I'm finally back. No, that's not true. I was never away. I was simply unable to keep up with this thread. Just reading it is becoming a full time job.
After the futile repair attempt of my 464 I looked for work that needed no brains. Like putting the resistors out of 240 plastic bags and into those little drawers for easy access.
Before (just for illustration, see below):
After:
Sounds like an easy task, doesn't it? Don't get fooled by the 'Before' pic - these are overspill, they just wouldn't fit. In reality the bags were filled with them in various appearances. Of course the available space doesn't allow them to have full-length leads, so you have to sort out the ones that are too long and cut them. Or cut them from the tapes, which becomes arduous work rather quick. On average, it took about 40 minutes to fill one drawer! Needless to say, there was also a chance to fuck up that I couldn't let pass: Pushing a drawer into the cabinet it somehow snagged and slipped out of my hand, spoiling its contents all over the floor and whatever happened to be there.
Believe me, those critters are small - to read the color bands I need a loupe (my glasses won't do). And the colors are often hard to read - orange/red or green/blue are easily mistaken. Just let me tell you that all further drawer-in-cabinet placements were undertaken with utmost diligence.
Finished task (sans printed labels):
The upside is that the space occupied by 240 plastic bags is now empty.
@Ice-Tea: Absolutely awesome. I feel utterly understuffed.
While I wrote this, 5 more messages were posted ... See what I mean?