Off Topic-Dirty Shop environment

Yahoo Archive
1
Everything I have looked at cost more than it was worth. All the PCs in the
shop are now disposable, in part or whole. If it takes more than 10 minutes
to clean a mouse or keyboard it is cheaper to buy a new one. I am however
going to try an optical (ball-less) mouse and see if the extended life
justifies the cost. Our shop is relatively free of airborne crud (oil,
dust, metal chips) so replacing components (video card, power supply, etc..)
if they fail (a big if) is often cheaper than prevention. The typical PC
costs $350 (home-made, plus a little labor) plus a monitor ($120) and the
most expensive PC component is $80 (the motherboard or the CPU) so life
extension is mainly just a good surge protector. The #1 (and only so far)
cause of failure has been a forklift running over the table it was on. With
a three year lifetime a $500 PC costs about $166 a year and if the chances
of failure are about 1 in 4 the risk adjusted cost (expected loss) is about
$40/yr. So any preventative measures should not cost more than that per
year. For us anyway... your milage may vary.

-Todd

-----Original Message-----
From: Carol Engen [mailto:cengen@...]
Sent: Thursday, September 14, 2000 4:31 PM
To: vantage@egroups.com
Subject: [Vantage] Off Topic-Dirty Shop environment



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What have others used to extend the life of computers/keyboards in dirty
shop environments? Are you satisfied?

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2
What have others used to extend the life of computers/keyboards in dirty
shop environments? Are you satisfied?
3
We use a PC enclosure called IceStation from Integration Technology Systems,
Inc. The product is NEMA 12 rated (if that's important to you). We've had
PC's running 24/7 for the last 2 years in them and the PCs look like they
just came from the factory. Heat is also an issue for us and the IceStation
solves that problem as well.
This is NOT a cheap solution, but it is a good one for us.
Check out http://www.icestations.com/icehome.html for more info.
================
Steve Sanders
Delta Centrifugal Corp.

-----Original Message-----
From: Carol Engen [mailto:cengen@...]
Sent: Thursday, September 14, 2000 4:31 PM
To: vantage@egroups.com
Subject: [Vantage] Off Topic-Dirty Shop environment




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What have others used to extend the life of computers/keyboards in dirty
shop environments? Are you satisfied?

We no longer allow attachments to files. To access/share Report Files,
please go to the following link: http://www.egroups.com/files/vantage/
(Note: If this link does not work for you the first time you try it, go
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4
Carol,

I designed simple wooden boxes, attached a high-volume AC fan (30cfm) from
Radio Shack to exhaust air from inside the box (pulling air in from where I
installed the keyboard tray), and then only buy mice and keyboards when they
cost $5 or less apiece. Everything else is inside the box behind an acrylic
window. I've lost one system in 5 years and the total cost for the box was
under $50 including the keyboard tray.

I've got an AutoCAD drawing should you want it.

-----Original Message-----
From: Carol Engen [mailto:cengen@...]
Sent: Thursday, September 14, 2000 4:31 PM
To: vantage@egroups.com
Subject: [Vantage] Off Topic-Dirty Shop environment


What have others used to extend the life of computers/keyboards in dirty
shop environments? Are you satisfied?