Hi everyone,
(I'm starting a run for these just to keep them organized)
RPF gets first dibs!
I managed to pick up all the remaining stock of this circuit board from a company out west. As many of you know, finding circuit boards with all the right details is challenging. Manufacturing back then was not as consistent as we're used to today, so vintage boards all seem to have their own character. To add to that, customers really care about functionality. Who gives a hoot what color the board inside your calculator is? it works right? Well, we do!
Anyway, to my best educated guess, the only remaining boards in the publicly viewable archives seem to be:
1) ANH Vader Stunt board
•Milky green board, gold/silver leads x10
•Rectangular leads, gold extends onto the skinny silver lead, fat lead at the front
•Leads are centered
2) Skywalker Ranch Saber
•Milky dark green board, gold/silver leads x13
•Rectangular leads, silver skinny lead
•Leads are not all centered
3) Resin Obi Wan Stunt saber
•Rectangular leads, silver skinny leads x13
•Leads are not all centered
(My personal belief is that they slapped together a full hilt by borrowing the clamp and card from an ESB Graflex bladed stunt in order to make a mold for ROTJ. That saber was to become the MoM Vader)
Then... you can easily see the Graflex circuit board on camera, in a ton of shots.
If any of you are unaware, I spend a LOT of time looking at boards. It's been years. I don't have a ton of success digging into companies, (I've always wanted to learn that type of research), but at this point I blow through popular auction sites very quickly. Most boards have leads that are too small, the wrong shape, positioned wrong, plated incorrectly, curved leads, don't have enough leads because you need at least 13, etc. I can't express how frustrated I get when I find boards with all the right materials, but the plug count is wrong: The leads are sized and spaced for the matching plug and there seem to be thousands of them out there. The most popular "close" version still has rounded leads. I was the one that imported a handful of Otis boards from the middle east and found them to be really close. Not screen accurate, but the closest thing to the Skywalker Ranch Saber/Graflex clamp boards to date.
In lieu of those, I've found another. The Otis boards had slightly rounded corners and I really do think the prop boards are squared off and misaligned. These are from C. P. Clare & Co. which made industrial components. Here are some quick google things for you - it looks like they made stuff for telephone and power companies first and apparently did have war contracts. They are sort-of still around
Trade catalogs from C. P. Clare & Co.
EXECUTIVE AND INVENTOR CARL P. CLARE
C.P. Clare | IXYS Corporation
Anyways, long story short, I saw one, flipped my hat in the air and went after more. These have
•Squared off gold contacts
•Skinny silver leads
•Milky dark green board
•Exactly 13 straight leads
•The right sized and spaced leads
•Correct kind of gold plating
Here is a quick trim job for my Skywalker Ranch Saber
They weren't cheap, but I think it was worth it. I don't have a date on these, but they feel like other boards that I've had from the late 60s or early 70s. They might be older. Because of that, it looks like they were soldered by hand. There is no guarantee when it comes to vintage manufacturing that you'll get two parts completely identical. I bought all of this company's stock and this batch has a little extra solder on the gold contacts. We are talking .5-1 mm.
I know you, you're an accuracy nut - so these boards are for people that want a (pretty much) exact match and don't mind the extra bit of solder.
Here are some more shots, click for the larger version or open in a new tab!
Alright folks, if you're like me, you think these are really cool, vintage parts. You also see how stupidly close and accurate they are to an unidentified part! Let me know if you want one. It looks like you can get one card out of a board, there are exactly 13 straight leads.
I'll have to ship these priority mail in bubble mailers, because the relays make them a little heavy, but Priority actually isn't that expensive.
EDIT: Just noticed this on the USPS Website: International Service Alerts - Newsroom - About.usps.com
I may not be able to post international
1 full Board: $50
Shipping: $10
Chopped in front of first Relay: +$5
or
Trimmed to size of choice: +$10
Shipping instead : $4
I wanted to offer these options because some people don't have a safe place to trim fiberglass. I do, and I've been doing it for years, albeit not in a professional shop atmosphere. I do have a workshop, with plenty of the right tools. An old boss of mine taught me how to do it and it hasn't failed me yet!
I have 11 available
1) ∞ bradberry00 - PS
2) ~Matty Matt - PS
3) • Edraven99 - PS
4) ~lonepigeon - PS
5) ~schrodinger555 - PS
6) • Drew Baker - cut - PS
7) ∞ eethan - PS
8) ~Mr_Sparkle - PS
9) ~The 48th Ronin - chopped - PS
10) • Cantina_dude - PS
11)∞ el toro - cut PS
Please post here or message me, first come first serve. I work through paypal and ship within a few days at latest.
(I'm starting a run for these just to keep them organized)
RPF gets first dibs!
I managed to pick up all the remaining stock of this circuit board from a company out west. As many of you know, finding circuit boards with all the right details is challenging. Manufacturing back then was not as consistent as we're used to today, so vintage boards all seem to have their own character. To add to that, customers really care about functionality. Who gives a hoot what color the board inside your calculator is? it works right? Well, we do!
Anyway, to my best educated guess, the only remaining boards in the publicly viewable archives seem to be:
1) ANH Vader Stunt board
•Milky green board, gold/silver leads x10
•Rectangular leads, gold extends onto the skinny silver lead, fat lead at the front
•Leads are centered
2) Skywalker Ranch Saber
•Milky dark green board, gold/silver leads x13
•Rectangular leads, silver skinny lead
•Leads are not all centered
3) Resin Obi Wan Stunt saber
•Rectangular leads, silver skinny leads x13
•Leads are not all centered
(My personal belief is that they slapped together a full hilt by borrowing the clamp and card from an ESB Graflex bladed stunt in order to make a mold for ROTJ. That saber was to become the MoM Vader)
Then... you can easily see the Graflex circuit board on camera, in a ton of shots.
If any of you are unaware, I spend a LOT of time looking at boards. It's been years. I don't have a ton of success digging into companies, (I've always wanted to learn that type of research), but at this point I blow through popular auction sites very quickly. Most boards have leads that are too small, the wrong shape, positioned wrong, plated incorrectly, curved leads, don't have enough leads because you need at least 13, etc. I can't express how frustrated I get when I find boards with all the right materials, but the plug count is wrong: The leads are sized and spaced for the matching plug and there seem to be thousands of them out there. The most popular "close" version still has rounded leads. I was the one that imported a handful of Otis boards from the middle east and found them to be really close. Not screen accurate, but the closest thing to the Skywalker Ranch Saber/Graflex clamp boards to date.
In lieu of those, I've found another. The Otis boards had slightly rounded corners and I really do think the prop boards are squared off and misaligned. These are from C. P. Clare & Co. which made industrial components. Here are some quick google things for you - it looks like they made stuff for telephone and power companies first and apparently did have war contracts. They are sort-of still around
Trade catalogs from C. P. Clare & Co.
EXECUTIVE AND INVENTOR CARL P. CLARE
C.P. Clare | IXYS Corporation
Anyways, long story short, I saw one, flipped my hat in the air and went after more. These have
•Squared off gold contacts
•Skinny silver leads
•Milky dark green board
•Exactly 13 straight leads
•The right sized and spaced leads
•Correct kind of gold plating
Here is a quick trim job for my Skywalker Ranch Saber
They weren't cheap, but I think it was worth it. I don't have a date on these, but they feel like other boards that I've had from the late 60s or early 70s. They might be older. Because of that, it looks like they were soldered by hand. There is no guarantee when it comes to vintage manufacturing that you'll get two parts completely identical. I bought all of this company's stock and this batch has a little extra solder on the gold contacts. We are talking .5-1 mm.
I know you, you're an accuracy nut - so these boards are for people that want a (pretty much) exact match and don't mind the extra bit of solder. Here are some more shots, click for the larger version or open in a new tab!
Alright folks, if you're like me, you think these are really cool, vintage parts. You also see how stupidly close and accurate they are to an unidentified part! Let me know if you want one. It looks like you can get one card out of a board, there are exactly 13 straight leads.
I'll have to ship these priority mail in bubble mailers, because the relays make them a little heavy, but Priority actually isn't that expensive.
EDIT: Just noticed this on the USPS Website: International Service Alerts - Newsroom - About.usps.com
I may not be able to post international
1 full Board: $50
Shipping: $10
Chopped in front of first Relay: +$5
or
Trimmed to size of choice: +$10
Shipping instead : $4
I wanted to offer these options because some people don't have a safe place to trim fiberglass. I do, and I've been doing it for years, albeit not in a professional shop atmosphere. I do have a workshop, with plenty of the right tools. An old boss of mine taught me how to do it and it hasn't failed me yet!
I have 11 available
1) ∞ bradberry00 - PS
2) ~Matty Matt - PS
3) • Edraven99 - PS
4) ~lonepigeon - PS
5) ~schrodinger555 - PS
6) • Drew Baker - cut - PS
7) ∞ eethan - PS
8) ~Mr_Sparkle - PS
9) ~The 48th Ronin - chopped - PS
10) • Cantina_dude - PS
11)∞ el toro - cut PS
Please post here or message me, first come first serve. I work through paypal and ship within a few days at latest.
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