Cleaning the VAXstation

My VAXstation 4000 VLC seems to have lived a hard life - when I got it, the plastic was filthy and every groove in the case was caked with black grime. I wouldn’t be surprised if it once lived in some sort of industrial setting - wherever it lived must have been hot because it came with a decidedly non-standard cooling system:

That picture is from after a quick cleaning - I saved a deeper rejuvination until last night. I disassembled the whole thing and tried to scour every last bit of dust, dirt, or gunk. Before putting it together this evening, I figured I’d take a few pictures of the components to share.

the components of the vaxstation

the components of the vaxstation

Clockwise from top-right, the components in the above picture are:

Once I fastened all the parts back in place, I hooked it up to see if things were still working:

the vaxtation all wired up

the vaxtation all wired up

and thankfully, they were!

Not too bad for a few evenings’ work! One day I’ll have to try out Retrobriting the case since the plastic has yellowed quite a bit, but at least now it’s not hiding tons of dirt.

a prettier vax

a prettier vax