TheRaven81 Posted June 11, 2020 Share Posted June 11, 2020 I was reading through Antic today, and when I came to the I/O department of Vol. 7 #11, someone had wrote in about this, and I've noticed that my own 1050 can be loud sometimes. The letter author writes: Of course I'm not worried about the warranty now, but I have a few questions before I try to do this myself: Are there other lubricants that I could use(like WD-40)? I don't have regular WD-40, but I have a can of this stuff here: https://www.wd40.com/products/silicone-lubricant/ - would this be OK to use? Is there anything I should do as a safety precaution, and Where inside are these metal runners he speaks of? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Westphal Posted June 12, 2020 Share Posted June 12, 2020 Cotton swab and - a little - vaseline.( or any clean petroleum jelly) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted June 12, 2020 Share Posted June 12, 2020 35 minutes ago, Paul Westphal said: Cotton swab and - a little - vaseline.( or any clean petroleum jelly) Vaseline is thick and sticky. It will make it quiet, but also attract gritty dust. Bad idea. Teflon spray will lube it and keep it moving freely. It won't be quiet, but it is long lasting lube. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StickJock Posted June 12, 2020 Share Posted June 12, 2020 I use silicone lube on my 1050s. Spray a little in the cap or in some container, and then use a cotton swab (Q-Tip) to wipe it on the rails and any other moving/rubbing part (like where the tab presses the mechanism down when you close the drive). The non-rail bits won't quiet the drive any, but it should help to reduce wear on those components. While you have the drive open, use another new swab and some denatured alcohol to clean your read/write head. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted June 12, 2020 Share Posted June 12, 2020 (edited) Yep teflon and or sparingly used graphite... been using it forever. quite and smooth, I've also seen the rails polished with carnuba wax or slide wax, lol wax on and mostly wax off.... all sparingly, all protect, all quiet to varying degrees. most grease and oil solutions do indeed dry up or collect dust and dirt, work great at first and cause more work later... thick stuff isn't good for the stepper motor and control at all. I've heard of silicon dry spray... but I'm told it's prone to serious over-spray... dunno, I've used it for lots of stuff and they're correct, I might have even used it on some drive or another I just can't remember clearly some days. Edited June 12, 2020 by _The Doctor__ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E474 Posted June 12, 2020 Share Posted June 12, 2020 Hi, I use white lithium grease on the runners. If you take the top cover off the drive (remove the six philips screws, then lift up the top case, lifting from the back of the drive as it is attached to the brown front of the drive), you will see the drive head move along the rails as it reads sectors from different tracks. If you power up the drive without a disk in, the drive will move the head as part of the power up routine. The runners are the two rods that the drive head rests on. I don't really recommend working on a drive when it is plugged in, just on general safety principles (for you and the drive). You can use the 1050 diagnostic disk for a burn in test (2 hours for enhanced density), this should be enough time to get the grease spread out along the length of both rails. If you have the top cover off, you could also clean the drive head with IPA, though this might be harder to get hold of nowadays as it's an ingredient in W.H.O. recipe hand sanitizer. Hope this helps! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TGB1718 Posted June 12, 2020 Share Posted June 12, 2020 8 hours ago, E474 said: You can use the 1050 diagnostic disk for a burn in test (2 hours for enhanced density) Why on earth would you do that ???? these drives are delicate enough already. You should only be using a very small amount of lubricant as many have said and access to the rails is easy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E474 Posted June 12, 2020 Share Posted June 12, 2020 Hi, I was just writing about what I would do. I do this (lubricating, cleaning and testing) when I buy a drive from eBay, etc., and I would expect the drive to pass all the tests if it was a stock 1050 (I've noticed that upgraded drives tend to fail the tests - I'm pretty sure they are failing due to the upgrade as I usually run the test before and after the upgrade). I don't mind writing detailed instructions on how to do things, I think that's better than recipes that say "then cook until done". I'll also give a newly purchased drive a gentle shake to see if there is anything causing it to rattle, e.g. something has come off in transit, or earlier, and will open a drive to make sure there is nothing badly wrong with it before I power it up for the first time. I prefer using a grease to an oil, as greases are engineered for longer term contact. Also, I would rather a drive fails when it has a test disk in, rather than an original game disk, etc., though this is probably a marginal thing (I remember that 810 drives could, allegedly, damage the disk in a drive under certain circumstances, but I can't what those were, and don't, sadly, have an 810 to test this on). Hope this helps! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Westphal Posted June 14, 2020 Share Posted June 14, 2020 (edited) On 6/11/2020 at 5:44 PM, Kyle22 said: Vaseline is thick and sticky. It will make it quiet, but also attract gritty dust. Bad idea. Teflon spray will lube it and keep it moving freely. It won't be quiet, but it is long lasting lube. My bad idea has been working without flaws since 1980. Lithium grease is better. Dirt is not picky. Edited June 14, 2020 by Paul Westphal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gilsaluki Posted June 15, 2020 Share Posted June 15, 2020 On 6/14/2020 at 10:24 AM, Paul Westphal said: My bad idea has been working without flaws since 1980. Lithium grease is better. Dirt is not picky. Lithium grease. I agree. Small coating. It's what I use on my garage door rails. Doesn't seem to gunk up (a technical term) or attract dust. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gilsaluki Posted June 15, 2020 Share Posted June 15, 2020 What would Paul V. Alhart, THE disk drive guru say? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archeocomp Posted June 15, 2020 Share Posted June 15, 2020 1 hour ago, gilsaluki said: Lithium grease. I agree. Small coating. It's what I use on my garage door rails. Doesn't seem to gunk up (a technical term) or attract dust. If you open any 3.5" disk drive Made in Japan you will find lithium grease all over the stepper/head assembly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gilsaluki Posted June 15, 2020 Share Posted June 15, 2020 Lithium grease works well for the rail on the Atari 820 printer. I had one that had ceased dry. A bit lithium on the rail and the gear assy, good as new. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted June 15, 2020 Share Posted June 15, 2020 Good old lithium - keeping printers, disk drives, and crazies silent for years 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwilbar Posted June 15, 2020 Share Posted June 15, 2020 I too use white lithium grease. It does not take much. Thankfully Atari drives are not fan cooled.... so they don't accumulate dust as fast as the innards in a PC ? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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