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Cheap cleaning diskettes

twolazy

twolazy

Veteran Member
Joined
May 22, 2011
Messages
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Location
Chicago, IL
So I've been thinking lately (worry about that), and I have only so many cleaning diskettes. 3.5's I have half a dozen, 5.25s I have one. Sooner or later most stock will dry up, and be stuck with crap knockoff material.

So was thinking, as a cheaper DIY approach, what could be used as the cleaning/scrubbing medium? What would you consider be good enough or better as a cleaning substrate. If mass produced material is cheap enough, then anyone with even a bad disk could have a functional cleaning diskette that is affordable!

I dunno , just thinking 5.25 cleaning diskettes are getting pricey! :)
 
Im in the same boat. I have one 8", two 3.5", and five 5.25" cleaning disks (a couple of my 5.25" disks have cracked and flaked to pieces so I threw them out). Most of mine are dirty at this point from hundreds of cleanings. It would be great if someone made a new diskette.

Unless you stumble on a bargain buying a new one is pricey.
 
Even 8" exactly, what can we use as a cleaning substrate thats easily found. This whole idea you gotta wait for some special disk when most can spare 1 to create a cleaning disk, is absurb. Prices are insane. 30 bux for a UV ridden 5.25 cleaning kit? Waaaaaaaaaaht?
 
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I believe that I've posted on this several times. If you want to make "cookies" for cleaning, they have to be of a nonwoven polyester fabric. Woven fabrics can shed and you don't want that in your disk drives. You can see the nonwoven stuff used for filters, as interfacing, even as landscaping fabric.

Here's an example

Now, someone tell me where I can get a gallon of Freon TF....
 
I've got two 3.5" cleaning disks and that's it. Both are past the number of usages they're advertised as being good for but they still seem to work for now. I've seen someone in italy selling new self-made cleaning disks in 3.5" and 5.25" on ebay which I assume work as well as any other but I've not bought any to try.

What I really lack is a cleaning disk for LS-120 drives. I've got two LS-120 drives that are effectively dead now because the heads are dirty and I've got no way to clean them what wont result in destroyed or misaligned heads.
 
Chuck(G) said:
I believe that I've posted on this several times. If you want to make "cookies" for cleaning, they have to be of a nonwoven polyester fabric. Woven fabrics can shed and you don't want that in your disk drives. You can see the nonwoven stuff used for filters, as interfacing, even as landscaping fabric.

Here's an example

Now, someone tell me where I can get a gallon of Freon TF....
Click to expand...
that stuff looks exactly like what's in my factory cleaning disks
 
davidrg said:
What I really lack is a cleaning disk for LS-120 drives. I've got two LS-120 drives that are effectively dead now because the heads are dirty and I've got no way to clean them what wont result in destroyed or misaligned heads.
Click to expand...

This came up a couple of years ago in the Vogons forum. About the best anyone could suggest was squirting some CRC contact cleaner in through the slot. This is not a drive that you want to take to pieces, trust me.
The special cleaning disks are very scarce--not that they were plentiful in the first place.
 
could you not use a standard 3.5" cleaning disk in an ls-120? They were backwards compatible, though I must admit I never tried to clean one
 
maxtherabbit said:
could you not use a standard 3.5" cleaning disk in an ls-120? They were backwards compatible, though I must admit I never tried to clean one
Click to expand...
Not with most cleaning disks.
shows what happens if one tries. The drive will no longer be functional.

The Imation dry head cleaning disk for the LS-120 was supposed to work on standard floppy drives as well so there might be another 3.5" cleaning disk that uses the same material.
 
Ok so I am about to buy the fabric Chuck linked, but noticed its very , well very soft and flimsy. Do I glue this to a more rigid plastic disk? Cut to a circle like a diskette, and make a sandwich with it on the outside, with the rigid plastic in the middle? This material doesnt look stiff enough for the job. I love the idea of making my own, but this fabric selection doesnt seem prudent.
 
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