Date   : Sun, 18 Oct 2009 21:28:12 +0000
From   : zeem.uk@... (Alex Taylor)
Subject: Re-using floppies

Just as a warning for anyone inexperience attempting to clean floppy
heads, here's a tale of woe.

Up to a certain point some time ago, I'd only ever cleaned heads on
drives that had the upper head mounted on an arm connected by a proper
spring-loaded hinge, so I could lift the head right up and clean it
easily with a cotton bud. Then I attempted to clean a drive from a
Macintosh SE/30, and the head wouldn't go back down again. It was
mounted on a piece of spring metal that I'd accidentally bent back
much too far. I never got it working again, although I did keep it for
parts and ended up using the circuit board in another drive that just
kept ramming the heads into the track 0 stop and making a chattering
noise.

-- 
Alex Taylor