I've acquired some scrap 14-in drive platters. They're scuffed up (no real dings) and a touch corroded (more like stained), so I reckon I'll have to remove the oxide coating and recoat them. Any ideas how to remove the oxide coating, short of sanding? Should I recoat with oxide, or would nickel plating be better? In the Olden Days I understand they just painted the oxide goop on, perhaps spinning the platters to smooth it out. Also, the platters came as just bare disks, no spindles or hubs (or whatever; I'm pretty hazy what the mechanics of these large drives were). Any suggestions about finding or improvising a spindle/hub for these puppies? Unfortunately, the dimensions involved are a bit outside the capacity of my wee Taig lathe :) I've been scavenging VCR drum heads, and the bearings in these are pretty high-class, so perhaps they might be a start. I don't think the drum motor itself would have the grunt to turn a 14-in platter at the required speed, not without rewinding the stator and replacing the ferrite rotor magnets with Neodymium magnets. The folks who rewind CD-ROM motors to power electric RC planes might have a few tricks I could use. -Bobby