... or something.
So, I have a RD53 from an old system I really want the bits off of. Of course the heads were stuck.
Open up the drive and un-stick, easily done. Then I thought, what if I want all the nice coffee grinder noises of using a real drive. If the drive is fine apart from bad rubber, just R&R the rubber!
So, I've begun to do just that. I don't have any clue what a good hardness would have been and the existing sludge isn't a good gauge. The rubber pad was just a small rectangle glued into a channel in the hard-stop, or rather it likely was adhesive-backed. So, I decided to start with a few of the adhesive-backed rubber/foam sheets I have and see if one seems to work better than others.
There's also the matter of the head stop determining where the drive starts looking for track 0. I decided to risk some particles and scribe the position of the counterweight on the housing as a reference in the hopes that I can get the heads back in the same place.
Mummifying the drive so just the lid is showing and getting suited up for cleanroom duty is the longest part of the project.
At least I own several of these, so I can practice and get good before I work on the one I care about. Wish me luck.
Also, just for curiosity, who would run a RD53 if it had new rubber? I'm just wondering if I should just satisfy my personal needs or if I should try to refine the process to scale it beyond a few drives.
So, I have a RD53 from an old system I really want the bits off of. Of course the heads were stuck.
Open up the drive and un-stick, easily done. Then I thought, what if I want all the nice coffee grinder noises of using a real drive. If the drive is fine apart from bad rubber, just R&R the rubber!
So, I've begun to do just that. I don't have any clue what a good hardness would have been and the existing sludge isn't a good gauge. The rubber pad was just a small rectangle glued into a channel in the hard-stop, or rather it likely was adhesive-backed. So, I decided to start with a few of the adhesive-backed rubber/foam sheets I have and see if one seems to work better than others.
There's also the matter of the head stop determining where the drive starts looking for track 0. I decided to risk some particles and scribe the position of the counterweight on the housing as a reference in the hopes that I can get the heads back in the same place.
Mummifying the drive so just the lid is showing and getting suited up for cleanroom duty is the longest part of the project.
At least I own several of these, so I can practice and get good before I work on the one I care about. Wish me luck.
Also, just for curiosity, who would run a RD53 if it had new rubber? I'm just wondering if I should just satisfy my personal needs or if I should try to refine the process to scale it beyond a few drives.