I've carried a tiny torch for the Commodore 64
and its 1541 floppy drives since my high school years. A few weekends ago I was able to make a dream come true: restoring significance to a relic from the origins of personal computing.
Step By Step
1. Get a 1541 (Duh)
The only part of the thing I actually used was the hull, which means you might be able to snatch up a deal on a unit in a non-working or questionable state. Just make sure the case isn't too banged up. By the way, these things weigh a ton -- you'll learn exactly why when you're taking it apart -- so be prepared to pay over $20 in shipping. For this reason, finding one in a local shop may be cheaper.
2. Get Supplies
Amazon stocked everything I needed for this transformation:
- A 2.5" SATA-III SSD. A 1TB drive costs just north of $50 USD.
- A SATA-III to USB cable (male) ($8)
- A heat sink -- I went with an adhesive copper plate ($13)
- A pack of unterminated USB cables (has a USB male on one end and exposed wires on the other) ($10)
- A pack of colored LEDs (has a bulb on one end and exposed wires on the other) ($10)
- A 75mm x 15mm fan that sucks in air from the bottom and blows it out the side, either with a USB (male) plug or bare wires ($9)
- A 4" plastic container you can cut apart
- A long USB cable with one male end and three female ends ($10)
I used common household tools, as you can see in the image above: electrical tape, wire strippers, needlenose pliers, etc.
3. Get Your Wreck On
Unscrew the four screws on the bottom of the 1541 to reveal its once precious innards. Be careful not to lose any of those screws! You'll see a metal cage of sorts. Take the top off with two small screws on one side; set these aside. The bottom half of the "cage" is attached to the hull by six screws. Carefully remove and set aside each of these. Make sure you keep them separate from the four that held the case together, in case they're not the same size.
With the plastic case and metal "cage" apart, start removing everything you can to the best of your ability EXCEPT for the two wires that come from the green light, and for the aluminum part the dark brown face plate is attached to. Also mind that drive door lever.
Don't be afraid to knock apart the electric stuff in the back, especially if you're going to use a plastic container to confine the cool air from the blower. Just be careful if you want to keep up appearances.
4. Big Fan
Bolt that fan unit to the underside of the "cage" top. I used a 3" plumbing gasket to use to keep the unit quiet against the metal (that's the orange thing in the photos that follow). Keep in mind you may need to reposition the blower based on the size of your plastic container. The key is to get the fan blowing air into that container.
5. You Drive
Connect the SSD to its cable. Lay it beneath the plastic container, with the attached heat sink facing downward so the heat can move right out the bottom, helped by the blower moving air in from the top.
6. Green Light
Carefully wire one of your unterminated USB cables to the two wires coming from the green light. If you can, jack the connected cable into a USB port. If you like the light as-is, great! If not, this is where one of those new green LEDs comes in. Wire one to that USB cable, test it, then replace the old with the new. Plug the USB cable into the final open female end on the 3-to-1.
7. Test Drive
With everything connected, hook your project up to your computer. You should hear the blower engage and see the green light come on. If your SATA cable has lights on it, you should see those, too.
In Windows, go to Device Manager and watch for your SATA cable to appear as a drive interface, and for the drive to appear as a hard drive. It won't appear in Windows Explorer until you've initialized the drive, partitioned it, assigned a name to each partition, and assigned each a letter.
Once you're happy, screw the cage back down to the bottom of the case, and screw the bottom of the case onto the top.
9. Profit
I'm pretty happy with how this turned out. I hope you'll give it a try. The most technical parts were wiring the lamp and preparing the new drive for your computer's operating system.
I'm not a professional repurposer or a handyman; far from it. I just had an idea and wanted to see what I could make. I've no doubt the design could be improved upon (#foreshadowing).