one of my Apple III internal floppy drives lever/flapper has crumbled to bits. IT was broken and I glued it but its unsalvageable. The internal drive is different from the external Apple III mechanism as it has an angled faceplate and elongated flapper. I know this makes it pretty hard to come by. I am hoping someone has parts or at least a drive they are willing to sell. Please let me know.
I have been hunting around online for services where you can mail them a part and they can reproduce it but I have found none. Does anyone know of such a service?
You need a pattern, and that requires a donor part to model.
Shoot some photos of its present state. I have a lot of expertise in rebuilding plastics, but that is at an hourly rate, usually for antique plastic and Bakelite automotive and radio parts.
Thats not a problem. I can get one of the originals to barrow. But then what? I dont have a 3D printer nor the knowledge to make a 3D rendering. I was hoping to send it away to a service that can Print a new one as well as make the plan I can upload to the internet so everyone can have the plans.
I really figured someone would have at least something to say about my comment of finding a service that can create 3D print files....
You'd need a whole part for them to use to create accurate metrics for the model, fwtiw.
In case you still need this, there is an relatively unexpensive internal Disk /// on FleaBay:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Working-Apple-III-Computer-Internal-5-25-Floppy-Disk-Drive-w-Ribbon-Cable/393075104501?hash=item5b851a1af5:g:o84AAOSwGJJf656y
At worst, you could have someone model the flapper, then sell it again.
Out That is expensive! Believe it or not I asked around to see if someone could model it. Noone was interested. I am investigating alternatives.
Well, no-one can model it without actually having the part to measure. I think that is a pretty specific issue. I know two or three people that could and probably would do it with the part in hand, but no-one that will guestimate it.
Sadly, all Apple /// stuff is horribly overpriced at present.
no guessig needed , I superglued the orignal back together. It will never work again without crumbling but its good enough to model.
Well as luck would have it I was on eBay just browsing when this was "recommended" to me:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-III-External-Disk-Drive-Latch-Apple-III-Computers/303811894045?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649
Whats weird is its on my saved searches and I wasnt notified.. of course. Good price, its mislabled external although its the elongated internal version.
I hope that you got it. FWIW, looking at it, this part doesn't need to be 3D printed. A basic plastic moulding kit could be used to duplicate it, or it could be routed out of hardwood. I thought that it had a through hole swing swivel, not pegs.
If you aren't going to use the broken one, I might buy that off you and try to accomplish fabricating some repops.