I wish I had observed more interest in this thread earlier...
The first removeable disk drive that I used was the DEC RL02 pack, followed by various Syquest designs. I never met an Iomega design before the Zip drive. But from all of those drives we can learn a little about how a home brewer might build an enclosure in which to disassemble and reassemble disk drives. This is a first pass at an idea, so corrections are welcome.
1. Build a box that is fully enclosed (ie capable of sustaining slightly above atmospheric pressure without leaking). The walls of the box need to be "closed" (ie the fabric of the box will not generate dust in itself). The box needs a filtered air output (easily cleaned) and a chemically clean pressure system (ie no lubricant leakage) which is again filtered. Flow for the pressure system must be laminar, particularly at the inlet and outlet to the box.
2. An enclosed box is useless to work in. So you are going to need external/internal gloves (as seen in all videography of nuclear power plants) that allow you to access the box from outside.
3. The box will need a decontamination zone by which tools can be introduced. The same rules apply for the decontamination zone as for the enclosed box.
4. Insert your drives and run the pressure system for hours to drive dust out of the system.
5. To clean the box out initially, run the pressure system high to generate turbulence. After that, don't crank up the positive pressure because you may recirculate undisturbed particles.
The first removeable disk drive that I used was the DEC RL02 pack, followed by various Syquest designs. I never met an Iomega design before the Zip drive. But from all of those drives we can learn a little about how a home brewer might build an enclosure in which to disassemble and reassemble disk drives. This is a first pass at an idea, so corrections are welcome.
1. Build a box that is fully enclosed (ie capable of sustaining slightly above atmospheric pressure without leaking). The walls of the box need to be "closed" (ie the fabric of the box will not generate dust in itself). The box needs a filtered air output (easily cleaned) and a chemically clean pressure system (ie no lubricant leakage) which is again filtered. Flow for the pressure system must be laminar, particularly at the inlet and outlet to the box.
2. An enclosed box is useless to work in. So you are going to need external/internal gloves (as seen in all videography of nuclear power plants) that allow you to access the box from outside.
3. The box will need a decontamination zone by which tools can be introduced. The same rules apply for the decontamination zone as for the enclosed box.
4. Insert your drives and run the pressure system for hours to drive dust out of the system.
5. To clean the box out initially, run the pressure system high to generate turbulence. After that, don't crank up the positive pressure because you may recirculate undisturbed particles.