Hard Drive Candle Holder

by ChrysN

8.6K5413

Intro: Hard Drive Candle Holder

When cleaning out my cupboard I had come across a number of old hard drives.  Since most had less storage space than my flash drive I decided to take them apart and make something with the platters.  I had first thought to make a wind chimes which I had seen on Make:Online. But when I took the hard drives apart and saw the pretty orange circuit ribbon I ended up making a tea light holder with the parts instead.

STEP 1: Material:

  • Several old hard drives (the number of platters and rings seem to vary between hard drives.)
  • Torx screwdrivers (I used T8, T9 and a T5, it varies between hard drives.)
  • Glue -I used Gorilla glue and a glue gun.
  • Clear packing tape.
  • Brown sharpie.
  • Scissors.

STEP 2: Take Apart the Drives

Using the torx screwdriver, unscrew everything, pretty much. We will be using a couple of the platters, the rings (spacers?) and the orange circuit ribbon. To extract the orange ribbon, you may need to unscrew and/or peel it off of other parts, try to get as much of it as you can.

You will need eight rings and enough ribbon to cover them.

PS. There are a lot of other projects that you can do with the remaining parts.

STEP 3: Cut and Tape the Ribbon

Cutting

Cut pieces of the circuit ribbon so that they fit in the inner opening of the rings (they should be slightly larger then the opening so that they can be taped easily onto the back.)

I did this by placing the rings on the ribbon and tracing the area. You need enough to cover eight rings.

The ribbon did not cover the entire opening on some of them, there are little gaps an holes, but that's okay.

Taping

  • Once you have enough ribbon, cut a square of clear packing tape (it should be larger than the ring.)
  • Place the piece of ribbon on the back of the ring, and lay the packing tape over top, try to get rid of any air pockets.
  • Trim off the excess packing tape.

**If you glue a magnet on the back of these rings with the circuit ribbon, they make really cute fridge magnets, too!**

STEP 4: The Back of the Rings

The backside of the rings do not look that great, so I coloured in some of the area with a brown sharpie (the brown sharpie was a closer colour match than the orange.)

I coloured on the packing tape along the edge of the ring; but just the metal part, I left the gaps and holes in the opening of the ribbon clear.

STEP 5: Glue the Platters Together

  • I glued two platters together with Gorilla glue, and used the magnets as clamps (pretty handy, these are.) This creates the base of the tealight holder.
  • Since the tealight will sit where the hole is, you might want to make the base thicker by adding more platters to raise the bottom of the tealight off of the surface that it will be sitting on..
  • After the glue has dried, polish the platters with a glass cleaner, because those fingerprints really show.

STEP 6: Glue the Rings Onto the Base

I used a hot glue gun to glue the rings in place along the outer edge of the base. Angle the rings outward and make sure that they are spaced evenly, you can mark where you want each to go before you glue them down.

**Place the tealight in the centre, so that it doesn't get too close to burn or melt the plastic on the back of the rings, or use a LED tealight instead.**

13 Comments

rocketsurgery 13 years ago

What a fantastic project! I really like it!

niceribs 13 years ago

I have just bought a 2 TB hdd so that I can make a bigger version that will hold several tea lights!

ChrysN 13 years ago

Cool, feel free to post a picture here when you're done!

DIYDragon 13 years ago

This is pretty cool.. Might be able to make a cool "sculpture" or wall art type deal out of those rings too. Hmm.. I'll have to look around and see if I have any crap HDDs laying around.. : D

Tabz

aricooperdavis 13 years ago

This is great! saw it on The Clinic and have really taken a shining to it. Have now baught up loads of dead HDD and am planning on a tea light extravaganza!!

laxap 13 years ago

I absolutely love the finished product!

What a great idea to use circuit ribbon.

Cannot understand why it has not been featured!

And what about a version that can support a tea pot?

ChrysN 13 years ago

Making one to support a teapot is an excellent idea thank you, I think I have a few more old hardrives lying around!

porcupinemamma 14 years ago

Love it! if scratching is a problem, try a product that i think is called envirotech it's a resin. there are products like that at Michael's craft stores.

ChrysN 14 years ago

Thanks, I'll try that.

cyrozap 14 years ago

Wow. I's say it looks steampunk, but it isn't victorian-era technology! This is awesome! I may make this from a 5.25" 2.5 GB HDD, and take the stepper motor for my RepRap.

ben_k 14 years ago

Very creative! The only problem, is that hard driveplatters scratch very easily, so the won't be shiny for long.