[jwhat]

Hi Irinikus,

thanks for responding on rivets, it was a real stab in the dark see if anyone from IRIX Network had touched this.

The pointer to "High Strength Structural Blind Carbon Steel Dome Head Rivet" was very helpful, as I was doing search on "stainless steel 6mm rivet".

This helped me home in on: Huck Magna-Lok Rivets

These are structural steel rivets, available in 1/4" (6.4mm) size and have hollow end, which looks identical to the ones on SGI rack.

There is also Huck / Makita BV4500 Cordless Rivet gun for installing these, but it’s very expensive.

A cheaper option might be Makita DRV250 rivet gun or even manual tool.

I will provide update once I have done some test riveting...

EDIT #1: I have now reassembled rack and am at the point of starting to load the O350 kit into it, here is picture (with intel / linux box installed at the moment):



As this was some considerable effort and I had to learn a lot more than just rivet'ing, I am adding blog post with all the information should another SGI collector want to do this: https://tips.graphica.com.au/sgi-onyx-35...-stacking/

Once I get all the kit in I will put the front door back on.

Cheers from Oz,


jwhat/John

[Irinikus]

I've just managed to nab this Power Mac G3 to finish off my Power Mac collection: (Its a pretty good example of one of these machines!)

I'll have to give it a really good clean when it arrives, as there's quite a bit of dust beneath the plastics, which is rather typical for these machines!

[robespierre]

I've just managed to nab this Power Mac G3 to finish off my Power Mac collection: (Its a pretty good example of one of these machines!)

I'll have to give it a really good clean when it arrives, as there's quite a bit of dust beneath the plastics, which is rather typical for these machines!

Shockingly, Apple were still using Li-SOCl2 cells from Maxell in the late 1990s. Removing that little bomb is the first order of business.

[Irinikus]

I agree, I've removed the "barrel batteries" from all of my G4's and G5!

[Raion]

You can get new batteries for them you know...

[Irinikus]

I am aware of this, but it's the form factor of these things I don't like! For example, CR 2032's are allot less likely to leak!

I very seldom run these things up, so I'm not that concerned as to the status of their real time clocks.

[Raion]

I suspect that the batteries store more than just RTC -- that could also be PRAM vars and such. that can break certain systems.

But anyways, do what you prefer, but the batteries don't leak unless you neglect them. change them ever 7 years, no problems.

[Irinikus]

No there is FLASH memory on the motherboard that stores all of the PROM information!



That's Apple for you! They just do it better!

[jwhat]

Hi Irinikus,

rebuild of rack with Onyx 350 inside (still not as fast as a modern "Intel Inside" Server ;-) )  completed.

Last item needed was a long enough MD50-MD50 SCSI cable (10 feet) for the L2 Display:





Big effort to pull it all apart, move it, rebuilt it and re-stack all the kit inside.

I am pretty happy with the result   .

Cheers from Oz,

jwhat/John.

[GeekLucanis]

The recent snags have been a Origin 350, Raq 2, Atari 800, some Dell P4 laptops and a i7 haswell box. Most were free or trades. Some of them need works or parts, but a nice haul from VCF