Basement Workshop Find

[Claudie]

Ran across some 8" floppy drives. The man that owned them was pretty old, and when I commented that I had never saw any drives quite like these, he told me that I wouldn't see any others because he had made these himself. They have been in the shop for so long that I forgot what the guys name was that gave them to me. Anyway, does anyone know if these have any collector value? I can see some Gold in there but I don't want to ruin a rare peice of equipment for a few dollars worth of Gold. Here are some pictures of one of the units. They are all three different. One of them is a double drive.

 

[philddreamer]

Claudie, I was checking on this site, (don't know how old is it): http://www.americanmicrosemi.com/products/search/index.php

some old IC's, (some with gold legs), & eprons & found out that some are still been sold & was very surprised at the price of some of them. For example, I have 3 - MC830 priced at $22.71 each; 6 - MC862P & they are priced at $40.48 each...

I took a guess, (I can't tell for sure), at one of yours in the second pic, J412 26?, & a search came up with a J412 26WL at $91.33 each!

I don't know if any members here collects them and is willing to buy them.

Just a thought...

Take care!

Phil

 

[Claudie]

:shock: $91.33 EACH :shock:
The chips on this board are 7412N :|

 

[philddreamer]

Well... close but no cigar! :roll: :lol:

for the 7412N:

http://www.americanmicrosemi.com/products/search/index.php

 

[Findm-Keepm]

8" floppy drives aren't extremely rare - I gave two to a buddy who collects that stuff. I pulled them from a Xerox word processor I got at a DOD auction in '89, and had them sitting on my shelf for 20+ years. I see them occasionally at Hamfests and flea markets. Tandom and Teac built the two I had - yours looks like my Tandom.

In the early computing days, they were pricey, but when the 5-1/4" units came out, they could be had for a song. Most 8" drives used TTL chips, with a few analog op amps in the head amplifier circuit. The steppers are worth more than the whole drive.


Cheers,

Brian

 

[Claudie]

I know the 8" floppy drives aren't that rare, but this guy built these himself. I don't think he has tinkered with any of this stuff since the early 1970's. Everything he had was old, even him. :|
A lot of the other stuff I got there dated from the 1960's. It was a learning experience looking through some of it. Back in the 60's & 70's I had never even heard of the things he had.

 

[darshevo]

That would be a good candidate for the vintage computer forum: http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/ Might be someone over there who'd pay a decent price to get that into their collection

 

[macfixer01]

I know the 8" floppy drives aren't that rare, but this guy built these himself. I don't think he has tinkered with any of this stuff since the early 1970's. Everything he had was old, even him. :|
A lot of the other stuff I got there dated from the 1960's. It was a learning experience looking through some of it. Back in the 60's & 70's I had never even heard of the things he had.

Well when he says he built them himself he means in a similar context to someone who goes to Fry's or Microcenter and buys a case, power supply, motherboard, and hard drive, then "Builds his own computer". I'm sure the 8-inch drive mechanism was produced in a factory. The drive doesn't look like a Shugart, I'm guessing it was made by Micropolis? He may have made his own cabinet though, built or bought an analog power supply, and assembled it. That wasn't uncommon in those days. I wouldn't think it's worth much as a collectible though.

macfixer01

 

[Claudie]

Thank you for the input gentlemen. Reading your comments and doing some web research has taught me a couple of things about vintage computing. I will search around a bit to see if anyone wants one as a collectable. I would think they should have more value that way than for scrap.