Reddit reviews BLACK+DECKER Drill Bit Set, 10-Piece (15557)

Cool stuff!

Here's one thing- when stacking them improves the sound, I'm wondering if that's just due to having more resonant coupled mass. Try not stacking them but instead put something heavy and rigid (old HDDs, cordless drill battery, a brick, etc) on top of the drives. See if you get a similar effect. Also try putting something heavy on top of the stack...
By resonant coupled mass I mean material that gets the vibrations of the drive transferred to it, and thus helps with putting those vibrations into the air. Thus bolting the drives down to the board will help a lot. But let's come back to that.

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To build your box, you really only need a couple of tools and parts, which I'll link you to now.
Cordless Drill
Cheap Drill Bits
Circular Saw (a jigsaw is also OK)
Set of 4 clamps
Carpenter's Square
Angle Brackets
Wood Screws (probably want some 1/2 inch screws too for the brackets)
A piece of 1x2 wood moulding or similar
A piece of quality 1/2" plywood or MDF
Feel free to substitute whatever's on offer at your local big box home improvement store, it's the concepts that matter not the specific models of things. With that stuff you can build almost anything, your little box will be a snap.

The key with all that- use two of the clamps to clamp the board you're cutting down to the table. Then use the other two clamps to clamp a 2-4' piece of moulding down to the board. The moulding then serves two purposes: Along with the square and a pencil, it lets you draw a very straight and very long line along where you want to cut, and then when you move the molding back a bit (by the exact distance between the edge of the saw's skid plate and the sawblade), it forms a guide for the edge of the circular saw skid plate to slide against, giving you a perfectly straight cut even from a handheld saw.
Note: always cut with the saw facing away from you or your body, and keep your fingers away from the path of the blade! Let the tool do the cutting, don't force it. When you drill a hole for a screw, pick the drill bit that's as wide as the screw shaft (not the screw teeth).

I suggest using more angle brackets to rigidly mount the floppy drives to the casing itself. Obviously brackets that have the hole in a place which holds the drive flush against the casing are preferred. Angle brackets come in all different sizes, and you can always just drill another hole through the bracket if you need to. A larger angle bracket could hold both the upper and lower drive. Or for a stack of two drives, mount one to the inside of the main casing, and the other to the outside of the HDD casing.

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Now back on audio. A box like you designed might really help, especially if the back is closed as you're creating a cavity which focuses all the sound forward.

However you should also get a better microphone. If as you say it sounds great in person, well, that isn't being captured well on your video. The video is seriously lacking in bass- floppys make a great raspy bass and that doesn't come over well in the video. :(
I suggest an external mic, something which will stay right next to the drives and enclosure. There are also portable audio recording gadgets which have a good mic built in, I'm thinking something like this.
(Random sidenote- that's why the clapper slate exists, seeing the clap on film and hearing it on a separately-recorded audio track is used to sync up the video with the audio...)

For reference, consider how What is Love has really strong bass, but has a good quality mic right there.
Also production wise- what that guy sometimes does is first record half the drives with the mic right next to them, then record the other half of the drives with the mic right next to them, then sync the recordings and make the two (mono) recordings into the L and R of a stereo track and lay it over the video of the drives moving which is recorded without any microphone...


Hope that helps!

What metal, and how thick?

Mild steels and softer (Copper, aluminum, tin, etc) can be drilled with a standard hand drill and drill bit.

Unless you're drilling holes in tool-steel or tungsten or the like you can use standard off-the-shelf drill bits.

TL;DR - Unless it's something extremely hard, you can get a set of drill bits that will do the job for $5

If you have a walmart nearby they should have some. Amazon should have them too. This Kit would work, and you could have different sizes for coils or making air holes bigger.

Edit: Just noticed the reviews, looks like they might suck for drilling air holes. But they would work fine for wrapping on.

The "My First RDA" Mechanical Mod Kit

Nemesis Clone Mechanical Mod - Great price, great features, an awesome place to start without breaking the bank.

Green Sony VTC4's - I would suggest at least 2, I prefer 4.


Nitecore Intellicharger i4 (Or the i2 if you only have 2 batteries) - Great premium safe charger. What's worth more? The few bucks you save on a cheapo charger, or your house which you burned down by overcharging your batteries on a cheapo charger.

IGO-W2 or IGO-W - The IGO-W is a go-to for many, however it will likely require drilling the air holes out. The W2 costs a few more bucks, and has a different pin configuration internally, but has adjustable airflow. If you go with the IGO-W, you will also need some kind of mini screwdriver. Here's a super cheap kit

A Drip Tip - You'll need one to go with your IGO, style is up to you. You can get them pretty much anywhere, I just linked to this store because if you are putting in an order there anyway, you may as well save on shipping.

That will get you setup with your mod/RDA. Now you are going to need your building materials. Here's what I suggest.

Rebuilding Materials

An Ohm Reader - Do not skip out on this. Knowing the resistance of your coils keeps you out of harms way.

28ga Kanthal - This seems to be the preferred gauge for RDA's.

Chefs torch - This isn't necessary, but is hugely helpful for making microcoils

This cheap grooming kit - What you need from this are the nail clippers, tweezers, and scissors (also the pouch it comes with is handy for keeping your rebuilding tools in)

Cotton Balls - You can get sterilized cotton from most pharmacies. I use plain old 100% cotton balls. Just make sure to read the package and check of additives. You don't want any makeup-remover or anything like that. Just pure cotton.

Drill Bit Kit - For wrapping your coils. 1/16th seems to be everybody's favorite standard, so if you're prone to losing small things this might be a better kit for you.

yeah, if I had to guess, for a chain lock on a door, I suspect those screws would be quite beefy, which would make them difficult to turn by hand.

If I were doing this task, I would certainly grab my drill, Id drill a 1/8" pilot hole, than screw the screws in.

For that you would need this as well https://www.amazon.com/Black-Decker-15557-Drill-10-Piece/dp/B000RH22WA/ref=pd_sim_469_1?ie=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B000RH22WA&pd_rd_r=65QE3ETZGVR6A835WKD2&pd_rd_w=W1W87&pd_rd_wg=XC81C&psc=1&refRID=65QE3ETZGVR6A835WKD2

good point, it does come with 2 bits, so your covered on that side.

I would love these because I'm hoping to buy the drill soon and want to be able to use it for some home projects.

I'm thrilled you are happy and your username is very inspiring.

Ha. That's not a bad idea. Amazon.us btw.

How's this for common sizes? But then that isn't bits for all -- wood, masonry, metal.