Spare CD drive - any ideas?

[jester070993]

I have this old CD drive that I got from my grandparents old computer. It dusty and everything, so I'm pretty sure it broken. I have no use for it at all. I had an idea of making it into a safe, to hide some of my stuff. Any ideas on how I could do this? Do you think I could take everything out of it except for the power, and then stick it in my computer, then when I press the button it would still open and I could hide my stuff in there?

 

[jfenwick]

When you say it's broken you mean it doesn't read CDs or it doesn't work at all? If it still opens but doesn't read the CDs then you're still good for a mod. Open it up and remove the laser component, isn't hard at all, you'll need a couple of screw drivers and needle nose pliers. That should leave just the open/closing component and then do what you want with it. I did one for a friend that was an ipod docking stations, he would open it, clip in the ipod, lay it down flat in a molded bedding and then close it. That's actually a common mod, there should be some tutorial videos if you look around.

The problem you'll probably run into is that the open/closing mechanism has some sprockets that take up a lot of the vertical height, without doing some serious modding, so you're limited by the opening to relatively small, flatter objects.

If you're looking to do a small safe or something another cool mod would be to stealth the drive to the rest of the case and re-wire the switch to a key lock style switch.

 

[jester070993]

ok cool thanks. So when I take everything out but the closing mechanism and I put it into the computer, will I be able to grab stuff out of the drive or will I have to go into the computer every time I wanna put something in it or get something out?

 

[jfenwick]

What I did was just remove the laser reading component so that the door still functioned as normal. The "CD" tray would slide out but I made some small mods to it so that an ipod would sit in it so when he hit the switch the tray would come out, he'd dock the ipod lying down in the tray, hit the switch again and it would close, pulling the ipod inside.

The one issue, like I was saying above, is that the slot is relatively slim so you wont' be able to get any larger objects in there without a more serious mod.

 

[jester070993]

ok well i took it apart and took everything out except for the motor and power that makes it going out and in. there is alot of empty space in side so i was thinking it could be"hidden storage" but im wondering how i can also make it some i can slide the whole thing out?

 

[Harper]

I have this old CD drive that I got from my grandparents old computer. It dusty and everything, so I'm pretty sure it broken. I have no use for it at all. I had an idea of making it into a safe, to hide some of my stuff. Any ideas on how I could do this? Do you think I could take everything out of it except for the power, and then stick it in my computer, then when I press the button it would still open and I could hide my stuff in there?

If you are going to do that, then you might as well pick up an old removable hard drive caddy with a lock on them