External 3,5" floppy drive case

[protek]

I suppose this project has progressed to a point that warrants its own thread. In an other thread I've been going through my exploits with Autodesk 123D Design.

Couple of weeks ago I started designing an enclosure for a 3,5" floppy drive that would make it a proper external drive. I use external floppy drives with my Amstrad CPC6128, Spectrum +3 and BBC Master.

Here are a couple of pics of the first versions of the case.


Yesterday I got a couple of pictures from a friend of mine who has access to a 3D printer. This is the first version.


As a printed piece this is quite large, which causes its own challenges to the material. ABS has a tendency to warp with such a big piece. Therefore HIPS was chosen as the print material for the item in pictures.

I've actually tweaked the model based on the results. One of them is to make the logo an empty space onto which the actual logo will be printed with a finer pitched nozzle to make it more accurate. The other was to leave more room for overlapping parts.

Stay tuned for more.

 

[TheCorfiot]

Can you make a Dual 3.5" Enclosure (Drives Stacked) ?
I am desperate for a few of them

TC

 

[cpiace64]

nice

can you create for amiga, i have 20 drive with electronic but without enclosure

 

[protek]

@ TC: Sure, I can look into it. I'm still doing some finalizing touches to the design of the case.

@ piacc64: The final case has an indent for a separate logo. I'll probably design different branded logos.

@ thread: Once I'm finished with the design. I can provide the stl files on request to whomever needing to print a case. I'm getting a couple of cases printed by a friend of mine but I really don't have the chance to organize a production run. You should also realize that 3D printing is still meant for prototyping rather than production and the printouts need manual work to provide a neat finish.

 

[johnim]

nice work there protek

 

[protek]

I tried a floppy drive inside the case. Fit's almost perfectly. The upper case needed some tweaking, which I've done into the model. The case will have an appointment with Dr. X-acto. Have to find a suitable plastic filler to smoothen the sides of the case and then paint the whole thing.

I also bought a thread tapping tool to make screw threads into the upper half.

 

[SkydivinGirl]

Looking good. Instead of a filler material, you may want to try an Acetone Vapor bath.

http://www.3ders.org/articles/20130...-abs-3d-printed-parts-with-acetone-vapor.html

This process pretty much melts the outer layers of the plastic to smooth out the object.

Heather

 

[protek]

I read about that myself. Unfortunately in this case there were some complications in the printing process that caused imperfections that can't simply be corrected with acetone vapor bath. On the other hand I don't know how HIPS reacts with acetone.

 

[ElectroBlaster]

Brilliant

As funds permit! You have a customer here