Brass instrument slide oil saved my optical drive!

[cellularmitosis]

Hey!

I recently picked up an iBook G3 snow off eBay, only to discover the optical drive wouldn't boot a disc (I could hear it struggling, but no dice). As I didn't have a firewire cable, this meant I had no way to install an OS!

But I tried a bit of maintenance and it worked! I had a bottle of brass instrument slide oil (which is extremely low viscosity), took the back cover off of the drive and applied a few drops of oil to the rails and gears.

Low and behold, it now boots an installer disc!!!

https://twitter.com/x/status/1264041782674849797

 

[1042686]

Huh Ive got a couple trumpets in the garage. Never thought to use valve/slide oil. I bet it does work like a champ.

 

[MultiFinder17]

Having been in band for seven years through middle and high school, I’m convinced that there is no problem valve oil and cork grease can’t fix. They’re like musical WD-40.

 

[CooperBox]

Now only if that would work on the optical drive of a G4 'Cube'......
I've spent many dozens of hours to come up with a fix to ensure that these eject their disks correctly. (It was a poor design in the first place).
I've tried numerous modifications on the rubber rollers, new drive belts, relub of gears etc. And always failed miserably.
I've taken several similar drives from G3 iMacs and none perform correctly in the Cube.

 

[timidpimpin]

This is awesome and interesting. I've been getting into mechanical keyboards in recent years, and lube is the lifeblood of a good experience. That bearing must have been pretty dry after about 20 years.

 

[1042686]

Just looked at the oils in my trumpet & coronet cases and they’re both mineral oil based, so it seems mineral oil is a good lube for these things. I Used white lithium grease on the rails of CD-ROM drives In the past but will definitely use some valve/slide oil on my next refurb.

Great idea