LOL what the everloving heck is this, it's the weirdest thing I've ever seen an IBM logo on. Spoilers: it's legit. I have it, it works, it does precisely what it says on the tin, and I love it.

Takeapart thread coming soon.

IBM Audible Random Timer lolwtfbbq thread, part 1 of however many.

This is a legitimate IBM product. Not for sale, clearly an internal - probably Field Engineering - tool. Here's some exterior views of the device. It's a plastic hobbyist project box about 45x70x110mm in size. It was originally plain white plastic, but this one has been brush painted gold. My best guess is Testors gold model paint that used to come in the tiny glass bottles with impossible to remove caps (https://www.dickblick.com/items/testors-enamel-paint-gold-14-oz-bottle).

Tell #1 it's an actual IBM product: Anyone knowing IBM machines from this era (spoiler: mid 80s) knows that stamped serial number tag. Proper tag, proper stamping, proper typeface on the stamp.

Restricted Access 2023

IBM Audible Random Timer lolwtfbbq thread, part 2 of however many.

Boring pics of the inside of the plastic case, showing whoever painted it did actually (good for them) test the paint to make sure it wouldn't damage the plastic.

Juicier pics coming, I promise. :)

@jgeorge There metallic parts to drive the screws, I wish I could find some of them nowadays.

@olireiv Those are called “heat set inserts” and are pretty popular for 3D printing You use a small soldering iron to heat them up enough to melt the plastic, stick ‘em in a hole, and let the plastic cool around them.

https://markforged.com/resources/blog/heat-set-inserts

Using Heat Set Inserts

Best practices for using heat set or press-in threaded inserts to create high strength threads in 3D printed parts. Build functional parts with Markforged.

Markforged
@jgeorge Thanks, I appreciate
@olireiv Tech support is my neuro-divergent superpower. You can’t just leave me with a question I know the answer to without getting a response back. 🙃