Computer Help and Support

Most of the components were placed by hand and then the boards went to the wave soldering machine.

All the integrated circuits were socketed, the CPU, the glue logic, memory, even lowly 7400 gates. These were installed last.

Just like this video, all the intricate work was done by women. My supervisor and our team, all male, watched over the machines, stepping in whenever something barfed and brought the lines to a halt. The wave soldering machine was a frequent culprit. Management always promised new and improved machines, soon, but eventually shut down the entire factory. Fortunately that occurred coincidentally with me being accepted back to school.

The only reason I got the job was because people were fleeing long before the closure was announced. They knew the ship was sinking. I was an electronics geek (my first science fair project was a home built computer) and my boss let me take a lot of interesting stuff home that otherwise would have ended up in the dumpsters.