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Wanted 5.25in floppy drive head cleaner kit

R

rorypoole

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 8, 2004
Messages
585
Location
UK, Surrey
Hi, I have just got a Compaq portable and as the 5.25inch disk drives are 33 years old probably could do with a clean, dose any one have a 5.25 disk head cleaner kit for sale? A UK seller best to keep postage down. Thanks
 
I got mine off of eBay. Not only are the drives old, but the diskettes also. I have had to clean mine several times due to trying to read old diskettes.
 
Cylcomethicone can help with the squealies. I've posted on it before.

As far as the cleaning disks go, they resemble fused interfacing material (ask a fabrics person), which would probably do the trick.
 
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Sorry Chuck(G) I can't find your post on Cylcomethicone and floppy drives, can you give me a link? I want to get the old Compaq portable fully operational and serviced ready to do another 30+ years.

Found it! under "New old stock floppies loosing data..."
It would be great to be able to make refills for my own disk head cleaners but how do I know which "non-woven interfacing fabric, without the adhesive backing" to buy, also what is the best way to cut it.
 
My short answer is "experiment". Sorry that I don't have a better one. Personally, I'd cut it with scissors, since it's a fused fabric (i.e. no loose threads). You could also use a leather punch (a whopping big one!) The term of art is "fused nonwoven interfacing fabric".
 
Fused non-woven interfacing fabric is used in clothing construction, e.g. as a stiffener in waistbands. It is available in fabric stores, although some varieties have an iron-on adhesive applied to the surface - probably best to avoid that.

However, my practice is to avoid the "head cleaning disks" where possible in preference to using compressed air, cotton swabs (Q-Tips) and isopropyl alcohol for cleaning and WD-40 for lubrication. The "special cleaning fluid" that comes with those disks is just isopropyl alcohol anyway, and all of these components are inexpensive and readily available locally.

Some people feel that the fabric tends to act like an abrasive, especially if it picks up any foreign matter, and I tend to agree. More importantly, the cleaning disk only cleans the head and does nothing for the rest of the drive mechanism, which may be dirty or balky due to stiffened grease.

The opposing view is that cleaning manually can alter alignment of the head. This is true also. Just make sure to let the drive mechanism lift and lower the head and be careful of the foam pressure pads on either side of the head; sometimes they turn to mush and if they are deteriorated you might need to clean out any debris.

Good luck with your Compaq.

-CH-
 
I have been using the cleaning disks for over 25 years.

I have never had one damage a floppy drive in any way whatsoever.

Additionally, I have never had a drive that didn't respond positively to the disk cleaning process. What I mean is that every drive I have ever used a cleaning disk on has been returned to normal service after the cleaning process.

It's easy, it's fast, it does what it's supposed to and it's the right tool for the job.
 
I plan to fully clean the disk drives with isopropyl alcohol and cotton wool buds and relube it, but a cleaning disk will probably be best for the heads and for cleaning after shedding disks ect, I don't want to take the disk drives apart all the time and risk the aliment.
 
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