HP 9122C Floppy Drive Refurb 

You should pick up a needle oiler to help precisely apply oil to confined areas. They are only a few dollars, and you can get empty to ones to fill with you lubricant of choice.

11:32 - I've refurbished a ton of Macintosh floppy drives. I first purchased a 20 pack of small squeeze applicators with color coded lids & tiny metal syringes (even includes tiny funnels for filling.) I've found that things like the factory 3-in-1 bottle and Deoxit leak horribly and can be difficult to apply tiny amounts. So I fill up and label the blue bottle with 99% IPA, yellow bottle with 3-in-1, and red bottle with Deoxit. The colors happen to match the contents. :) For the rollers, I've found it easier to first soak them in some IPA. That helps gets rid of all the gunk along with a stiff-bristled tooth brush. I also use the paper towel method, and I rotate the rollers until they spin on their own. I then put a tiny dab of 3-in-1 oil so it wicks it up, then rotate them again. For all metal-on-metal contact on the main chassis where you cleaned off the old grease, I use Molykote EM-30L (this is the modern formulation of the official grease Sony uses.) That includes a tiny bit where the rollers slide on the lower chassis. Less is more, of course. I also clean and put a bit of grease on the worm screw as you did. I the use a tiny bit of 3-in-1 on the metal bushings for the head. Although I've never had issues with any of the connectors, I still use a bit of contact cleaner to prevent oxidation and corrosion. Finally, I use plastic-safe silicone grease for the motor eject assembly. Although this doesn't really apply here.

FYI: Dow Corning Molykote EM-30L is the modern formulation of the original grease used by Sony for the drives used in the Macintosh. If those drives were assembled in the same factory, I would imagine they used the same grease. Down Corning only sells it in large kilogram tubs, but lots of people resell it in smaller 1oz and 2oz packages under the name "Mkote" ... presumably to avoid any trademark issues.

Something you may want to consider is that 3in1 oil is a dust magnet. There are a number of silicone lubricants which last far longer without becoming gummy which are far better options. I'd suggest maybe having a look through the Adrian's Digital Basement episodes. I think Necroware did a few too.

Absolutely love this! Thanks so much for doing genuinely important work with these machines, this progress and history should be archived! The "Hardcopy Supporters" thing at the end is amazing!

You can finally organize your MIDI files now.

Kudos for fixing the floppies it's the part I never touch when I did repairs of old computers. Also it's cool to see all the pc set complete and working.

I like to use a little syringe with a (non stabby) needle and RedLine 0w5 non detergent synthetic ester race oil on the fine little moving parts on my pick&place machines. It won't dry out and get gummy as easily as dino oil. It smells really good too. Gotta love the honkin linear power supply in that drive

Very nice! I'm wondering about the choice of 3in1 oil though. If it's definitely the right stuff, then that's great but if it was an arbitrary choice, I suggest looking into it because I fear it may dry out and form sticky gunk sooner than we would like. Lubrication is a wonderfully complex field with superb specialized products for many different environments and use cases, so it's always good to select the right one. Finding out just what that might be involved a phone call to a large oil company's chemists when I did it forty years ago but now it's likely to present a bit more of a challenge. Back then I was impressed with Exxon's stuff and was offered a free sample which made it unnecessary to buy it every single time. On balance, I'd have to say the service was adequate! Have fun.. 😉

Common problem, it seems. I have the same double-disk unit, which I purchased to go with my HP Vector Network Analyzer. When I got it. it had the same dried/gummed-up grease problem. Cleaned up/lubricated the head rail and screw bar, and the thing has been working fine for the last 10 years. Thanks!

Hey you didn't forget!

Thanks for sharing all this. I grew up in the 80's but never had much access to computers. I enjoy your Twitch streams too.

4:19 The amount of tear down for one drive is insane... absolute mad lad.

Instead of 3-in-1 which is a petroleum oil and will gum up over time look into getting a bottle marked Zoom Spout they sell for sewing machine lubrication in notions stores like Joann Fabric, in the sewing section of department stores or online

Recently found your channel and I've been binge watching them... love that the long videos too.

Have you considered using an ultrasonic cleaner? Clean with solution for 10 minutes. This will remove substantially all dirt and oils. Submerge in distilled water (get all the air bubbles out). Drain. Then a 5 minute bath in 50% ethanol/distilled water (again get all the air bubbles out). Drain. Then drying at 120 F (or whatever the maximum published storage temp is) for 20 minutes (with good ventilation). Then 10 minutes cooling (with good ventilation). The ethanol bath should make sure all ultrasonic cleaning solution is gone and the bake should make it bone dry as the ethanol and water should have completely evaporated. Last step, applying the appropriate lubrication to all moving parts (including motors).

I just worked on my HP 9122D and noticed that the drives are completely different even down to the general design of the drives and do not use power on the ribbon cable, rather the power is a standard berg connector with a header on the Drive's GPIB Controller board.

I recently found your channel and I am enjoying it very much. I really enjoyed the videos about the Data General Minicomputers and the S-100 computers. I have been very interested in the S-100 computers for a long time, and finding information about them is no easy feat. Could you suggest any sources of information about them ?

Neat! I'll save this video for when I need to restore some drives in the future.

I have a graphical terminal w/monitor that matches this aesthetic style/period from HP someplace in storage.

If I remember correctly such HP-IB drives worked fine with the HP85 as well. But maybe a specific ROM was needed.

Let’s go, repair time.

1:30 push the button in for more clearance, Clarence. Roger, Roger.

I have to wonder why HP did this rewiring in the first place since there is no simple serviceability with that unless you are working at HP or you know your stuff.

I wonder if it's possible to take the measures of that floppy case, it could be use for tiny pc builds.

Can the drives function simultaneously? Simultaneous formatting and other operations?Or would that be a limitation of the OS?

What would happen if you installed an eject motor? Is there any DOS software that can send the appropriate eject command? Does Windows know what to do with it?

Loved this! Took me back to the good old days of HP150s when HP made good, solidly engineered products.

this going to be awesome because i was a smol bean when floppies were REALLY in use, but it'll be nice to know how to do simple fixes to them whenever i come across them now.

great video man... takes me back a time when these where actual default computers we used .... :)

Happy to see an upload, Shelby. Gonna watch now

I would suggest lithium grease rather than 3 In 1 for lubricating the internals of floppy drives.

Is the red ribbon that goes to the reading head in the right position in the LEFT floppy drive? I only saw the disassembly of the second drive, and it was reassembled the same. On the LEFT floppy drive, the red ribbon cable is in a strange position. You can see it on the movement part of the video 14:46

@ Tech Tangents. Can you make an episode which goes full in detail of cleaning / aligning disk drives and jumper settings on the drives.

Which make / model ratchet screwdriver are you using out of curiosity?

I really dig the look of that monitor and the external floppy looks very stylish and Profesional

Power Over Ribbon Cable - PORC! Oink. >_

Air tool cleaner from the box store does a good job of removing old grease. just note it's very flammable. And a modern oil is better than 3 in 1 oil that hardens after a year.

3 in one oil is great stuff, but the best in my experience depending on the viscosity you're looking for is gun oil. I buy hops brand. it lasts years and years without evaporating and gumming up and it likes to hold on to your surface without running or spreading into places your not trying to lube. And can we please update modern drive addresses? I don't use many floppies on my 8 core i9 ddr4 machine lol. If I want an ssd or hard drive to be A than it should be available.

What are you using to create the floppy flux maps? (I have a Kryoflux unit...)

Yes, the old PoRC really oinks.

Question: what is that software you're using at 0:45?

Yes! New video!! Thanks Shelby

.....I saw an EPROM in there. did you back that up?

Are the Twitch live streams not getting uploaded to the second RU-vid channel anymore?

I would quite happily listen to the drive formatting the disk at actual speed.

bro, get yourself some hoppes no. 9 in a needle oiler, it will lay up so much better than 3 in one.

So are we just not going to talk about that massively overbuilt power supply? Holy crap. Lol

Do both drives spin simultaneously no matter which one is actually used? What a waste of resources...

Cool, repair. 😎

Loved the format music :)

Bro you need to do a retro brite- you already had those ugly yellow drive faces off ready to go in the H2O2, and why not use silicon grease? I have never seen anyone use regular 3 in 1 oil on electronics parts, though I bet my grandpas would have - he would put that stuff on everything lol

Just a suggestion, stop using that type of 3-in-One oil. The same company makes a 3-in-One Blue that comes in a blue package instead of the red. The blue is a type of motor oil, originally used for things like ceiling fan motors. The difference is the long term stability and reaction of the oil. Red will tend to absorb dust and such and become really gummy. The Blue doesn't do this, so is much more stable over the years. It's kinda like the way that white lithium doesn't mix with dust and become glue-like. TL;DR: 3inOne is a great lubricant, but use the blue variety because red mixes with dust and becomes gunk.

honorable mention (as so many times before): helen croft

This is going to be awesome

Is that a Linus screwdriver?

God! I just got a 9122c, what a coincidence!

I like your videos and this is not meant to offend, but your voice puts me to sleep every time, this is good, as I suffer from sleeping problems, but I have to watch all your videos twice 😂.

Retro Brite?

cool, new video !!!

Diskettes not floppies....

silacone oil is way more safer on plasitc

Great job man

You had a thumbs-up of *486* I just unintentionally spoilt the PC numerology voodoo by being number 487...sorry about that!

Hi Mr. TT. I wonder if You are interested in IBM 6580 with 8 inch drive IBM 6360. I got one.

The problem with you technique is that you have not tried "Engine Wash".......for Floppy Birds....I mean Drive's......PRINT "So funny, world!"

3 in 1 oil is absolutely not the right lubricant. A high quality sewing machine oil is far better. The same people who make 3 in 1 also sell a light machine oil. But, I am curious to know if you are aware of any best practices recommended by anyone in terms of which grease of light machine oil to use? It has to be better than original. I say that because these machines are going to be used far less frequently than they were back in the day. That use tends to keep the grease soft and wet. When they were built originally, they were going into a high use environment and they just used the cheapest lubricants they could find (when they were lubing them initially at the factory) and it wasn't a big deal.

nice!

Why do Americans say bin as in rubbish bin rather than bin as in binary files?

Flip flop flip floppy

It's cute

I hate you for talking over seeking sound D:

| Awesome ! | :3

Oh yourlove of floppy disks. And you love talking about oil too much

like

I like your videos, but I can't stand those long and dirty nails. 🙃

3 in 1 shouldn't be even near this stuff. Diaelectric grease or nothing. Silicon gun oil or grease is a good substitute. 3 in one will attract grit