Thread by @Gammitin

Let's make a new 3.5" Floppy Drive cleaning Disk (Mk II), a thread 🧵:

So, the last few cleaning disks I've made, were based on Laboratory Filters, they're hard wearing but probably slightly too abrasive.
I found this link to an early 1980's cleaning disk patent:
patents.google.com/patent/US43778…

Here we go, the recommended material to use is:
Tyvek

Tyvek is a brand of synthetic flashspun high-density polyethylene fibers and the ideal candidate for floppy drive head cleaning.

Let's begin, here's what we need:
- A sheet of Tyvek
- A floppy disk (these ones were all sliced by the previous owner for data protection)
- Craft Knife & Scissors
- Superglue
- Pencil & Compass

First pop off the metal slide and take out the spring:

Next, carefully use a knife on the corners of the disk to open the case:

Then peel the magnetic disk off the metal spindle, we need the spindle. Then remove the fabric lining, which ironically is probably Tyvek.

Use the magnetic disk as a guide, if you have a compass, that's a good option too, but mark and cut out the disk shape on your sheet of Tyvek.
Mines not perfect, but it's slightly larger than the magnetic and fits in the guides.
Apply tiny amounts of Superglue and attach Spindle:

Apply small amounts of Superglue to the corners, where you snapped it open and then reassemble the floppy disk.

I printed a label out for mine, for no apparent reason, other than liking labels 😆

Now to test it out, apply a small amount of Isopropyl Alcohol, not too much, but make sure it covers the area of the window.

My Olivetti Prodest PC1's B drive is dirty, sometimes it has issues reading disks, so I thought this would be a good candidate to test it out on.
B> DIR
"General Failure error reading drive B"

In the cleaning disk goes, to work its magic:

Well it worked a treat, the drive heads are now clean and working well 👍

Mission complete, now to make a few of them, thanks for following along with the thread 🧵💾👍

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