How to make reed valves out of a floppy disk

Quite awhile back I said I would write a how to on making reeds out of floppy disk material (the disk housed inside the square shell). Since most people no longer use floppy disks and many people who have owned a computer before the early 2000s likely have a stash of them somewhere in their home. Why not put them to use again? Maybe a little better use than they were really made for. If you don't have any of them or don't want to destroy the ones you have, you can often find them for about $3 an unopened box from most thrift stores.

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The first thing you will want to do is find an "unwanted" floppy disk.

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You will want to start opening it by removing the metal sliding door, after a little bending and twisting, this should just pull right off along with the spring. I would save that door for a later project.

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The shell should pull apart by separating the two halves from the end where you removed the metal door.

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Remove the ferric oxide coated mylar disk from the separated shell halves.

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Now its time to cut out the reed. There are different ways this could be done, I have tried several ways since I took these pictures about a year ago. In the picture, I used some double sided Scotch tape on a stainless steel reed then stuck onto a rough piece of mylar cut from the disk. I then trimmed the edges with a scissors using the factory reed as a pattern. That works good but sometimes the reed can come out looking a little rough. I have not noticed any decrease in engine performance due to the rough cut reed (as long as it was cut to the correct shape and size). Another way I have tried was to trace the factory reed onto the disk with a fine point permanent marker and then carefully cut it out with an xacto knife. I have also experimented with different shapes, one of which was one that was made using a star hole punch with the points trimmed and rounded a bit.




The ferric oxide coating on the disk should not harm the engine any and will slowly wear off with use. If you want to remove the coating before use, a little acetone should do the trick.