Fixing things
Feb. 18th, 2025 07:46 amWe own a lot of audio CD's and DVD's, and (naturally) frequently want to migrate their contents to hard disk and/or the cloud. So a few years ago we bought an external DVD drive with writing capability (so we can also use it to produce CD's, take backups of stuff on the hard disk, etc.) and a USB cable to plug it into the back of the desktop computer.
Somewhat fewer years ago, I tried to put a CD into the player and found that the central spindle that holds the disk in place had come loose.
It's about a cm in diameter, and serves the same purpose as the plastic spindle that allowed you to play big-hole 45-RPM records on a small-hole 33-RPM turntable, except there's no smaller format so it's always supposed to be there.
There are two problems here: first, one of the three radial springs is missing, and second, the whole thing isn't attached to the turntable. The first turns out not to make much difference. The second I remedied by pushing it back onto the axle, and that's been working fine for a year or two: it comes loose, I put it back, I put a CD onto it, carefully, and I import the CD.
A week or two I tried this drill, and the plastic spindle came off in mid-import, producing a horrible clackety-clack sound as the turntable tried to continue spinning the disk. I stopped importing and tried to eject the disk, but that didn't work because the spindle was blocking the sliding door from opening. I unplugged it, got some tools, and managed to get the CD and the spindle out safely, but I didn't want to continue using the CD player until I had a better solution. Samsung's customer-support community says "this piece cannot be replaced, and is not available; here's a list of places to buy new external CD drives", so I figured I had nothing to lose by tinkering. I did some image searches and kept getting car parts ten times larger and heavier than the thing I needed, so I tried word searches on "CD player spindle" and variations thereon. I didn't find exactly the right thing, but I found something that appeared to have what I needed attached to a larger disk, so I ordered some hoping I could just detach the part I needed. (They don't come in quantities smaller than five, and even at that the shipping exceeded the cost of the parts, but I figured having some spares to experiment on and damage wouldn't hurt.)
They arrived yesterday. The plastic spindle has the right exterior diameter, but the wrong interior hole diameter so I can't easily put it on the axle, and it really doesn't want to come off the larger disk, so I gave up on that approach. I unscrewed various parts from the CD tray, but nothing that seemed to match the things I had just bought, so I put everything back together.
I still have the broken spindle, and it works to hold CD's in place; the only problem is there's nothing holding it in place. So I got the glue. I don't think there's any high strength requirement, only durability and sticking metal to plastic; silicone glue should do the job. After an hour or two for the glue to dry, I was able to put a CD into the player and import it, with just one teeny problem: the tray door no longer locks closed, so I had to hold it closed with my thumb for the duration of the import. Anyway, this will work until I get sufficiently annoyed with holding it closed that I buy a new one.
Somewhat fewer years ago, I tried to put a CD into the player and found that the central spindle that holds the disk in place had come loose.

There are two problems here: first, one of the three radial springs is missing, and second, the whole thing isn't attached to the turntable. The first turns out not to make much difference. The second I remedied by pushing it back onto the axle, and that's been working fine for a year or two: it comes loose, I put it back, I put a CD onto it, carefully, and I import the CD.
A week or two I tried this drill, and the plastic spindle came off in mid-import, producing a horrible clackety-clack sound as the turntable tried to continue spinning the disk. I stopped importing and tried to eject the disk, but that didn't work because the spindle was blocking the sliding door from opening. I unplugged it, got some tools, and managed to get the CD and the spindle out safely, but I didn't want to continue using the CD player until I had a better solution. Samsung's customer-support community says "this piece cannot be replaced, and is not available; here's a list of places to buy new external CD drives", so I figured I had nothing to lose by tinkering. I did some image searches and kept getting car parts ten times larger and heavier than the thing I needed, so I tried word searches on "CD player spindle" and variations thereon. I didn't find exactly the right thing, but I found something that appeared to have what I needed attached to a larger disk, so I ordered some hoping I could just detach the part I needed. (They don't come in quantities smaller than five, and even at that the shipping exceeded the cost of the parts, but I figured having some spares to experiment on and damage wouldn't hurt.)
They arrived yesterday. The plastic spindle has the right exterior diameter, but the wrong interior hole diameter so I can't easily put it on the axle, and it really doesn't want to come off the larger disk, so I gave up on that approach. I unscrewed various parts from the CD tray, but nothing that seemed to match the things I had just bought, so I put everything back together.
I still have the broken spindle, and it works to hold CD's in place; the only problem is there's nothing holding it in place. So I got the glue. I don't think there's any high strength requirement, only durability and sticking metal to plastic; silicone glue should do the job. After an hour or two for the glue to dry, I was able to put a CD into the player and import it, with just one teeny problem: the tray door no longer locks closed, so I had to hold it closed with my thumb for the duration of the import. Anyway, this will work until I get sufficiently annoyed with holding it closed that I buy a new one.