Shugart 8" drive enclosure (single or double)

[Peter Sterrantino]

Hi all, 

on the Altair call last week (Aug 23'd) there was some discussion on floppy drive enclosures. Now that i have my first SA800 working (and I'm looking for a second), I'd like to put it into something. Since two SA800's are as wide as an IMSAI enclosure, I had a crazy idea to kludge something together using my IMSAI cover and some plywood, but wondering if there is a simpler option. 

Any suggestions?

Pete   

[Walt Perko]

Hi, 

Wow,  I had forgot to upload the chat from ZOOM #50 ... it's online now.  https://www.brainless.org/Altair/Repository/20260823-chat.txt

This is the company Tony was talking about for cabinets:  

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09XWM5P21?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1

I've created .DXF (vector files) for cutting pretty much any material you want to build cabinets ... designed for 5mm or 1/4 inch thick wood ... but can be used for other materials like 5mm or 6mm thick acrylic.

https://www.brainless.org/Altair/Repository.html#section20

.

[Peter Sterrantino]

Thanks Walt! Those enclosures are nice..... But, the 8" Shugart drives are HUGE at 9.5 inches wide by 14 inches long. 

Pete

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[T Gerbic]

Decades ago I made a drive enclosure for my IMSAI out of 1/2" MDF. MDF cuts clean, is rigid and very smooth surfaces. The enclosure is the same footprint as the IMSAI chassis so the chassis will fit on it. I think it is 7 inches tall, but you might have to go a little bigger if you have full height drives. It does not have a front of back panel as it is not really needed and allows air to flow around the drives. 

The right side has a vertical board that creates an opening for standard 8" drives and I have two Tandon half height double density drives mounted in it. The left side has two 5 1/4" full height floppies and a 20M hard drive. Behind the smaller drives are the power supplies for the drives. One power cord comes out the back along with a bunch of ribbon cables from the drives. 

I never did paint it but will probably now that I am building and cleaning up enclosures for the S-100 systems. Time to get things organized. 

The little blue cabinets will work for 5 1/4" drives if you remove about 1/8" of plastic from the two vertical sides of the enclosure. I used an air nibbler to cut out the front panel to slide the drives in and used a 1/2" plywood piece with metal straps on the sides to support the rear of the drives. I also used a switcher that just fits in the rear for power. Sure beats bare drives and supplies sitting on the bench with wires strung around. 

[T Gerbic]

Amazon is not the be-all, end-all of shopping sites. You may be able to find similar but larger cabinets elsewhere. When I looked for something, I first thought about making a cabinet but decided something that looked more professional might be nice.