[SLL] Laptop getting a bit warm --> follow-on comments

[Nicholas Bodley]

{My apologies if this is a duplicate message; thought it had been sent.  
--nb}

On Mon, 23 Jul 2007 14:05:03 -0400, Bill Campbell <bill at celestial.com>  
wrote:

> Agreed.  There aren't too many floppies lying around these days that can  
> be hurt by a magnetic screwdriver.

Some years back, I tried intentionally to corrupt totally-unimportant data  
on a floppy, and found it remarkably difficult. I suspect that modern  
coatings don't demagnetize easily. Nevertheless, caution is wise.

[...]
> fine for disassembly, but there's nothing like being able to feel what's
> going on when tightening things.

Really true!

> As for computers, there's nothing I can think of offhand that requires  
> much tightening torque (although I've had to disassemble things where it  
> appears that the person assembling thought they were mounting truck  
> tires).

I once read a comment that small fasteners (such as used in computers)  
tend to be over-tightened, and big ones under-tightened.

The stacks of flat contact springs and insulators in traditional telephone  
relays made by Automatic Electric (superb quality, imho) were compressed  
in a press after assembly, and while being held squeezed, the screws were  
inserted (and, most likely, torqued to the proper setting by automatic  
screwdrivers). The screws didn't progressively compress the stack, as one  
might expect. (It was quite unlikely that the screws would ever be  
removed, as well.)

-- 
Nicholas  B o d l e y
Waltham, Mass.