Want to get a flux disk imager on the cheap? Check out FluxEngine, a design that takes an existing development board and programs it to connect directly to IBM PC floppy disk drives. These are then controlled so that you can capture flux disk images. How is that for inexpensive?
20200826/http://cowlark.com/fluxengine/
20200826/https://github.com/davidgiven/fluxengine
Sure, the newer designs are essential if you expect to manufacture with all new hardware.
UPDATE 2020-10-26: Want to do flux disk imaging with a STM32 instead? Check out the GreaseWeazle project.
20201026/https://github.com/keirf/Greaseweazle/wiki