Stretch magic & suspension - what am I doing wrong?

Silencing hard drives, optical drives and other storage devices

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thetombomb
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Jun 16, 2008 5:49 am
Location: Canada

Stretch magic & suspension - what am I doing wrong?

Post by thetombomb » Tue Sep 16, 2008 9:17 pm

I've been lurking on this forum long enough and I figured I'd give hard drive suspension a try.

I got some 1mm stretch magic and tried to suspend my 3.5" drives in my 5.25" bays. The thing is, I can never seem to get the strech magic tight enough, the drive always seems to sag. The one time I did get it tight enough, one of the loops I had snapped, sending my poor Maxtor flying (let's hope it still works).

So what am I doing wrong? Is it as easy as I thought or is there more to this?

Any help is greatly appreciated!

porkchop
Posts: 496
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Location: Australia

Post by porkchop » Wed Sep 17, 2008 4:56 am

1mm seems mighty thin- the most common i've seen is 1.8mm.

i use elastic cord.

jhhoffma
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Joined: Mon Apr 25, 2005 10:00 am
Location: Grand Rapids, MI

Post by jhhoffma » Wed Sep 17, 2008 7:58 am

Ditto the elastic cord.

However, if your drive is sagging, the solution is simple: use more loops of elastic so you spread the weight among them. They won't be as tight, the drive won't sag, and you won't exceed the tensile strength of the material.

angelkiller
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Location: North Carolina

Post by angelkiller » Wed Sep 17, 2008 1:48 pm

Getting tight loops is a PITA. You have to stretch the material and then tie it. It's difficult because Strech Magic is hard to grip (it sips in your hands) and tie it. In my experiences it's hard to do, but luckily, you only have to do it once. This is how I did it. It may help. Good luck!
Image

thetombomb
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Joined: Mon Jun 16, 2008 5:49 am
Location: Canada

Post by thetombomb » Wed Sep 17, 2008 8:16 pm

Thanks for all the responses guys!

I'll try and track down some thicker stretch magic and see if that helps, I coulda sworn that I saw people on the forum using 1mm though.

PartEleven
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Post by PartEleven » Thu Sep 18, 2008 12:16 pm

I believe they used the 1mm on 2.5" drives. I've only recently noticed people using stretch magic for 3.5" drives, but they all used 1.8mm strands.

yamahaSHO
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Post by yamahaSHO » Thu Sep 18, 2008 4:03 pm

I would also recommend thicker stuff. I used the 1mm stuff on my two 2.5" drives without issues.

thetombomb
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Jun 16, 2008 5:49 am
Location: Canada

Success!

Post by thetombomb » Wed Sep 24, 2008 8:51 am

I finally got some thicker stretch magic, it really makes all the difference.

Here are the results:
Image

I can't believe how much easier it was with the thicker stuff. Thanks again for the help guys!

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