Space Shuttle Teleprinter - Part 2: So many mechanical issues!

The Space Shuttle had a teletype onboard for the first 10 years of its tenure. We get our hands on one of them, and try to revive it. In this episode, we attempt to fix the many mechanical issues.

Stuff that supports the channel:

"Elevator Music" Credit: Crinoline Dreams by Kevin MacLeod

Our lovely sponsors

[kurtnowak]

Oh Please, please post a clip of Ken walking into Staples and dead-pan asking where they keep the Space Shuttle printer ribbons.

[Rob]

After a short break in which we all learned about the channel "Mend it Mark" we come back to our trusted "Mend it Marc"!

[zebo-the-fat]

I never thought I would see a garden hose on a lathe! well done!

[dennisjohanson]

I love the sticker "Not for Flight!"

[markgreco]

We can get a Ribbon at Staples, In the Space Shuttle isle

Love this channel

[richardkaz]

It's amazing how at the end of the reassembly you end up with 4 gears, 7 cerclips, 3 springs, 2 rollers and 5 screws spare.

[MichaelEhling]

14:39: Master Ken for the comic win of the episode

[martsmiscmix]

Thanks to Curious Marc, the term "Doodly Do" has now entered my daily vernacular! 😂

[craftyguyinthewoods]

Hey Marc, thanks for putting out all of the great videos!

Regarding the melted rubber on the rollers: this is most likely polymer crosslink degradation. This is caused by many factors, mainly temperature and time, and varies greatly with the type of polymer, in this case rubber. I first encountered this on older (1990s) military electronics, specifically with urethane rubber spacers that were between the top of PWA's and the top cover. They were meant to dampen vibrations of the PWA's. The techs came to me with several different failure modes where the rubber was either harder than normal (including completely solid), or much softer than normal, including looking like it melted and had dripped down over the PWA's. Even sitting on a scorching tarmac in the southwest summer, I knew these parts could not have reached the melting point of urethane, so it had to be something else. I'm EE, not materials science, so it took me a week to dig up the cause, but once I found PCD it totally fit the circumstances, with the expected lifetime of urethane being about 15-20 years in those hot conditions.

The fix was simple: pick a type of rubber that had a much longer life expectancy before PCD was likely to set in. In this case the perfect choice was silicone. The aircraft would turn to dust before the silicone started to degrade!


Perhaps there is a materials scientist in the audience that can provide better details than I can.

And remember, you can't spell gEEk, dwEEb, or wEEnie without EE! 🤣

[MichaelPontisso-mxbq]

As a ratt rig operator in the US army, if you could not lift that 100-pound teletype, you would fail the course. Have to start over. The only good thing about it was it never gave us any problems. A very reliable teletype.

[TechGorilla]

@4:36 - The Mend It Mark in me wants to see this whole unit put in to an ultrasonic bath because when parts come out of one of those, they look SPECTACULAR.

[Dylan-eeqg]

15:10 LMAO that jump to reach for the power button when it makes noise is so relatable...

[hankcohen]

Not only master electronics engineers but also very creditable mechanics. Well done!

[aaronr.]

9:35 the MacGyver fix for the rollers was pretty clever :) Happy New Year :)

[renesandbote]

Oh, that hammer assembly is just beautiful. Visually of course, the sound is rather ear piercing.

[tehlaser]

9:22 heh, I’ve never seen *that* particular method of rerubberizing a roller. Tubing and a lathe. Brilliant. My amateur efforts have always involved friction tape and/or heat-shrink meant for electronics and cables and the like, which honestly I’m surprised I was able to get that to work at all.

[TechGorilla]

This is not a complaint, but just a heads up to anyone with audio hypersensitivity - the part around @14:43 with the modulation sounds and the beeping may just shred your brain. Volume attenuation is suggested.

[confuseatronica]

somewhere in my backyard is a few of those drums from teletypes at Vandenberg afb in the late 60s. They were worn or obsolete and my dad pulled them from the trash cause he liked how they looked.

[brfxnlm]

Reminds me of the Data Products high speed band printers I used in the 80’s and 90’s that had speeds of 1500 lines per minute. Nearly identical technology but a band instead of a drum. Noisy as hell and quite impressive to watch.

[scowell]

Insane crossover from flight hardware to TTY... who could have imagined? Scratches both our itches! Love how real flight stuff has that 'billet anodized' look... ¡muy guapo!