[Sem] "SEM room" flooring

[Chris Murphy]

Hi Larry,

We do not have a sputter coater and we would love one... even a broken one would help significantly. 

As for the floor, the server room flooring could be the cheapest and easiest to install compared to other options. 

The shipping on linoleum was going to be $174. That did not include cove sticks or the challenge of installing it. Rolls of flooring do not magically fit the space, thus it would be a puzzle of thin strips to glue down and there would be significant waste material. When I mentioned that the previous tile was dirty, as Alan will attest, it looked like a quarter inch of potting soil. 

Chris

Sent from my iPhone

On Feb 6, 2013, at 20:31, Larry Ackerman <larry at saintrubidium.com> wrote:

> All your efforts towards improving the space for the SEM are admirable. However, an SEM for general use does not require a clean environment. You should see the floors of my labs that have not been mopped for years. What does require extreme cleanliness is anything going into the vacuum column. A speck of dust on an aperture causes significant distortion. --keep a perspective. Do you have a sputter coater yet? I can donate a 2kV, 20mA DC high voltage power supply.
> Larry
> 
> On 2/5/2013 9:09 PM, John McMaster wrote:
>> Sounds good for the long term.  In the meantime we have installed some
>> sort of single sheet flooring in the room.  If someone wants to do
>> something more proper later it shouldn't be hard to remove it.  I easily
>> achieve class 10,000 in my bedroom (I have a COTS laser particle
>> counter) using a COTS HEPA filter in a very non-cleanroom friendly
>> environment.  What sort of environment quality were you aiming for?
>> Until someone is willing to purchase and install something better I
>> imagine the current flooring will suffice for current projects.
>> 
>> John
>> 
>> On 02/05/2013 06:41 PM, Chris Murphy wrote:
>>> I have done extensive research and determined that server room flooring is the way to go.
>>> 
>>> First of all, I believe you are referring to vinyl when you say linoleum. There are a lot of reasons not to use vinyl. It gains a static charge and attracts dust. Tiles are what Alan and I removed in there and they held massive amounts of dirt in the cracks. Vinyl and the adhesive to stick it to the floor off gases.
>>> 
>>> True linoleum is made of sawdust and rosin and is extremely expensive to ship. It's too big for UPS. But cost was not the issue. Neither vinyl nor linoleum can be found in a solid white. This means they will hide dirt. Almost all vinyl and linoleum has a pattern. Linoleum has care requirements that Noisebridge people aren't likely to follow (Armstrong S-485 floor cleaner).
>>> 
>>> So I looked into poured white rubber flooring but it was not just cost prohibitive, the companies that do it wouldn't take us on for such a small square footage. They would have to fly to the bay area. Not happening.
>>> 
>>> Server flooring has the following benefits: it is modular, it is solid white, it can be cleaned, wires and vacuum hose may be routed beneath it. Vents may be installed for structured airflow (drawing dust away from equipment and work surfaces). It can be rearranged according to the equipment in the room. It's surprisingly cheap on Alibaba.com.
>>> 
>>> Chris
>>> 
>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>> 
>>> On Feb 2, 2013, at 13:45, John McMaster <johndmcmaster at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Heyo,
>>>> We have 3 people that are interested in trying to improve the flooring
>>>> in the enclosed space in the back of NB.  We've had a few suggestions
>>>> here and there but I haven't heard a strong move to anything.  Are there
>>>> any objections to us putting down a simple linoleum flooring today?  In
>>>> the worst case it wouldn't be hard to remove (although I don't know how
>>>> much it would cost).  The other suggestion I believe was to use raised
>>>> server room type flooring.  If it is raised it seems in the worst case
>>>> we could install that on top of the linoleum tile.  We are going to try
>>>> to get a single piece of possible since it would be cleaner and
>>>> otherwise use actual tiles.
>>>> 
>>>> John
>>>> 
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> 
> -- 
> Larry Ackerman
> San Francisco
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