Gman106's Manual Floppy Disk Mk.2

by Gman106 in Circuits > Reuse

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Gman106's Manual Floppy Disk Mk.2

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Hello fellow Instructables!
Gman106 here with my first instructable 

This was my first ever thing I made from the inspiration of my fellow instructable, I'm a bit of a retro geek and love the idea of a floppy disk note pad. One morning whilst going around my local boot fair (yard sale for all the Americans out there) I spotted a box of about 60 odd floppy disks, I then just had to get them. The bloke said he found them in his dads house so he sold them all to me for 50p (around 1 Dollar)  I think that no right minded retro geek would miss out on that ^_^

I got home and got to work, now i bet that some of you are wondering 'Mark 2? i thought that this was your first instructable?' well yes it is, the mark ones (1.1, 1.2, 1.3 and 1.4) The Mk.1's where all tragic is design and in practicality, from theses I learnt and made the Mk.2s which where much better. To be honest this is Mk.2.2, and I hope that you lot will enjoy making it as much as I have.

The Materials and Equipment

This is quite a simple build so the tools are reasonably simple and usually found around the home and/or shed :-3

Materials-
2 x floppy disk (an extra 2 if your prone to mistakes, like me)
1 x Cheap A5 lined or plain (what ever floats your boat) ring bounded note pad (Its very important that is ring bounded)

Equipment-
1 x Power Drill (with different sized drill bits)
1 x Scissors
1 x Wire Cutter (explain later) 
1 x Hole Puncher
1 x Pen and Pencil
1 x Ruler

Now we have everything we can start the building....

Lets Get Drilling

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Now before we start going mad with the old power drills we need to figure out where you want the holes, you should try and aim for the hole to be about around a centimeter in from the edge. As for the rest just go on your creative instinct, when you get it the way you want then mark the two holes with a pen as a guiding point.

Right now we can drill...

Now when it comes to the drilling i learnt a lot:
-First dont start of with the final size that you want your hole, this will only break the weak plastic.
-Put it in a vice or a sturdy surface
-Go slowly  
-Do them one at a time

When you get started start with a smaller bit and then move on to the size that you want, dont worry if the flopping starts to come apart abit it should be ok when your done (hell if not then you can start again)

Breaking the Book

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Now I havent got a pic for this as I forgot to take pics when I making it but i can talk you though it:
-First off you want to remove the ring binder bit very carefully as it will be a part of the finished product.
-Next throw way the cardboard or plastic covers as they are no longer needed (Put it towards another project of something (-: )
-Next we cut the paper, now the sizes i used to cut it up where 7.9 width x 8.3 high, but you can change it to whatever size you want it
-Use a pencil and a ruler to mark the first sheet, this will give you some guidance.
-Now you can start cutting away :-D
-Note : when you start cutting don't go all 'gun ho' and do it all in one shot as this will ruin it (Trust me Mk.1 and Mk.1.1 are perfect examples) try to go it at around 10 to 15 pages per go  

Right now we have the cutting all done we can throw away the scrap paper (or reuse it) now we have the paper all sorted we can start to punch them holes. Before you start doing so you want to put the paper in the 2 floppy's to get it where you want it,  when you have you then you mark a point in the middle of the floppy hole onto the first sheet. Now we can punch away!

When you do this do it around 10 to 15 pages like last time:
-First you line up the puncher a close as you can to the puncher as you can then punch
-After you done both holes you get the guidance sheet and lay it on top of the new pile and put it 2 new guidance points like you did with the floppy
-Then you just repeat the process until all sheet are done
-Note : don't try to combine the drilling stage and the paper punching stage together, it dont work at all, just destroys all that hard work you've just done with the paper 

The last thing that you do is use the wire cutters (CAREFULLY! Perhaps get a adult to help if you need it) to cut the rings for the 2 holes          ...I really don't need to explain how to do the rest for you really, its pretty simple, just go by your gut feeling.

Now Lets Put It All Together

This is a very simple step but I'll go thought it just in case you need some guidance:
-Put the sheets in between the floppy's
-Ensure all the holes are lined up
-Now feed the 2 rings in the holes
-Then you can tighten it up to whats best for you

Well done, you have now got your own 'Gman106's Manual Floppy Disk' ....now no matter what happens be it a power cut or the end of the world, you will always have those vital word and paint documents in your pocket. There may be a Mk.3 coming in the far future but don't take my word on that.

Thank you for reading and i hope you enjoyed my first instructable :-D