Where to find parts for 1980's IBM

[strollin]

If they are 5150's then they originally came with full-height, 360K, 5.25" floppy drives. The 5150 has 5, 8-bit ISA slots. If the floppy controller in it is dead, you will need an 8-bit ISA controller. I just saw one on Ebay for $20.

My experience has been that if a business has a piece of equipment that does what they need and is paid for, why replace it? If you could present a case that maintenance/repair of the old equipment would cost more than newer equipment, then you might have a chance of convincing them to upgrade.

 

[TAPtech]

A lot of these CNC machines do not need very much processing power. I work with them quite frequently. Some of the tool room mills are simple DOS based programs, B&W monitors and are still very useful.

If the machine itself is built well and is used to perform simple machining operations, the actual Iron will last for decades. There are retrofit upgrades, but they typically cost something like $5,000 and while you do get some more capability, usually you run into the limits of the machine anyways.

So for a machine shop its usually a decision like spend a couple hundred or even thousand to get the thing working for another 3 years, or spend $30,000 on a new machine.