Citizen W1D floppy drive belt

thingiverse

This is a replacement drive belt for the Citizen W1D 3.5" floppy drive. This drive was popular back in the 80's and 90's for laptop PC's because it is so thin. And it got that way by not using a direct drive motor to turn the disk. Instead they used a rubber belt connected to a motor off to the side. A very skinny belt. A very fragile, skinny belt. Anyway, after this many years, virtually all of these belts are either stretched out, broken, or melted. And they're impossible to find. So the point of this Thing isn't how clever the design is (it isn't), it's to serve as an existence proof that yes, you can 3D print a replacement belt for this drive and yes, it works just fine. And if your belt was broken, now you have to original dimensions. I'm providing the source so you can tweak the dimensions depending on your particular printer and settings. The part is so tiny, you may need to make some adjustments. Fortunately it prints very quickly, so the cost of a redo is minimal. The choice of filament matters. I can tell you Ninjaflex doesn't work. Neither does Eco-Flex PLA. What did work for me was Makerflex. Unfortunately that came from the now departed Makergeeks so it may be hard to find. Basically you want something that is stretchy as well as flexible. There are other filaments around now that meet this requirement. Finally, this is not a tutorial on disassembling the Citizen W1D (there's already one on U-toob) but I can warn you of a few places to watch out for. When removing the disk slide tray be very careful not to hook or nick the heads as you lift the disk tray out. When replacing it, make sure the little tab on the left side of the upper head rides *above* the lifter plate on the left. It's very easy to get it below the plate. Also make sure that the little rectangular notch in the slide on the lower right side straddles the little lever in the base that controls the lower head lifter. Miss these and you won't be able to push the disk in and you risk damaging the heads. Also, make sure you don't bend the tab at the right back edge of the tray. It's easy to get it so it will rub against the plastic arm that controls the disk shutter opener thingie. That also controls the eject process. If it's binding, the disk won't eject. And finally, there's a little triangular piece of metal on the rear top left side of the slide. This has to ride above the case. If it doesn't, when you push the disk in, the upper head lifter won't lift the head out of the way and the disk won't go in.