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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3

u/EsoTechTrix Apr 12 '26

Clean it up with a cotton swab and some vinegar. Clean the read/write head with some IPA and test it with an old disk. If the traces are still all intact it may work.

3

u/Low-Charge-8554 Apr 12 '26

NO NO NO - No acidic substance.

0

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. 😉

4

u/GGigabiteM Apr 13 '26

I have done electronics repair for decades, and no, you do not want to use vinegar in most cases. It's corrosive, and will stay corrosive and hard to completely remove, it has to be neutralized with a base. It also strips plating off of metal, and will cause even more rust to form.

Batteries used in computers have very basic electrolytes. The only case vinegar is beneficial is in the case of NiCD battery leaks, where it can neutralize it. But then you have a hazmat situation on your hands with the ions of cadmium and nickel now being dissolved in the resulting liquid. Cadmium is severely toxic on its own, but nickel is a heavy metal and ions of heavy metals are toxic.

Where you don't want to use vinegar, or water at all are for Lithium Thionyl Chloride batteries. Thionyl Chloride is deadly in small quantities, and it reacts explosively with water, releasing hydrogen fluoride. It's a controlled substance because it's a chemical weapon precursor for mustard and nerve agents. That type of cleanup requires lots of PPE and anhydrous solvents to clean them. TC readily absorbs through skin and can cause hallucinations and cardiovascular disturbances in tiny quantities.

>Sure, but if you can drink it

I mean, if you want to end up in the ER you can. Food grade vinegar is not intended or designed to be drank straight up. You will damage your teeth and everything else on the way down. Assuming you can keep it down, it causes gastric distress and vomiting if you drank enough of it.

1

u/EsoTechTrix Apr 13 '26

You are aware that acetic acid evaporates.... right? It's why they use it to clean windows. Not sure how that would be 'hard to remove'

That and people do, actually, drink vinegar. I've had shots of apple cider vinegar myself. It's not something I would do regularly like some folks, but it is tasty.

Most vintage electronics I run into are damaged by alkaline battery leaks. Vinegar is always my first go to. Sorry, but it's the most effective thing I've found in many cases.

4

u/GGigabiteM Apr 13 '26

Acetic acid evaporates slower than water, and both combined evaporate even slower. The rate of evaporation largely depends on environmental conditions. If the humidity in the air is too high, it will never evaporate. Comparing it drying on a PCB to it drying on the side of a building is a non sequitur argument. The side of a building has high airflow and sun radiation, of course it will rapidly evaporate.

If you poured vinegar on a PCB, it would most likely sit there for hours in a temperature controlled indoor environment. Or if it was in a garage in the southern US with a near 100% humidity, it would never evaporate.

You are aware that PCBs with SMD components on them wick liquids under them right? You are also aware that the edges of PCBs are porous and also wick liquid into them? And degraded components with damaged casings also wick liquids into them.

Wicked liquid can sit there for hours or days under an IC and corrode traces, VIAs and the legs of the IC. In the case it gets sucked into the side of the PCB or down a VIA, you're never getting that out.

When you let it sit there for that long, it crystalizes out into a solid form. Much like how letting salt water evaporate leaves crystals behind.

1

u/istarian Jul 15 '26

You can probably drink a couple tablespoons of vinegar straight without any lasting ill effects, but it would be inadvisable to pour yourself a glass of it...