8 inch floppies, decaying

[Fred Cisin]

>> No, no, no! Do not use isopropanol to clean floppies--you'll wind up

On Wed, 11 Jul 2018, Steve Malikoff via cctalk wrote:
> Well, I suggested IPA (to Chuck's horror) so decided to put my money where my mouth is and try it myself.
> Using a 38-year old 8" IBM Diskette 1 (128-bit sectors) that I had lying around (it's physically damaged) I proceeded
> to clean it with high-grade IPA and a cotton bud as I suggested.

What concentration of IPA were you using?

There might be a difference in results between 70% and 91%

There might also even be a difference in the oxide formulation between 
brands.  (If Chuck was trying to clean a Wabash, then it might dissolve 
right through the plastic.)


I've used water, and a heavily diluted dish soap.
And Kodak "Photo-Flow"
I kept a few spare jackets on hand.
I had cotton film editing gloves around, but didn't always bother to use 
them.
I was going to modify some 5x7 and 8x10 film hangers to use a film washer, 
but never got around to needing it.


I often received 5.25" and 8" diskettes that didn't turn freely in the 
jacket.
Most of the time, rubbing each of the four edges HARD against the 
corner of the table would loosen them up.  If not, I just slit the jacket, 
and put them into a spare jacket.

--
Grumpy Ol' Fred     		cisin at xenosoft.com