Make a Starship Enterprise out of a Floppy Disk
Don't know what to do with that box of floppy disks you have sitting in your desk? Floppy disks might be a thing of the past, but spaceships are a thing of the future. To encourage the meeting of the past and future, try making your old floppies into a fleet of Starship Enterprises.
Steps
- Find an old floppy disk. Make sure it has a metal shutter at the bottom, and that it does not contain any important information.
- Take apart the disk. Pull the metal shutter off the bottom, then pry the sides of the disk open. Pull out the center and peel off the magnetic film surrounding the metal center. Recycle any non-metal pieces possible.
- Open the shutter. Use a pair of scissors to snip the thin tabs around the opening of the shutter. Cut them on the side of the opening that has more metal attached to it. Make the wider portion of the shutter horizontal by folding at 90 degree angles to just above the shutter opening.
- Create warp nacelles. Working with the same wide portion of the shutter, fold up a small portion of the ends (again at 90 degrees, but opposite the original folds) to form the warp nacelles.
- For more realistic looking nacelles, place a No. 2 pencil on the edge of the dust cover and roll the metal around it instead of bending it at a 90 degree angle. This will create a tubular shaped nacelle. Slide the pencil out of the metal tube and repeat on the other side.
- Snip a place on the shuttle for the disk hub. Halfway through the narrow portion of the shutter, make a small snip to both sides. Don't cut all the way through. This will facilitate placement of the disk hub (the saucer section).
- Attach the disk to the shutter. Draw the narrow portion of the shutter through the hole in the disk, and rest the edge of the hole on the slits you just cut.
- Secure the hub. Fold the portions of the shutter protruding through the hole in the hub down and around the hub to secure.
- Use a large paperclip as a stand. Enjoy your starship and boldly go where no man has gone before!
Tips
- You can use colored sharpies to add markings to the nacelles and the saucer such as "NCC-1701", lights, and so on.
- To give your Enterprise the genuine "floating" appearance, use the spring that held the shutter closed to fashion a nearly invisible stand that will amaze and confound your peers.
Warnings
- You can only use the disks with metal sliders; plastic sliders won't work.
- The edges of the metal dust cover and disk hub are extremely sharp––be careful so as to avoid cuts.
Things You'll Need
- An old floppy disk with a sliding metal dust cover.
- Scissors or sheet metal snips.
