USB Powered CD Cleaner

After bugging my sister for some time, we came up with this crazy idea : The USB Powered CD Cleaner

Quite what you need to complete the project:
- a fan out of a broken power supply
- a spare USB cable
- 2 CD cases, the plastic ones
- something to stick it all together : i used tape and glue
- one or more diskettes
- tools to cut through such as a pair of scissors, knives or anything you've got. I used a piece of iron heated in flames to cut the plastic casing
- a ruler and a marker to make some measurements
- a CD to test the functionality of the project as you advance
- a working computer or any device witch has USB support
- free time and some luck

So .. that's that. Let's move on to the next step as i cant tell you are eager for some trimming.

Now that you have in front of you one of the CD cases it's time for some chopping. Pick one of them and disassemble it. When you start cutting/ melting the plastic note that all you need at the moment is the middle of the case (that circular thing where you attach the CD)

Cut that out and stick spare plastic on the bottom of it to grow its height. Repeat the cutting procedure (in my case it was melting)

* note that to bind these plastic pieces together i used the double adhesive tape, but you can use whatever method you wish

Now that i have raised the height of the central piece i am going to smooth its edges as shown below. Even more as i am beginning to get a bit bored of melting plastic i am going to cut through melting one last piece - the back of the case.

Using the very same method just make a larger hole in the back of the case. Check if it fits and move on.

Well now all you have to do is to attach the middle piece to the center of the fan, on the spinning side. For that you may use any kind of glue. Make sure that it is as centerd as it can get before gluing it for good.

Now that you have attached that glue the back of the case to the frame of the fan and do the wiring for the first tests. The wiring is rather intuitive as there are 2 wires one black and one red.

*note that before gluing the back of the case you should be really running some test even with the top of the case attached to make sure the thing is centered right

You might wonder how is this thing cleaning CDs ? Well is is not at the moment but it will surely be rather soon.
So the next thing you gotta do is pick up a diskette and crack it open. Look for the soft material which is attached to its case and remove it.

Use your scissors and your imagination to stick some of that material to a piece of paper in order to clean the CD while it's spinning.

For me it went like this: i just thought that at some point you are going to change that material as it gets dirty so i attached it to a paper home-made CD cover as shown below.

Now the finishing touch. Slide the paper ' cover ' into the front of the case. Assemble the whole thing and run a last test. By now it should be already be cleaning CDs but it's not done yet.

First of all wrap some tape around the exposed wires to avoid problems. Then you may also want to make the device a bit more wide at its base. For that i glued the back of the other CD case.

Sid and done ! Now you can plug in the device, place a CD inside upside down and enjoy its magic.

Cheers !

*do try this if you like it :D