Re: Keeping a museum in good health Message #2 Posted by David Ramsey on 5 June 2012, 11:20 a.m., in response to message #1 by Matt Agajanian
That's a good question...
Although I'm sure that the people with actual hardware knowledge will chime in with more useful information than I am able to provide, here's what I do, for what it's worth:
One. Don't keep batteries in calculators that you don't use regularly. Just don't.
Two. Dust them every week or two.
That's pretty much it. In my experience, over 30 years of collecting these calculators, the biggest problem I've run into is that sometimes the plastic becomes brittle and crackly with age. Watching the internal screw posts of a pristine and never opened model 41 calculator disintegrate into a pile of plastic crumbles is one such example. On the large desk machines, like the 9810 and others, rubber/plastic feet and rubber edging the metal parts disintegrates.
The only possible benefit I can see to occasional use is that it might extend the life of some electrolytic capacitors. However, I've never had a machine failure that I ever traced back to a bad capacitor, so I don't worry about this.
Edited: 5 June 2012, 11:21 a.m.
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