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I need your old computer screws

Checkerboard Strangler

Make Video Horizontal Again
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For years I was a system builder.
Not professionally, although I know I did a pretty decent job of it, for myself and the fam.
I probably built something like ten or twelve machines over the years, maybe thirteen.

Got out of it around Windows 7 and have moved a couple of times since then and now I've lost all the little glass jars I used to keep all my computer screws and widgets in. Oh, they might still be somewhere, like in "the 908723498763549874598745th box I finally look at in the garage."
When I am eighty-four years old I'll find them, right? :lol:

I bought a server case many years ago with the intent of putting a new mobo in it and I'm stymied by the standoffs having some weird thread size or pitch that doesn't match the screws from any motherboard I know of and it's the first time I've ever encountered that.

I'm hoping someone just has a couple of extra bags or jars of miscellaneous motherboard standoffs and screws that I can give them twenty bucks for because I just don't even have a clue how to match these and I'd rather just put in new standoffs that will accept standard mobo screws.

Does this sound strange? It should, it's the first time I've ever run across this kind of oddball problem.

NetProMax1.jpg

At least I didn't pay much for the case, five bucks...it's a nice big fat case with rack mount ears which is perfect for me because I have a rack with one machine in it already.

So? Anyone want to make an easy twenty bucks by mailing me a bag or jar from their junk drawer?

Jeff H in Whittier CA
 
For years I was a system builder.
Not professionally, although I know I did a pretty decent job of it, for myself and the fam.
I probably built something like ten or twelve machines over the years, maybe thirteen.

Got out of it around Windows 7 and have moved a couple of times since then and now I've lost all the little glass jars I used to keep all my computer screws and widgets in. Oh, they might still be somewhere, like in "the 908723498763549874598745th box I finally look at in the garage."
When I am eighty-four years old I'll find them, right? :lol:

I bought a server case many years ago with the intent of putting a new mobo in it and I'm stymied by the standoffs having some weird thread size or pitch that doesn't match the screws from any motherboard I know of and it's the first time I've ever encountered that.

I'm hoping someone just has a couple of extra bags or jars of miscellaneous motherboard standoffs and screws that I can give them twenty bucks for because I just don't even have a clue how to match these and I'd rather just put in new standoffs that will accept standard mobo screws.

Does this sound strange? It should, it's the first time I've ever run across this kind of oddball problem.

View attachment 67258504

At least I didn't pay much for the case, five bucks...it's a nice big fat case with rack mount ears which is perfect for me because I have a rack with one machine in it already.

So? Anyone want to make an easy twenty bucks by mailing me a bag or jar from their junk drawer?

Jeff H in Whittier CA
Have you tried Newegg and looked for some sets?
 
Have you tried Newegg and looked for some sets?

I would if I knew what kind to order. I don't think Newegg sells random grab bags of the stuff because if they did I would have gone for it.

It's so bizarre. I've never run into this before. Every case I've ever had used the same kind of standoffs with the same thread size and pitch, and regular old motherboard screws just plain worked, it was never even more than a passing thought.
Six or seven screws, motherboard mounted, connect the cables, connect the case switches and LED's, connect the audio, USB, FW etc, plop in the sticks of RAM, hook up the SATA cables, screw in the hard drives, drop in the video card (and audio card if need be) connect the power supply and blammo, load the OS and drivers.

I had NO idea that there was more than one size of standoffs or screws!
Power supplies and other large hdwe used the kind of screws that had the hex pattern outside and Phillips inside, mobo and other hdwe used the smaller Phillips screws. The end.
 
I do HAVE another case but it doesn't have the rack ears and it is smaller.
It's horizontal too, it's a Home Theater PC case.
I'd rather use the big one because I can just slide it into my rack.

I already made a hole for it to go into right above my main workstation.
I moved the external hard drives and other stuff to another spot, so that is where this case should go.

Editbaydown1a.jpg
 
For years I was a system builder.
Not professionally, although I know I did a pretty decent job of it, for myself and the fam.
I probably built something like ten or twelve machines over the years, maybe thirteen.

Got out of it around Windows 7 and have moved a couple of times since then and now I've lost all the little glass jars I used to keep all my computer screws and widgets in. Oh, they might still be somewhere, like in "the 908723498763549874598745th box I finally look at in the garage."
When I am eighty-four years old I'll find them, right? :lol:

I bought a server case many years ago with the intent of putting a new mobo in it and I'm stymied by the standoffs having some weird thread size or pitch that doesn't match the screws from any motherboard I know of and it's the first time I've ever encountered that.

I'm hoping someone just has a couple of extra bags or jars of miscellaneous motherboard standoffs and screws that I can give them twenty bucks for because I just don't even have a clue how to match these and I'd rather just put in new standoffs that will accept standard mobo screws.

Does this sound strange? It should, it's the first time I've ever run across this kind of oddball problem.

View attachment 67258504

At least I didn't pay much for the case, five bucks...it's a nice big fat case with rack mount ears which is perfect for me because I have a rack with one machine in it already.

So? Anyone want to make an easy twenty bucks by mailing me a bag or jar from their junk drawer?

Jeff H in Whittier CA

I will look, if I can find some i will pm ya
 
If there is a model number somewhere on your case you could look it up. Maybe you'll find a listing for your screws there.
 
If there is a model number somewhere on your case you could look it up. Maybe you'll find a listing for your screws there.

Yeah I did that but I guess NetProMax is out of business LOL.
I actually just found a "grab bag 228 piece assorted screws, nuts and standoffs" box on Amazon for eight bucks so I ordered it and hopefully some of those will work.

I didn't realize that anybody actually SOLD it like that. I used to just strip old cases and systems and keep everything back in the day.
I'm not a pro system builder, just built stuff for myself and the family, and a few systems for some editors.

The other thing I love about this case is that it has five fans and two of them are the LARGE size fans.
 
PITA solutions. :)

Simple enough. There are cheap zinc gel fillers that will seal all holes in the case if need be. If not use slightly larger screws and re-drill the holes as needed, or add new female receptor holes where needed. No reason to make yourself crazy identifying and finding former used sized screws. It doesn't take great skills, merely quality measuring for spacing location and quality drill bits. Most cases are made from aluminum, plastics, occasionally light steal. For any material other than steel I use:

https://www.amazon.com/Electric-Pre...ocphy=9004414&hvtargid=pla-570328993810&psc=1

If steel, I use my more powerful Dewitt and hardened precision diamond head bits. About $20 for multiple sized kits of about 8-10 standard small sized bits.

I just finished rebuilding an inner steel framed Fender Twin Reverb, from an unknown pre-CBS date, identifiable as such by the shaping of the Fender plate metal label from that period. No way to find replacements for cracked bakelite tube boards. Only solution, new generic boards that needed new wiring, relocated mounting screws and custom braces, hand wired coils, analog attenuators, cast ceramic dials and other minutiae small parts. Hand wired replacement coils for the speakers, and I built a ferris fluoride injector vacuum sealer for the tweeters. I wasn't interested in finding original screws, for sizes no one at Fender could pull out of the archives. My concern was finding Chinese tubes and transformers that would create that great Fender sound. I got to use long dormant precision soldering skill for the first time in two decades. Damn thing weighs a ton like the originals, but it has that sweet growl, and my nephew who plays professional is eternally grateful. His original Fender Twin Reverb gave up the ghost this past winter on the road. He believes this refurb sounds better. His ears are better than mine, with youth. I also built him a custom cart for it. Saves wear and tear from clumsy weak roadies. :)
 
For years I was a system builder.
Not professionally, although I know I did a pretty decent job of it, for myself and the fam.
I probably built something like ten or twelve machines over the years, maybe thirteen.

Got out of it around Windows 7 and have moved a couple of times since then and now I've lost all the little glass jars I used to keep all my computer screws and widgets in. Oh, they might still be somewhere, like in "the 908723498763549874598745th box I finally look at in the garage."
When I am eighty-four years old I'll find them, right? :lol:

I bought a server case many years ago with the intent of putting a new mobo in it and I'm stymied by the standoffs having some weird thread size or pitch that doesn't match the screws from any motherboard I know of and it's the first time I've ever encountered that.

I'm hoping someone just has a couple of extra bags or jars of miscellaneous motherboard standoffs and screws that I can give them twenty bucks for because I just don't even have a clue how to match these and I'd rather just put in new standoffs that will accept standard mobo screws.

Does this sound strange? It should, it's the first time I've ever run across this kind of oddball problem.

View attachment 67258504

At least I didn't pay much for the case, five bucks...it's a nice big fat case with rack mount ears which is perfect for me because I have a rack with one machine in it already.

So? Anyone want to make an easy twenty bucks by mailing me a bag or jar from their junk drawer?

Jeff H in Whittier CA
Time to get out your taps buddy, and tap them out to the next larger ANS size.
 
PITA solutions. :)

Simple enough. There are cheap zinc gel fillers that will seal all holes in the case if need be. If not use slightly larger screws and re-drill the holes as needed, or add new female receptor holes where needed. No reason to make yourself crazy identifying and finding former used sized screws. It doesn't take great skills, merely quality measuring for spacing location and quality drill bits. Most cases are made from aluminum, plastics, occasionally light steal. For any material other than steel I use:

https://www.amazon.com/Electric-Pre...ocphy=9004414&hvtargid=pla-570328993810&psc=1

If steel, I use my more powerful Dewitt and hardened precision diamond head bits. About $20 for multiple sized kits of about 8-10 standard small sized bits.

I just finished rebuilding an inner steel framed Fender Twin Reverb, from an unknown pre-CBS date, identifiable as such by the shaping of the Fender plate metal label from that period. No way to find replacements for cracked bakelite tube boards. Only solution, new generic boards that needed new wiring, relocated mounting screws and custom braces, hand wired coils, analog attenuators, cast ceramic dials and other minutiae small parts. Hand wired replacement coils for the speakers, and I built a ferris fluoride injector vacuum sealer for the tweeters. I wasn't interested in finding original screws, for sizes no one at Fender could pull out of the archives. My concern was finding Chinese tubes and transformers that would create that great Fender sound. I got to use long dormant precision soldering skill for the first time in two decades. Damn thing weighs a ton like the originals, but it has that sweet growl, and my nephew who plays professional is eternally grateful. His original Fender Twin Reverb gave up the ghost this past winter on the road. He believes this refurb sounds better. His ears are better than mine, with youth. I also built him a custom cart for it. Saves wear and tear from clumsy weak roadies. :)
Hell, he can just tap the current holes out to the next ANS size, and be done with it. It's a mobo, not an aircraft wing!

But on another note, why do I get the feeling you'll know what this insignia below meant on T-shirts, back in the 60's/70's?



mullard.jpg
 
Hell, he can just tap the current holes out to the next ANS size, and be done with it. It's a mobo, not an aircraft wing!

But on another note, why do I get the feeling you'll know what this insignia below meant on T-shirts, back in the 60's/70's?



View attachment 67258515

The Mullard Radio Valve Co. Ltd. of the UK, now American owned with valves (vacuum tubes for those unfamiliar with the vernacular) made in China.

www.thetubestore.com - Mullard Audio Tubes

Heck, I've got that symbol on a leather motorcycle jacket from the sponsored races at Wildflower Tracks in New Jersey, 1966. Its a bit big on me, a bit distressed with age, and my wife likes to wear it. She finds the real satin lining sensuous. It hangs to her knees. Looks great on her with nothing else underneath. Well sometimes, high heeled thigh high white leather boots.

 
Hell, he can just tap the current holes out to the next ANS size, and be done with it. It's a mobo, not an aircraft wing!

But on another note, why do I get the feeling you'll know what this insignia below meant on T-shirts, back in the 60's/70's?



View attachment 67258515

Excellent vacuum tubes.
I used to actually have the mad skillz to do this stuff.
I can't count how many Heathkits I built, or old Dynaco and DynaKit amps I've built and rebuilt.

But it's been years...many.
 
Excellent vacuum tubes.
I used to actually have the mad skillz to do this stuff.
I can't count how many Heathkits I built, or old Dynaco and DynaKit amps I've built and rebuilt.

But it's been years...many.
Geezus, man. You tickled some neurons with those names, that hadn't been used in quite a few decades!

Too bad I never kept my old Popular Electronics mags. Never kept the Model Railroader mags, either - sadly. Those Model Railroaders I really wish I kept, along with my old Stereo Reviews and especially Audio. Audio was the best in my opinion, from a technical standpoint. Then again it originally was called Audio Engineering, so it damn well should be technically strong!
 
Excellent vacuum tubes.
I used to actually have the mad skillz to do this stuff.
I can't count how many Heathkits I built, or old Dynaco and DynaKit amps I've built and rebuilt.

But it's been years...many.

A Dyna amp, preAmp with AR-1 speakers, an AR turntable. Audio heaven. Then the Holy Grail, a Grundig FM tuner. Getting lectured by mom for wasting money, until coming home and finding her slow dancing with dad to John Coltrane playing Summertime with Mingus on Bass, Monk on the ivories, Elvin Jones on the skins on dad's new Revox. That mono tape never made it to vinyl. 2 hours of Gershwin covers free with the Revox.
 
A Dyna amp, preAmp with AR-1 speakers, an AR turntable. Audio heaven. Then the Holy Grail, a Grundig FM tuner. Getting lectured by mom for wasting money, until coming home and finding her slow dancing with dad to John Coltrane playing Summertime with Mingus on Bass, Monk on the ivories, Elvin Jones on the skins on dad's new Revox. That mono tape never made it to vinyl. 2 hours of Gershwin covers free with the Revox.

A few of the later Revox models in the 60's copied Concord's habit of using globs of epoxy on the capstan flywheel to balance it, an idea which backfired spectacularly on them. I used to have those Revox decks brought to me and I'd pull out the flywheel and machine the balance divots into the flywheel till it was perfect.
Easy hundred bucks back then.
I couldn't believe such reputable manufacturers were cutting corners like that.

Getting back to the thread, I am convinced that this NetProMax outfit was some fly by night bunch who didn't bother with compatibility. They probably didn't care nor did they have to. The case used to house a proprietary 16-channel digital video security system and these units probably had a lifespan of ten to twenty years, then they'd get tossed in the dumpster.

They probably cranked out tens of thousands of these units and never had to service them because they were amazingly simple.
 
A few of the later Revox models in the 60's copied Concord's habit of using globs of epoxy on the capstan flywheel to balance it, an idea which backfired spectacularly on them. I used to have those Revox decks brought to me and I'd pull out the flywheel and machine the balance divots into the flywheel till it was perfect.
Easy hundred bucks back then.
I couldn't believe such reputable manufacturers were cutting corners like that.

Getting back to the thread, I am convinced that this NetProMax outfit was some fly by night bunch who didn't bother with compatibility. They probably didn't care nor did they have to. The case used to house a proprietary 16-channel digital video security system and these units probably had a lifespan of ten to twenty years, then they'd get tossed in the dumpster.

They probably cranked out tens of thousands of these units and never had to service them because they were amazingly simple.

My dad's Revox was bought during the late 50's. I still have it, and after many mods, it still works well. It was a single channel mono unit with two original tracks when he first got it. Now it is 8 tracks, with flywheels behind the capstans for extreme balance, an RCA trick. It is a behemoth, but not as large as the RCA 20 track unit I recovered from their trash when they closed their studio on 48th St in Manhattan. Took 12 guys and a rented Hertz truck to get it back to my studio. 2 years to get all the worn parts fixed or replaced. I think I have one of the last analog studios left in NYC. Strictly for family fun these days but a former gem where more than 30 significant albums were taped. My good friend Terry who always operated the boards, is completely lost with digital equipment. He sobs when he visits the studio, I remind him he's 78.

NetProMax is far from fly by night, one of the largest security product companies in the business. Well trusted, with quality products. No security equipment is expected to last more than a couple of years, technology advances makes many of the products obsolete within months of initial deployment. My former self built security company now uses NetProMax 20 channel video routers and recorders than fit in a coat pocket bought within the last year, with batteries in a back pack. Cameras the size of a dime with builtin wifi on a chip accompanied by near field pin head mics in multiples of 20. Already heading toward obsolescence with newer, more robust and diverse jobbed equipment already entering production. Every year forward is a new world for those who use modern technology.

I watch my grandkids who record in their bedrooms with their laptops and iPads, and I freely admit I'm lost. They don't know what to do with a rotary dial telephone, but they don't need to know.
 
Last edited:
I was also loaned a very very interesting piece of equipment for a few months by a techie buddy of mine.
He needed some dubs and the deck wasn't cooperating. His VHS deck was losing sync on the tiniest glitches and these machines were never intended for any kind of pro or semi-pro tasks.
My edit bay had a couple of digital time base correctors that cleaned everything up and made rock solid dubs.

I'd never seen one before, only heard of them, haven't seen one since either.

Akai VT-700 1/4 inch B/W VTR



PS:
I had an old Sony Porta-Pak EIAJ reel to reel half inch deck and camera combo, used to use that to make dubs for other Porta-Pak users.
 
For years I was a system builder.
Not professionally, although I know I did a pretty decent job of it, for myself and the fam.
I probably built something like ten or twelve machines over the years, maybe thirteen.

Got out of it around Windows 7 and have moved a couple of times since then and now I've lost all the little glass jars I used to keep all my computer screws and widgets in. Oh, they might still be somewhere, like in "the 908723498763549874598745th box I finally look at in the garage."
When I am eighty-four years old I'll find them, right? :lol:

I bought a server case many years ago with the intent of putting a new mobo in it and I'm stymied by the standoffs having some weird thread size or pitch that doesn't match the screws from any motherboard I know of and it's the first time I've ever encountered that.

I'm hoping someone just has a couple of extra bags or jars of miscellaneous motherboard standoffs and screws that I can give them twenty bucks for because I just don't even have a clue how to match these and I'd rather just put in new standoffs that will accept standard mobo screws.

Does this sound strange? It should, it's the first time I've ever run across this kind of oddball problem.


At least I didn't pay much for the case, five bucks...it's a nice big fat case with rack mount ears which is perfect for me because I have a rack with one machine in it already.

So? Anyone want to make an easy twenty bucks by mailing me a bag or jar from their junk drawer?

Jeff H in Whittier CA

In other words, you're looking for someone to contact you and ask, "Wanna screw?" Letting people know that you have a nice rack will help you get more replies.
 
Excellent vacuum tubes.
I used to actually have the mad skillz to do this stuff.
I can't count how many Heathkits I built, or old Dynaco and DynaKit amps I've built and rebuilt.

But it's been years...many.

Did you know that vacuum tubes are still produced in Asia? I bought a nice Cathedral Radio at a garage sale with an NRA (National Recovery Administration) sticker on the chassis. It was a joy to get it working.
 
Did you know that vacuum tubes are still produced in Asia? I bought a nice Cathedral Radio at a garage sale with an NRA (National Recovery Administration) sticker on the chassis. It was a joy to get it working.

Also still being produced in Russia last I checked.
 
Also still being produced in Russia last I checked.

The best quality audio tubes available. Rebranded and sold by Ruby here. Ruby's clients are boutique high end audio companies like MacIntosh, Audio Heaven (a refurbisher) and so on.

Corning still owns a tube plant in Brazil, but the quality of product sucks. Mostly used in micrometers and industrial microwave ovens.
 
The best quality audio tubes available. Rebranded and sold by Ruby here. Ruby's clients are boutique high end audio companies like MacIntosh, Audio Heaven (a refurbisher) and so on.

Corning still owns a tube plant in Brazil, but the quality of product sucks. Mostly used in micrometers and industrial microwave ovens.

McIntosh, for God's sake!

PTKFGS.PNG


s-l640.jpg
 
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