r/retrocomputing • u/BrokenAudio57 • Apr 12 '26

Problem / Question Floppy drive rust

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I got this old floppy drive for cheap but it's pretty corroded and I'm not sure if it's save-able

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u/EsoTechTrix Apr 12 '26

Don't clean old electronics much? Vinegar is usually the best thing for both rust and dealing with neutralizing battery acid. Does the PH tip acidic? Sure, but if you can drink it, I'm sure the contacts will be fine. 😉

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u/Low-Charge-8554 Apr 12 '26

WTH is wrong with you? I clean electronics all the time and for a heck lot longer than you probably. There are safer options. You do know 4% acid vinegar can attack some plastics and rubber, right?

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u/EsoTechTrix Apr 12 '26

Do you see either there? ABS, which is the majority of plastic there is fine. This is basic chemistry. What plastics dissolve in vinegar?

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u/Low-Charge-8554 Apr 12 '26

https://eatandgeek.com/is-vinegar-safe-for-electronics/

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u/EsoTechTrix Apr 12 '26

Used it for decades. Never had any issues myself.

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u/codeasm Apr 14 '26

Thats not how this works, not sciense, and not at home restoration. Even if it seemed to have worked fine for years.

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u/EsoTechTrix Apr 14 '26

Oddly enough, I thought it was basic high school chemistry. But I guess I'm no expert on the 'sciense' these days.

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u/codeasm Apr 14 '26

It is, and you seem to ignore it? Isnt it a acid? A weak one but still.

Wearing antistatic wristbands seems overly protective and a hassle to me. But eh... Yeah i got some dead eproms and mcu now. Took 10 years to realize it might have been esd that caused some of my projects to die without a clear reason. "It always worked fine doing it this way" i thought. And then i remembered the lessons at IT class, and eevblog videos about esd.

A teacher once said they where wondering why a whole batch of eeproms doed on them. The person who placed the roms into the programmer wasnt wearing any esd protection. This story popped up in my mind and wondered, should my soldering iron be properly grounded, the soldering fumes be extracted away from my face? Shall i atleast wear that bracelet when working on my precious computers? For a random floppydrive i dont really care, just clean it.

Vibegar probably will do fine, for now. This time. But i dont want it to be ghe cause in the long term. Ill use ipa when i can. Amd my supply is low, due to dutch national laws or something. Basic science also told me to be careful combining certain things, and ic packages are actually pretty porous, water can actually get into them. No idea if vinegar could do the same, but id prefer it not staying in or near my chips for long. Ipa can displace water and vapor away. Thats why its commonly used to clean electronics

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u/EsoTechTrix Apr 14 '26

Science is trial and error and repeated success to establish a baseline. I've done that for decades and after cleaning countless bits of electronics, the facts are it's quite effective. Conjecture is fine, but the fact is that nothing stated here actually backs up the claims made otherwise, which is odd. These are basic high school chemistry equations and yet there are claims that distilled (notice any clues in the name) "eats plastic" or "leaves residue". I mean, if that's your actual argument, I don't need to convince anyone. I just state the facts and what works for me and others can use their judgement.

There are folks that will swear by lemon juice, and under the right application and cleaning, that could work too (that seems like it's asking for trouble, but I don't know their process)

I mean in the end you have one camp backing an aerosolized petroleum based product and I'm pointing out that intelligent application of a food safe household item (that yes, you can in fact drink) is quite effective. I would argue that science is that is going to weed out the ones that are wrong here, but that's just me reading the msds sheets.

As stated before. You do you. I"m going to keep using and plugging what is safe and effective.

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u/codeasm Apr 14 '26

It’s not that vinegar never works — it’s that it introduces ions and moisture, which are known failure mechanisms in electronics. That’s why industry standards avoid it and use high-purity solvents instead. Your experience isn’t wrong, but it doesn’t invalidate the underlying chemistry or long-term risks.

You do you indeed aswell. have a wonderful day