Mg Avaris ClariI have a legit question: What is preventing the hobbyist community from making modern 5.25" floppy drives?
Kyle Brown 
@avarisclari my guess is availability of read/write heads
Motors and other mechanical bits should be fairly doable, electronics you can probably program an FPGA or raspberry pi to do.
@Wearwolf Yeah the main reason I was wondering is you can buy a brand new 3.5" floppy drive right now, but no such thing exists for the 5.25". And yes, I'm aware the 3.5" is from actual manufacturers, but I've seen hobbyists do all kinds of weird and out there things.
gloriouscow@avarisclari the old ones still work fine, mostly.
Aaron Mahler@gloriouscow @avarisclari Based on the last day or so, I wish I could completely agree with you there. ;)
(heads back to the workbench to deal yet more with the next of six finicky 5.25" floppy drives)
Colin@avarisclari manufacturing is expensive and hard?
A PCB is one thing, plastic molds are another (if not just 3D printing), but lots of mechanical stamped and bent metal parts etc? Totally other ballgame.
Now. Could someone make one out of 3D Printed plastic? Idc. Not all of it anyway.
Bonkers@avarisclari you can simulate one with a microcontroller and an MicroSD card, and have all your collection on one card.
A fully mechanical rebuild would be too hard to make on your own.
BigPete@bonkers @avarisclari while this is true, the whirring of the motors and the knocking of the heads is part of the experience.
leyrer@avarisclari lack of media.
Klaus FrankVapour coating one should be doable. Not sure if you can get 5.25" Size though.
But you at leat could make something that works the same way, but probably at a larger scale only.
Club de TéléMatique 
Absolutely nothing.
Now the question is, where will you get the floppies from ?
RC2014@avarisclari Electrical stuff is easy. Mechanical stuff is easy. Electromechanical... well, that's a whole new skill set.
Physically making a metal chassis accurately enough to house the moving parts is beyond what the typical hobbyist can do. 3D printed parts *might* be able to do that, but it would be big and chunky, and probably not what people looking for 5.25" FDD are looking for. Particularly when there are still a lot of good working ones available.