5.25" Drive Refurb

[lyonadmiral]

Is anyone an expert at refurbishing 5.25" floppy drives? If so, would you be interested in for a fee of course refurbishing a few full height drives for me?

Thanks,
Daniel

 

[Stone]

Floppy or hard?

 

[lyonadmiral]

Floppy or hard?

I fixed that... Floppy.

 

[Stone]

That's good, because if they were hard drives I would recommend making doorstops out of them. I have a huge stack of them and not one has ever responded to any technique I've tried on them.

 

[lyonadmiral]

I'm still looking for anyone who is willing to refurbish the drives; I have two, and they are Tandon. Chuck(G) has indicated to me they are notorious but compared to having no drives and nothing but time I am willing to compensate for your efforts.

 

[hargle]

I thought chuck(g) offered drive refurb services? I ask because I just happen to have 2 IBM branded drives that are in need of some TLC, and I was literally just about to send a PM to him to see if he'd be willing to take a look, so the timing of this is interesting, for me anyway.

 

[lyonadmiral]

I thought chuck(g) offered drive refurb services? I ask because I just happen to have 2 IBM branded drives that are in need of some TLC, and I was literally just about to send a PM to him to see if he'd be willing to take a look, so the timing of this is interesting, for me anyway.

I can't speak for him, but am reiterating my request along with yours, is there anyone, please name your price.

 

[Chuck(G)]

Well, I can probably do them, but I really, really, hate doing Tandon TM-100 drives.

Has anyone dropped a line to Mike Farris? He used to do them.

 

[lyonadmiral]

Well, I can probably do them, but I really, really, hate doing Tandon TM-100 drives.

Has anyone dropped a line to Mike Farris? He used to do them.

Do you have his handle? I will ask, but you are, by far, the master Chuck, according to the people I have asked.

 

[Chuck(G)]

Handle? No--Mike runs a regular retail business--and he's been around for years.

http://www.mfarris.com/

Fortunately, there's an RFQ form on the web site.

 

[lyonadmiral]

Handle? No--Mike runs a regular retail business--and he's been around for years.

http://www.mfarris.com/

Fortunately, there's an RFQ form on the web site.

I sent an RFQ, let's see what happens.

 

[lyonadmiral]

I sent an RFQ, let's see what happens.

Mark charges $450 to refurb the drives, turn around time is two weeks.

 

[Stone]

Mark charges $450 to refurb the drives, ....

I'm obviously in the WRONG business!!!

 

[lyonadmiral]

I'm obviously in the WRONG business!!!

Me too. I love this hobby but that is too expensive for me. Chuck, what is your time worth?

 

[Chuck(G)]

Me too. I love this hobby but that is too expensive for me. Chuck, what is your time worth?

I can give you a quote, but with two conditions: (1) you'll have to be very patient--I'll have to squeeze this in when I'm getting bored. (2) you'll have to make the business of shipping easy for me. I often find I waste more time looking for boxes and packaging than I do actually working on the thing.

BTW, now would be a lousy time to ask me to do this. February is usually a bit more amenable to "round tuit work.

 

[lyonadmiral]

I can give you a quote, but with two conditions: (1) you'll have to be very patient--I'll have to squeeze this in when I'm getting bored. (2) you'll have to make the business of shipping easy for me. I often find I waste more time looking for boxes and packaging than I do actually working on the thing.

BTW, now would be a lousy time to ask me to do this. February is usually a bit more amenable to "round tuit work.

Thanks Chuck, I can do both, wait until February and make shipping the drives super easy.

 

[Stone]

Considering you can buy one for under $100:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Tandon-TM10...=US_Floppy_Zip_Jaz_Drives&hash=item339a46fb3d

I can't see paying $450 to fix one. You're not emotionally attached to that particular drive, right?

 

[krebizfan]

A full rebuild of the floppy drive would be expensive and time consuming. That would give a floppy drive that should outlast any 30+ year old drive that pass minimal tests today.

I think there were some articles and maybe even books explaining how to repair/rebuild drives published before 1980.

 

[Chuck(G)]

The problems with the old FH Tandon drives is that a lot of the plastic parts are developing wear and cracks. It's plastic, and there's a bunch of it in a TM-100. The problem is only going to get worse with time. The latch mechanism is particularly vulnerable to "enthusiastic" flipping of the door latch.

On the other hand, I've gone through tons of the half-height Teacs and have yet to run across a bad one (at least a bad one that hasn't been "serviced" or abused).

Sadly, the slimline USB drives that I've worked on are just garbage. No wonder the external units are selling for under $10 new. It doesn't seem to matter whose brand they bear--Teac, Sony, NEC...they're all terrible.

 

[clh333]

Handle? No--Mike runs a regular retail business--and he's been around for years.

http://www.mfarris.com/

Fortunately, there's an RFQ form on the web site.

Chuck,

I posted a similar request on the forum today (Marketplace / Services). I have also contacted Mr. Farris through his web site but received no reply. Is there anyone else in this business? Thanks for your reply.

Charles Hudson
clh333