The best refridgerator magnet money can't buy

Using the magnets from a dead 3.5" HDD and a piece of wire, I made a super strong refrigerator magnet. When I say super strong, I mean this thing will hold up anything I ever wanted to put on my fridge.

Step 1 Find an old Hard drive, and take it apart

For this job you'll need some torx drivers of various sizes (5.5, 8, and 10 were what I needed). Just keep taking out screws and peeling back labels until it's all in pieces.

Comments

[robjective]

If you have a non-functioning microwave, there is an incredibly strong pair of magnets inside. I think the part is, oddly enough, called a magnetron. If you do decide to harvest them, please be very careful. I'm sure there are electrocution hazards within the microwave.

[Ian01]

Don't touch the pinkish ceramic stuff in the magnetron (especially if it's broken), it's toxic.

[Bob7k]

dude, for some reason, that kinda scares me, that a pinkish ceramic solid thats potentially toxic lives inside the one device i use to cook with....

[account3r2]

A good reason for it to scare all of us, too...

[account3r2]

Wait a minute... 800 MEGABYTES?!?!?! THAT'S THE MOST MEMORY I'VE EVER HEARD OF!!! HOW DID YOU ACQUIRE THAT MUCH MEMORY??? I have some old HDDs that have only a tiny bit of memory... (Compared to modern hard drives)

[GASSYPOOTS]

i bought a hard drive XD so your wrong

[redsunmtm]

@THeff
you can do it by usin various magnets and making a grid that you can hot glue on some fine plywood an prépare the four holes on it to support you TV =)

[slapoutz]

thanks man i had 8 of these laying around but never put them to use cause i could never get them off without hassling for 10 seconds lol

[meeko]

they are called rare earth magnets.watch mr.g summer slow fall on you tube for a cool expiriment with these

[timgray]

Best video ever, Now I have to buy big rare earf magnets

[FathomX]

These would be great to magnetize my screwdrivers... thanks for the read.

[HEY YOU]

Sometimes the HDD magnets are attached to a base that is screwed to the housing with a M10 cap screw that you can use to force it off the base, but you could also use it to attach a convenient handle.

I would also coat the magnet to avoid damaging the fridge door.

Cheers

[killerjackalope]

We used speaker magnets as wall hangers for years as our tyre fitting workshop was mostly a 40ft shipping container most of the magnets I found were glued on but a chisel, flathead screwdriver or some such set at the join and hit with a hammer usually knocked the magnet clean off except for the magnet out of a huge speaker had to be from a guitar amp or something but a sledgehammer and crowbar got it the crowbar was much harder to remove from the magnet. My last one is welding magnets these come in varieties 15lbs to 200lbs don't stick them to the ceiling unless you're fat or want a pretty permanent chinup thing... these need to be slid off an object however they replace the fridge handle nicely sorry for my long reply

[Full Frontal Graphic]

"the crowbar was much harder to remove from the magnet" That gave me a giggle.

[bettbee]

LOL

[killerjackalope]

not me so much...

[FromOnHigh]

I have been using these for years for a whole variety of things, my job has me taking things apart out on golf courses, there are many small screws and such, I simply put one of these in my breast pocket and 'stick' all the small metal pieces to my shirt; real easy to get at with one hand, never lose them.

Also I child-proofed my kitchen with them, our cabinets were already setup with magnetic closure, I simply placed one of these magnets (stripped from its metal backer) on the existing cabinet magnet. That's it. The addition of one of these makes it HARD to open, sufficiently so that my children were NEVER successful in getting a cabinet open on their own.

[IW5 Industries]

i am eating a peach.

[doughnutguy1]

Peaches are actually ALIEN SPIES
How did I get a pc in the loony bin? It was very hard...

[brandonparx]

 Oh man, I used to love going to Mordours at 3 in the morning.

[yellowtwo]

I have a few metal plates/studs in my apartment. I use these to hang small/light items without nails on my walls :)

[knex_mepalm]

i always wanted to hold up a hematite magnet or a fake magenet...lol 5*

[adam 101]

just don't get your fingers pinched between the two magnets. It hurts like crazy!!!

[memyselfand1]

My uncle uses these as magnets. Says they're very useful.

[eygen]

Good idea....but these magnets don't grow on trees you know.

[Sir Maverick]

You're right...they grow in hard drives...lol

[Notbob]

We've (my family and I) have been doing this for years,but we never thought to put little wire handles on them.

[Tigerlily78]

Just becareful when you pull these magnets off the fridge. I pulled one off my fridge and it slipped out of my hand, bounced on the floor and slid UNDER the fridge and stuck to the bottom of it. I couldn't convince my husband to pull out the fridge and tilt it backward so I could reach underneath and try to get the magnet back. :P

[gcrdcn]

One day my son was pounding and pulling his ear. I looked in his ear and saw a hearing aid battery. The harddrive magnet sucked it out with no problem.

[porcupinemamma]

Where where you when i put a safety pin in my ear as a kid? lol

[microdot71]

You could use that do-it-yourself rubber coating dip that they sell at Home Depot to keep from scratching the fridge door.

[Antleredguy]

You could of course, just use the magnets from old airplane headphones... They're relatively powerful with totally smooth edges and encasing.

[gomiboy]

I used plasti-dip on mine, and it helped keep them from chipping when they hit each other. Another thing I did that helped me get them off things and/or keep them from scratching is I put a teflon pad on each one - the kind you put on the bottom of furniture legs that let you slide 'em around. Keeps them from scratching, and gives it enough slip to let you get fingers around/under the edge of the magnet to pull it off.

[Crash2108]

Plasti-dip.

[pmaist]

In my area they don't sell plasti dip at home depot. But that could just be because I live in Massachusetts

[challahc]

or heat shrink tubing

[Full Frontal Graphic]

Just as well, if you go to home depot specifically to buy something, they won't have it in stock. Never fails with me. Luckily (maybe) I have like 6 home depot stores nearby.

[bgtech]

I use the same magnets on fridge already 2 years :)

[Shadowfury]

I find that HDD magnets are extrmely strong in contrast to ceramic, since they are N₂Fe₁₄B. That being said, they have an extremely small magnetic field in contrast to a normal dipole neodymium magnet. Yes, I did imply that a HDD magnet has more than two poles. Somehow they manage to get four poles on the magnets. My theory:
NS
SN

Because of this, the field is greatly reduced, yet the force behind the field is incredibly strong.

[QuiksilverRox]

I have some of these laying around about the size of 9v batteries. I love trying to get my friends to pull them apart because they look determined on the first pull then embarrassed the next.