ive seen people do this, but a few thoughts kinda prevent me from doin it....... Im sure everyone thinks of this..... and its the lazer... cant that be damaging if u by accident look into it??? and also, on some of the CD Roms ive taken apart have a black cover thing over the CD, so i wouldnt even be able to see it spinnin..... would i be able to like dremmel part of that off maybe??? (i'll post pictures tomarrow if anyone is confused about that part - its too late right now to take it apart and take a picture) And Hard drive window mods...... i have a few old HDs that i would like to try this on before i go to my primary, but one problem..... i dont seem to have the right screw driver head to get the screws out (those little star bits) - what else could i use to get that off??? ive got star bits, but none that small...... durrrr.... and also, what are the odds of wrecking the HD while doing that?
for the hdds i believe u need torx screwdrivers... u should be able to get them that small without too much problem.... for instance they sell them down at my local builder/tool merchant but not at diy shops... u could probably get them from electronics retailers too i'll let someone else answer the rest (note use the correct screwdriver.. trying to force them will prolly only knacker them )
I'll act as "someone else" then... for the laser diode: there has been another thread about that a few weeks back, prolly search throught the older topics. But in a nutshell: yes, looking straight into the light of a CD-Rom laser diode can be unhealthy. As most laser printers it comes with a class 1 laser which will damage your eye retina. If you want to add a window mod to your CD drive, go ahead and do so, just make sure the diode is covered by the CD (in most cases) or something else. For the window placement it depends very much on the "internal" construction of your CD-R, probably yu can easily dremel some plastic off, maybe not. Just examine your drive closely and always remember: every modder will have fux0red one piece of hardware in his career.... Armitage
Here here. Basically the key here is to do what you feel you want to do and are comfortable with. If you dont feel like risking your brand new 16x DVD, go out an by an old 4x cdrom and play with that, trust me 4x's are cheap...
ive got a few 4xs and such in my closet i think i'll try it out w/ those... how thick should the plexi be? not very i'd assmume...
The thinnest I've found so far is 0.092" found at Home Depot, pretty decent for working with... Worked well for windering a few hd's... starting on the the CD drives this weekend trying to fabricate a complete clear plexi enclosure for the whole drive... might be interesting, might just blow up...who knows.
Keep in mind that the laser isn't set to death ray. I wouldn't stare at it and it would be a good idea to hide it. Any permanent eye damage would be a long shot. It can happen, but it isn't very likely. Unless you are in a place to be looking straight at the laser.
The new enclosure is more for experimenting with the plexi/adhesives for other much larger projects and less for functionality. That little Class C laser don't scare me none, specially if it never gets plugged in again, by the time i'm done with it, it most likely won't work anymore.....
