bitPimps.lixlink.com

First Thing: You need a floppy drive or two, preferably of the same brand and year if you are going for two.

This is the inside of a floppy drive:




To the left of the stepper is a screw looking track... That drives the tray back and forth. One end has the stepper, the other end has a ball-bearing. This is what you need.



There is a tower which houses the bearing. Press the bearing out from the back bieng careful not to bend the little guy (depending on what type).

Once you have your bearing, remove one wheel from a ZZ axle, try to wiggle the bearing on. If it doesn't go on with a bit of work, smooth the axle's rough part a little until the bearing goes on.

Take the rear of your ZZ, scrape or draw a line horizontally accross where the axle 'mounts up' for reference (for single bearing mod, use gear-side). Do this again, but draw the line vertically. You should have a cross hair.

This is the fun part: Find a suitable drill-bit that is the next size smaller than your bearing would need (remember you can always go bigger, not smaller). Drill the hole within the cross hairs. Now try the bearing. If it doesn't fit, use the next size larger on the drill bit until it fits snug.

Cut a piece of old pen cartridge to the length needed to fit between the two sides to hold the bearings in place.

Assembly:
Place your axle (with bearing and tube) into the rear of your ZZ or bit, replace the wheel you removed, use CA (AKA: superglue) if you shaved the axle.

Voila! Bearings!!

(I will be adding more picures as i take them, but didn't want to wait to post this.)

Sweetness!!! Good job amigo.

I wonder if there could be any aplications for that motor. The electric R/C indoor flyer community is using CD drive motors for their planes. They have a good deal of torque from what I've seen. Much more torque than the average electric motor that is normally available for indoor flyers. I've heard a lot of good reviews on it.

I was thinking that even if the RPM is low (like 8,000 rpm), with all the torque, the gear ratio could be lowered to turn it into speed. Just curious. I will probably check it out after a few months. Got too many other things going on right now.

Those "CD-Drive motors" you hear about are the primary brushless motors that are used to spin the CD. Most of the motors you're thinking of have had their magnets replaced with neodiyum magnets, and have had the stators re-wound. In addition, they require special sensorless brushless motor controllers.
(From what I've heard, the other motors in a CD-ROM drive are pretty much worthless.)

Out of sheer curiousity, which type of floppy drive did you use? Of the two floppy drives I have, only one had ball bearings; the other had a sleeve bearing.
Also, can you provide some more pics? I seem to recall that you had a 1 ball bearing version as well.

i had mah-kkin-toshe drives... VERY well built in comparison to a pee see drive.

Your FDD looks to be made by Mitsumi. (Coincidentally, I got my bearings from a Mitsumi drive).
If I'm not mistaken, all newer (IDE) based macintoshes have standard style floppy drives. I would not be surprised if they were made by Mitsumi, as they're known for good quality floppy drives.

For the record, i stole those pictures off howstuffworks.com because i was too lazy to take my own pictures... Guess i could't have taken my own pictures because I don't have an intact floppy D

for the record, old puter stuff is a brilliant source of little screws, wire, sm components, etc.
cd walkmans are good to