From: George Michaelson <ggm_at_apnic.net>
Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 15:36:33 +1000

If people are playing with their old drives..

The magnets on the arm-swing mechanism are lovely. they can nip fingers
badly if you dismantle them, so do be careful, but they are great fun for
picking up 6ft long chains of paperclips, monkey-wrenches, etc. (on older
8" drives they are so strong they support their own weight through my
wrist. At this strength, they also ruin your VCR's day, make the TV have
purple blotches and probably contravene local health regulations)

I've succeeded in making the heads move with a 9v cell connected to the
leads. The disk motor is harder to make 'interesting' because it it
seems to need a chopped voltage to work. If you spin the disc and then
apply some volts it sometimes chatters a bit, but nothing smart.

You get a gloriously sonorous 'claaaaangggggggg' off the disk if you rap it
smartly with a finger or a screwdriver. Until flyblown, or covered in
greasy fingerprints, the discs are also great mirrors to check your
geek-spots etc.

I'm told that re-assembled, many of these continue to work well.
Personally, I think the warranty-is-void sticker next to the airhole is
where the magic magnet-pixies fly away from when you rip the lid off...

-George
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Received on 2004-12-15