Old hard drives have a way of hanging around past their useful life. Recently, I found I still had a lot of 2 to 30 GB drives in a box, so I decided to take the magnets out and reuse them. The magnets are great because they are very strong Neodymium that will hold anything firmly in place. These magnets are usually mounted to some sort of metal bracket with holes which will help you mount them and gives strength to the brittle magnets.
To take apart hard drives you need a few small Torx drivers, usually T6, T7 and T8. Usually there are a few screws that are hidden under the stickers. Feel the tops of the stickers to see if there is a screw underneath and run a razor around the outline to expose it. Once the lid is off, you usually have to take the read/write heads off to get the magnets off. Careful with these magnets, they are very strong and will probably pinch your fingers if they get between them.
To take apart hard drives you need a few small Torx drivers, usually T6, T7 and T8. Usually there are a few screws that are hidden under the stickers. Feel the tops of the stickers to see if there is a screw underneath and run a razor around the outline to expose it. Once the lid is off, you usually have to take the read/write heads off to get the magnets off. Careful with these magnets, they are very strong and will probably pinch your fingers if they get between them.
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I find new uses for this thing all the time. Originally I made it to pull a fish tape out of a wall when it wouldn't come near the opening. It worked great for that so I wrapped it up and stuck it to my tool box. Since then I have used it to pull seat belts through poorly designed child car seats and retrieved a nail punch that got stuck inside a door jam.
The dental floss is great because it doesn't really knot up and its incredibly strong for how light it is. It also wraps up really tightly and doesn't unravel unless you want it to.
The dental floss is great because it doesn't really knot up and its incredibly strong for how light it is. It also wraps up really tightly and doesn't unravel unless you want it to.
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A person who has not taken apart a hard drive is a person with no sense of curiosity!
HERE's another use for the magnet from one.
One of my bedroom doors would not shut completely and always left a gap. I bought a small rounded metal bar and screwed the bar to protrude slightly near the bottom of the door and I screwed the magnet on the frame side. Now the door just snaps shut when close properly.
Turning the camera just so it would face exactly the right way we wanted it was the hard part.
My wife's cousin (by marriage) gave me the Craftsman angle grinder that I turned into a cut-off saw. Some months after I made the cut-off saw he was at our house and I showed it to him. He asked about the magnet. I put one of the mounting bolts on the magnet, but very carefully and slowly so he had no idea the magnet was very strong. Then I asked him to pull the bolt off of the magnet. He was very surprised at its strength.
Thanks for looking.
There is another super small neo magnet in the parking mech on the back of the swing arm. I sometimes remove the magnet from the metal base. I soak the magnets with the holder (usually high nickel stainless) in acetone. They will separate easier from the holder/base without damaging the chrome coating.
There are some really useful neo mags in an old CD or DVD drive too. Specifically a washer shaped magnet in the spindle of the cd holder. There are usually a matched pair of rectangle magnets in the focus mech too.
Inner tube glued to the magnet with contact cement makes for a great non-slip/non-scratch surface.
A word of caution, neo magnets do not like heat of any type. Heat above about 140deg F will kill the magnetic properties.