IBM 5155 MFM Hard Disk dimensions

[Chuck(G)]

So let's see--$5 for an oversized sheet of stock and 5 minutes with a saw and utility knife (to deburr the edges) vs. what for 3D printing.

Is this the case of having a hammer and everything looking like a nail?

 

[Hugo Holden]

I installed an ST251 in my 5155 and simply slightly trimmed the bezel on the drive so it would slip in, All good.

The psu in the 5155 is only just up to running the HDD. When it is very active it causes some supply disturbances that affect the supply to the VDU, but they are only mild and it all works.

 

[robbo007]

Another thing to add is that the 225 does not auto-park (though the slightly more intelligent 225N does) and Seagate's own documentation states the drive should not be transported unparked or operated in a vertical position, which you will do if you a carry a 5155 by the handle.

The blanking plate for the 5155 wasn't a standard option as that was for the base model single-drive systems.
Likewise I don't think IBM shipped any machine factory with a half height 5.25" hard drive until late in the XT or even into the AT era.

Thanks for that. I can use park.com from Spinrite II to park the disk right? I don't think I'll be lugging it around too much as it not exactly that light to move. I'll check out that plastic on amazon. Look pretty good. I don't feel good about cutting the original one. knowing how hard they are to find.

 

[Hugo Holden]

I use Park.com in my 5155.

You don't have to "cut" anything.

You only have to shave a very small amount of material off the sides of the plastic blanking plate. I just rubbed them on some 200 then 400 grade then 1000 grade paper and polished the edges after that with Novus plastic polish, so you would never know, from looking at it, that a tiny amount of material was removed to get it to fit.

The best way is to put the paper on a flat surface and rub the plate edges on it. For the polish, put a cotton cloth on a flat surface, coated in polish and rub the plate edges on that to get a bright polish.

 

[DDS]

So let's see--$5 for an oversized sheet of stock and 5 minutes with a saw and utility knife (to deburr the edges) vs. what for 3D printing.

Is this the case of having a hammer and everything looking like a nail?

Nah, more like "This is exactly why people have 3D printers." Gives us more choices and a way to skip that trip to the home center to buy the sheet stock.

Plus I guarantee you there's a whole lot less than $5.00 worth of PLA filament in a drive bezel.

;-)

 

[NeXT]

3D printers are great for manufacturing replacement parts and that is one of their major selling points, until you need to either spend your own time, or find someone with the modelling skills to make it for everyone else. There's a rabbit hole here.
I'm speaking from past experience here that just making a faceplate that physically fits, then also prints without extrusion defects requires an insane amount of printer maintenance. I think I went through four or five hawley mouse shells over 15 hours before I got one that didn't look too awful, only to find the rectangular opening for the buttons was too small and it had to be adjusted and printed again.
If you just need a blanking plate that passes the 1 meter test I agree to take a piece of flat material (I like balsa), cut to size, rattlecan it black and put it in.
If you want something that looks good, start asking around. Those hard drive faceplates with your choice of grey, white or black with an LED were the bread and butter of drives in the 80's. There's still gotta be tons of them left on junk drives and 3.5" adapter brackets.

 

[vwestlife]

With a good coat of black paint and a hole cut in it for the LED, even a piece of cardboard can make an acceptable substitute for a hard drive faceplate.

 

[DDS]

3D printers are great for manufacturing replacement parts and that is one of their major selling points, until you need to either spend your own time, or find someone with the modelling skills to make it for everyone else. There's a rabbit hole here.
I'm speaking from past experience here that just making a faceplate that physically fits, then also prints without extrusion defects requires an insane amount of printer maintenance. I think I went through four or five hawley mouse shells over 15 hours before I got one that didn't look too awful, only to find the rectangular opening for the buttons was too small and it had to be adjusted and printed again.
If you just need a blanking plate that passes the 1 meter test I agree to take a piece of flat material (I like balsa), cut to size, rattlecan it black and put it in.
If you want something that looks good, start asking around. Those hard drive faceplates with your choice of grey, white or black with an LED were the bread and butter of drives in the 80's. There's still gotta be tons of them left on junk drives and 3.5" adapter brackets.

C'mon, man!

it ain't like its rocket surgery!

OK, so maybe it is a bit like rocket surgery. After I got my Ender 3 Pro, one 3D CAD program after another kicked my provberbial behind. I tried following along with YouTube videos and got nowhere via that route either. It turns out to be very important that your software version match what the person doing the video is using, and they rarely tell you that. My son tried to talk me through using Blender. No luck there either. So... Fusion360, Blender, and FreeCAD all got loaded, tried, cursed at, and deleted. Then I swallowed what was left of my pride, and tried TinkerCad. It is free and designed to be taught to kids as young as 3rd grade (USA). So figure 8 years old. I got it. I'm not a pro by any means, but I started by finding something close on Thingiverse and modifying it to fit my needs. I've since designed and created simple parts from scratch. Just remind yourself that TinkerCAD was designed for an 8 year old, dig in, and do it. There are some newer programs where you design your model by adding or removing little blocks (called voxels) like in Minecraft. I might just try one of them next but for now TinkerCAD is serving my purpose.

Give it a try.

Tinkercad - From mind to design in minutes

Tinkercad is a free, easy-to-use app for 3D design, electronics, and coding.

www.tinkercad.com