact a capital 'F', but upside down. > There > are little square 'serifs' on the 'back' of the 'F' (the front side, when > installed), and the printed panel fits in between them. > > Now that I look at it, it looks very similar to me to some things I seem to > vaguely recall being used on earlier DEC machines (either a PDP-6, or a > KA-10, I don't recall where it looks familar from). It being a > more-expensive > aluminium extrusion makes sense; that was back when that sort of thing > (along > with lots of lights! :-) was acceptable. > > Noel >