Things to do with a old computer

Step 3 Floppy Drive

The humble floppy drive. Gone and almost forgotten. They are handy in even the latest computers for flashing BIOS's and other tasks. There are hundreds of uses for floppy disks, all you have to do is search Instructables for "floppy disk" but there aren't so many for the drive itself. If you have a MacIntosh floppy drive, your in luck as there is some uses for them.

1-The eject motor
The eject motor in apple floppy disk drives are very strong and efficiently would make a fine motor for use in a robot or another project.

See HERE

2. A Amp case
If by any chance you have a Apple PC 5.25 Floppy Drive and a Sonic Impact 5066 T-amp or similar you can make a cool case for it. If you were adventurous enough make it into a slot loading dvd drive.

See HERE

3.Airsoft Landmine
There isn't a guide for this but some people in the comments have mentioned make a mine of of it ie. when you step on it the disks shoots out. It could also be used a a normal handheld launcher. If you are interested tackle the people in the comments

Comments

[frostybob]

You guys might not be the people to ask but when you open a floppy drive theres a smallish motor that moves the reader thing. It uses a cork screw. Is that a stepper motor? What is it?

[spenymoor]

i dont belive that floppy drives have motors for ejecting most are manual push button ejects but hey if you can come up with something

[jet_ski]

some of the old macs we had at uni spat floppy disks out so hard you had to make sure you weren't in the way! they flew across the room!

[dogboy12457]

that sometimes happens with my imac g5, not as bad as you put it but now i have gotten into the habit of being ready to catch the cd

[ivaneduardo747]

That STILL happens with manual buttons for ejecting them.

[bounty1012]

Hehe Im trying to make a floppy launcher out of one of the floppy drives, sadly its not working too well :(

[Madrias357]

I've tried too. You'll need a stronger spring to launch the disks. I went too strong and destroyed the drive.

[bounty1012]

hmm perhaps I could try making the floppy drive into mine that would launch the disk when you step on it.

[Madrias357]

Very similar effect as what happened when I put an airsoft spring in mine to shoot the disk after removing the 'slowdown mechanism' (hard to find) and it not just shot the disk, but blew the guts of the drive out.

[ultralegomaster5096]

I lol'd when I read that...

[bounty1012]

Sounds awesome.

[Madrias357]

Yeah, but you only got the one shot, then, and then need a new used disk drive to shoot again.

[bounty1012]

sounds like it would make a good airsoft landmine.

[Madrias357]

Provided you don't mind hitting your friends with pieces of disk drive. Me, I like them for pranks. Nothing better than taking a scrap drive and trading 4 to a friend for a perfectly good DVD drive. (he sells them on Ebay. Surprisingly people want them)

[bounty1012]

Lol.

[memyselfand1]

Ouch!! I so have to try that!

[ivaneduardo747]

I am the replier #11

[bounty1012]

That sucks.

[poop11346]

CONSULT THE GREAT CORNHOLIO

[bounty1012]

lolz

[memyselfand1]

Heehee, they were pretty well overwritten before I was born.