>The washers are just to make up for slight irregularities in the flatness of the drive and the tray.

Uhoh, now that gives me ANOTHER nanometric thing to worry about. If I use metal washers which are ever so slightly different thicknesses, might that compound the problem of flatness irregularities? (ok, so how many words did I spell wrong in that last sentence?)

I'm so worried about how fragile this laptop drive is. I don't want to twist the frame ever so slightly by seating it on an uneven surface. So, I guess I HAVE to find those tiny rubber washers... Looks like reassembly will be a July 4th project.