[GreenKeys] PDP-8 table

[Jones, Douglas W]

This is a bit off topic, but there are some on this list with PDP-8
connections:

In working on the restoration of PDP-8 serial number 85, the
biggest cosmetic problem we face is that the gullwing-design
console table originally sold with the machine has gone
missing.  I would like to construct an accurate reproduction.
Here's a photo of our machine in early 1966, with the table:
-- http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/~jones/pdp8/UI-8/1966/IBMreport.JPG

I'm making this broadcast plea for information because I can
find no surviving examples of PDP-8 tables, neither for the
table-top model nor for the rack-mount model.

I have photos of the underside of the gull-wing table that
is attached to the PDP-7 in the Living Computer Museum in
Seattle (thanks to them for those photos!!)  Those photos
have allowed me to determine the general construction methods
DEC used for their 1965-era tables:  Formica over plywood with
a steel frame using the same 1x1" and 1x2" steel stock that was
used to build the relay racks.

What I need is detail for the gull-wing PDP-8 tables.  I've
taken measurements from photos of the tables for the rack-mount
and table-top versions, and the front halves of the two appear
identical, including the locations of the legs.  What I need
to know is how the legs were attached and how the steel framing
was arranged under the table.  Quick and dirty cellphone photos
would suffice to answer my questions, if anyone knows where to
find an original table.  Even old memory of how the tables were
built would help:  Did the legs fold or dismount for shipment?
Was there a straight-line member connecting the two legs or were
the only frame members parallel to the sides of the table?

Sadly, it appears that the Computer History Museum had such
a table under their exhibit of PDP-8 systems up until around
2010, but they seem to have lost it.  (It came to them with
a table-top PDP-8 but was never inventoried as a separate
artifact, and when someone redesigned the exhibit, it may well
have been treated as generic surplus furnature.)  I've just
about given up on working through channels there to try to get
information about the table they appear to have lost.

Here's a 2010 photo showing the table the CHM used to have:
-- http://www.flickr.com/photos/dougletterman/4311206087/
(the table is displayed backward, with the PDP-8 that came
with it is still roughly positioned where it belongs, although
turned 165 degrees to face the audience.  More recent photos
show the machine displayed on a little square table:
-- https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5515/11040622066_7c9592ce7e_z.jpg

That table at the CHM may have been the last surviving table of
its kind.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.  I will, of course make up
detailed drawings for the reconstruction, should anyone want to
build a replica table for their rack-mounted system.

		Doug Jones
		jones at cs.uiowa.edu