I Made a Floppy Disk from Scratch (video link below)
Posted by machinelayer@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 47 comments
So over the last 3 months I dove head first into the mouth of madness and decided to try my hand at making magnetic media from scratch. This is how it went. Hope you enjoy!
Martipar@reddit
I tried twice to watch this video but your voice is fairly monotonous and isn't far removed from a bad AI generated voiceover. You should work on that, it's uncomfortably dull. Sorry.
For context i am comfortable with the voiceovers by VWestlife, MattJ155, Techmoan, The 8 Bit Guy and Game Sack all of which have had negative criticism regarding how they sound. If I can cope with those and not your video then consider that it needs work. I like the ide of the video and i'm sure the content is actually very good but your voice coupled with the music makes me want to do something more exciting like watch a 3hr video on secret cars in GTA VC.
machinelayer@reddit (OP)
Hey, not everything is for everyone. I make videos because I enjoy it, in a way I enjoy and for people that enjoy my style of content. If you’re not one of them, that’s totally cool. All the best!
mrspelunx@reddit
Now make a CRT.
AlfieHicks@reddit
Now make a factory that makes CRTs. And sell them.
Massive-Stranger4666@reddit
I worked at Startup monitor company in 1988. I got the job because the owner knew my father who was considered a CRT God in the engineering community. I went through each step of the process and documented everything. Fun job and learned a lot about manufacturing. Then we packed up the entire warehouse/factory and shipped it to Taiwan. Where they are probably making iPhone screens today.
pmodizzle@reddit
There was a video on YouTube recently of someone regunning a CRT.
naikrovek@reddit
There used to be a shop near me that re-gunned CRTs and they only closed shop maybe 10 years ago. Re-gunning CRTs was all they did. They had been open for 50 years.
If they had stayed open another 5 years they would have seen a resurgence.
THEtechknight@reddit
Either Hawkeye or RACS.
Stoney3K@reddit
That won't do anything if the phosphor has deteriorated.
AudioVid3o@reddit
Link?
pmodizzle@reddit
https://youtu.be/p3rfWWCsUaA?si=yyboVQdoAIm8-g4B
Strostkovy@reddit
Beer bottle CRTs aren't that difficult actually.
machinelayer@reddit (OP)
That would definitely be fun. Electron gun and all :)
Cautious-Dig-8805@reddit
Wow! This is amazing! 🤩
THEtechknight@reddit
I enjoyed that, and enjoy all of your content. Especially ones where you had to 3D scan/print/recreate all new case plastics. Those skills are going to be needed more and more as time goes on.
frosch_longleg@reddit
I watched your video and I really enjoyed it. Not only the actual floppy disk was impressive, but also the metal casing which looks insane. Huge thumbs up.
machinelayer@reddit (OP)
Posted some pics here: https://www.instagram.com/p/DNPCXw8h85y/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==
machinelayer@reddit (OP)
Thank you so much! I’m kicking myself for not getting more footage of the metal case. It’s an awesome little artifact :)
frosch_longleg@reddit
Mind sharing some pictures of it, if you have some ?
machinelayer@reddit (OP)
Absolutely. I’ll take some and post in a bit.
2HDFloppyDisk@reddit
This pleases me
uncutest@reddit
Hugely
displayboi@reddit
Name checks out
uncutest@reddit
Loved it.
Jorpho@reddit
Did you catch the bit in the latest Mission Impossible movie where they decide it's necessary to try to build an 8" floppy drive from scratch in a remote northern cabin? So topical.
machinelayer@reddit (OP)
Seriously? Haha I haven’t seen it yet. That’s too funny.
dlarge6510@reddit
Talk about timing. Just watched it.
Really excellent work. The way you applied the iron oxide layer makes me wonder if I can do the same with photographic emulsion.
Steve_but_different@reddit
Same, saw the YT video last night.
Hondahobbit50@reddit
I absolutely do this!
fenixthecorgi@reddit
You can! People do it all the time. They sell emulsion for making your own paper, and this guy in France hand coats emulsion onto washi paper
Jussins@reddit
This was fun to watch. Thanks for that!
prefim@reddit
Interest watch. I was kind of hoping by the end we'd have written a dos disk image to it and booted to command prompt..
rpocc@reddit
That’s pretty impressive! Pity that you weren’t able to format this disk.
This even could be a business because there exist exotic format of floppies which are no longer in production and extremely hard to obtain, such as custom floppies for old Roland samplers or card-size floppies for old japanese laptops.
sputwiler@reddit
Some of those could probably be re-made from Nintendo floppies, since the Famicom Disk System used Mitsumi QuickDisk floppies in a slightly different plastic case.
guitpick@reddit
Now, time to slap this month's version of AOL on it.
SRSchiavone@reddit
I kept getting this video recommend to me these past few days and I just watched. You’ve earned a new sub! Loving all the content on your channel
SauceBossLOL69@reddit
I got that video recommended to me on YouTube earlier today. It was really cool to see the process, I was surprised you were able to get any kind of data off there at all. Also, the places you were working on it looked pretty cool.
SistersOfTheCloth@reddit
If I were a woman, this would make me moist.
Mike1978uk@reddit
Enjoyed that thanks Matt
50-50-bmg@reddit
Usagi still needs a drum coated I think :)
JoeAsmodo@reddit
That was such an awesome video. 😍 Thanks for that! 👍
I wonder if a 5 1/4 inch floppy (the floppy floppies 😅) might be easier to replicate, because they came first?
TheFowlOwl@reddit
Great video, watching that this morning!
echocomplex@reddit
whoa
berrmal64@reddit
Very cool, I can't wait to watch this. Maybe it's in the video, but I'm excited to see what kind of data density you got. If we could recoat and then rerecord old 8bit disks and audio cassettes they'd basically be infinitely renewable, dependent only on having good read/write heads. I've thought about trying to build heads from scratch but that's a far, far future project for me.
Loan-Pickle@reddit
Nothing like a fresh small batch artisan floppy disk.
Just4m4n@reddit
Nice work! Great video.
machinelayer@reddit (OP)
🙏 thanks so much!