I worked on the first digital map for military aviation. (It flew on AV8 and the F/A18) we developed an optical disk drive for the project for all the map data. Security was critical so we had to include a “distruct” mechanism. The disk substrate was hardened glass which would shatter into millions of fragments. The destruction was accomplished with a very tiny Jack hammer. Your attack on the hard drive inspired my memory.
Hard drive magnets are awesome. I have used it to make a super strong towel holder on my fridge. I also used them to add a light to my drill press. I use them in the yard to help hold up the "frost cover" cloths when we have freeze warnings for our plants by just putting metal on the trellis, holding the sheets up, then click, and works for whatever high winds we get. I have 3 or 4 large peanut butter jars full of those magnets now. Very good for all sorts of things. :)
I have taken 100's of computer hard drives apart and if you balance the hard drive disk on your finger and thump it, you can tell the Ceramic apart from the Aluminum. The aluminum disk will ring like a bell, the ceramic will have a dull sound and not ring at all.
The separator rings between the platters on the glass hard drives are titanium. I discovered this when I tried to melt all the aluminum bits down and those rings just wouldn't melt... confirmed it on the bench grinder, they throw bright white sparks just like titanium. I think they use titanium instead of something cheaper because the thermal expansion matches glass almost exactly.
So glad I watched this video! I have around 100 drives to recycle at the same time I have all these abs panels that I have been wanting to replace thumb screws with magnets,, voila! Thanks you very much!
the reason for the impressive holding foces is, that those magnets contain two opposing dipols, backed with a yoke to close the circle. glueing two opposing flat magnets to some 3mm steel has the same effect.
I do the same thing. The older, larger SCSI drives have great magnets. Just know where they are so you don't place any electronics near them, especially storage.
They are neodymium magnets. Also very useful once removed from bracket, but be careful not to pinch yourself if you have 2 of them. I used them to beef up a cabinet magnet. Just place on existing metal strike plate.
I use those same magnets on my drill press, I found that I can put the magnet on the inside of the cover (no screws) and it will still hold the chuck key. I also met down the aluminum parts, most of the case frame is aluminum as are some of the platters.
Got a bunch from the 90s hard drives and they got big magnets in them ,use them around the shop and when working on cars. Put them on the underside of a car you are working on no longer set wrenches on the ground just stick them tomthe car when not needed then just grab it a work love those mags. Yes case is aluminum and the board on it is a high quality board they are worth money at scrap, 5lbs get you about 30$ 40$ at a recycler
Hey, just found your channel, very cool. Nice to see simple smarts! BTW, there is also Ferro Fluid in most HARD DRIVES, in the spindle bearings. If you can extract it, you can do some fun stuff with it… thanks
I wonder if you can make 90 degree brackets for welding and since they would be homemade you can make the "ON/OFF" Feature save a bundle. I myself will look into this. I have at least 4 old hard drives and I am sure they are readily available. I am sure a cam action would be how the "ON/OFF" Feature would work. Worth a maker's try. Thanks for sharing.....
Slightly unconventional disk use: put them on top of candle jars to retain heat and burn all the wax (instead of melting a dumb hole down the middle and leaving waste wax). Aluminum is a fantastic conductor of heat, the hole is just large enough to allow sufficient oxygen to the flame. Don't bare hand the disk once it's been up there for awhile. Stack them for deeper candles, push one over to starve the flame.
They actually make very good doorstops... I'm not kidding. They are just the right size for a house door to slide over them, but also to pop up and stop the door from opening up. I've been using dead harddrives for years as door stops, I've yet to find anything that works better.
Great Tip! I have magnets all over my shop, love them. What's the best way you've to get found to get chips/grinding fuzz off of them? Quick swipes with a wire brush is the best I've found so far...any more Ideas?
For stubborn grit, coat in a thick layer of RTV/silicone glue. Let cure. Slowly and carefully peel off the glue, which will embed most of the iron pieces. That's how I get it out of those magnetic hex bits.
Been doing this for years I have a stack of rare earth magnets some from hard drives and some other types. Gave a few to a coworker years back blew his mind how powerful they are. Be careful though they can be brittle.
I save the magnets and use them with my benchtop power supply leads to attach to 18650 battery cells harvested from dead laptop batteries for recharging. Then I save the aluminum casings for eventual smelting, and keep the innards in case I ever want to harvest the platinum chemically.
well this is not magnetic shield this magnet have 4 poles (2 on each side). this makes it much stronger but at the same time much tighter (magnetic flux does not extend far)
better than what i was using it for... a mirror. I have the plate sitting by my front desk computer so when a client is about to come in, I can check if I have something in my teeth or whatever.
I've been using those magnets for years. Every time I come across an old hard drive, the first thing I go for is the magnet inside. If I could post a picture in here, I could show you a LOT of them! :)
Good question … I’m in Canada and when I took my trade everything was imperial, halfway through my apprenticeship the country changed to metric. As a result, give me metric or give me imperial it matters not. 👍
It's amazing hard drives are as cheap as they are really, 3tb of data stored stored on rare elements for less than the cost of a video game. Even ten years ago that would have cost a small fortune
another good source of neodymium magnets are brushless motors I have several old quadcopter/drone motors and you get bunch of quarter inch magnets that I super glue to places to hold tools like screwdrivers for my 3d printer :)
The platter is useful for a signaling mirror in an outdoors emergency situation. Put the hole to your eye, hold up your other hand, make a V with two fingers as your front sight, and make the reflection go toward the target between your fingers.
Neodymium magnets are rather fragile and can chip or shatter. You should cover the magnets with something, maybe epoxy, maybe glue a bit of rubber over it.
9:17 did you mine the Gold off it? My older brother owned a computer store, he would take apart old machines and mine the gold out of them, i think last time i asked him he had 6 troy ounces of refined gold just from computer parts @ about 2k usd an ounce that is about 12k bucks. Its worth mining gold out of them
us computer nerds have known this for years, heres a little "shop trick" you will love, take 1 of those neo-diddilyum magnets and stick it to the shaft of a screwdriver/bit driver and then the screw will stick to the end while you drive it/locate the hole
The reason that the mounting plate is not magnetic is because there's 3 magnets instead of one and the array the magnets are placed makes them more concentrated on the ends the nickel based plate helps achieve the goal.
Some card board around it, and on one side a photo and stick it on the fridge. I also used it (several of them at a large cardboard glued to it) to hold any kind of tools.
Yea those magnets are ten-fifteen bucks apiece easy, and they break like glass if not mounted like that. And BTW you should make that last bit a feature, like a sign-off. Bckwrds sht cracks me up ever time :o)
you know there are 2 neodymium magnets in those spinning disk HD's.... the spinning disks are a very pure silica with a very thin plating of either platinum or palladium (too thin to be worth trying to recover) the disk you dont really want to break because its worse than obsidian glass, the fragments are very small and ultra sharp. getting one of those slivers in you is almost as bad as getting a fiber optic sliver.... they just dont want to come out and often need to be surgically removed.
I take a couple of the magnets out of old 3.5" drives and a 6" piece of Gorilla tape and tape the magnets to the cardboard backing on a legal pad. The magnets hold the pad firmly to the fridge and the gorilla tape keeps metal in the magnets from scuffing the finish on the fridge.
Not sure if you are aware, or if someone else has already mentioned it, but there are actually 2 of those magnets on each hard drive. One on each side of the arm! If you are very careful, you can actually pry them off of the bracket that they are attached to. But, they are VERY brittle, so be careful! As always ... Have a better day!
Sounds more like the story you come up with when the FBI is like where's this missing hard drive. Oh, well, it............. 😆 Just being funny, great idea. I'm going to do this for my father's drill press.
U can attach sand paper to the disc and get speed controller for it online just go buy bunch old hard drives remove all without the motor the disc and mount it on wooden plate with some magnets at the bottom of the plate so u can change the way it sits
As far as I know, the platters of hard drives haven't been made from glass since the Reagan administration. They're usually aluminium or an alloy of aluminium. They are flatter than your surface plate though...
he isnt a nerd/geek who repairs pcs, that is for sure, we have ALOT more, i have a ball of magnets on brackets held to a metal shelving unit that is held together with nothing other than the magnets themselves
