Upcycling HardDiskDrive (HDD), Magnets, Bearings Etc.

Throwaway an old harddrive? No! You shoud be sure that nobody can read your personal data, and there are many useful parts inside you shoud upcycle, e.g. very strong magnets, bearings, mirrors etc.! The older they are, the stronger are the magnets, and you will find more mirrors inside.

Step 1:

Mostly there are more than 6 visible
screws, so look for 1 or 2 others.

Sometimes the cover is sticked on, so use a knife or small skrewdriver to lift it.

Step 2:

Take off all visible skrews. To get off
the "mirrors", the write head shoud be unscrewed or at least moved aside, so it does not cover the mirror anymore. Don`t wonder that you cannot remove the magnet(s), they are very, very strong and don`t like to be drawn apart.

Step 3:

At least you have 1 or 2 magnets, 2
bearings (the bigger one is a motor) and 1 -3 mirrors and lots of screws.

The magnets are pasted on a iron plate, but easyly to separated: fix the plate in a vice an bend it back with a pair of nippers, take off the magnet by using a srewdriver.

Step 4:

You can now use the magnets for many
things: fix your instruments easyly to be accessed in the kitchen, garage, office and so on

Or put it on a screwdriver, it will
help to get out a screw from deep, narrow holes.

Also the barrets can help for many projects like drawers to be moved easyly, building a robot...

I am planing to build a solar collector for warm water with the mirrors. Please write down your ideas!

Step 5:

I am planing to build a solar collector
for warm water with the mirrors. Please write down your ideas!