[GreenKeys] PDP-8 table

[Ed Sharpe Archivist for SMECC via GreenKeys]

they lost it?  puts a lot of confidence in their  procedure there  eh?
Ed#
 
 
In a message dated 3/23/2015 12:34:10 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time,  
douglas-w-jones at uiowa.edu writes:

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
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