DIY CNC from floppy drive parts

[User Nameless]

For those who are passionate about cool DIY projects, here's one for the list.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z58MdRGgEOQ

[steveo]

thats a really cool idea!

computers are a really awesome source for harvesting parts, and people throw a lot away. never thought of using the stepper from the floppy drive for anything though...

i must have saved hundreds of dollars in components just from stripping them down

my favorite is neodymium magnets from the hard drives, they're incredibly strong, and great for holding parts in place

[RobertISaar]

how accurate is a floppy stepper? from what i remember of my time in CNC days, servos beat stepper accuracy by a noticable margin. i'm sure it wouldn't matter for a lot of projects, but if it's extremely limiting, it seems like a lot of wasted effort?

[User Nameless]

Yes, the neodymium magnet harvesting is one of my favorites. From transmission pans to holding sharp razor blades on my workbench, I never run out of uses for them.

[steveo]

how accurate is a floppy stepper? from what i remember of my time in CNC days, servos beat stepper accuracy by a noticable margin. i'm sure it wouldn't matter for a lot of projects, but if it's extremely limiting, it seems like a lot of wasted effort?

well, i dont have specs on that stepper, but one could assume that if the circular rings of data on a 1.44mb floppy are seperated by less than 0.2mm, it must have greater than 0.2mm of precision to function correctly.

[RobertISaar]

.2mm = ~.008"

not quite the precision i'm used to(.001), but it would suffice for a lot of stuff.