Old SEGATE harddrives SCSI

[zowwie438]

All,

I wanted to share my Seagate hard drive experience with all who are interested in salvaging some very strong magnets.

I obtained several old full height segate harddrives (SCSI) type with a manufacturing date of 1987.

The housing was very large and required the use of some very tiny star driver bits, but luckily I had a drill bit that appeared to be just the right size.

Once the rear of the unit was removed... I was amazed to find what appeared to be two curved 2" + nickle plated magnets.

After much digging, bending, hammering, etc.   I got the rear of the unit off with the aid of a 5lb. sledge.

The mags are glued into place and I followed the recommendation of boiling water.   This worked, but handling the beast afterwards proved a bit difficult.

The end result of removing the mags consisted of using alen wrenches to place down inside the holding mechanism and using a pair of channel locks like a vice.   If you stacked multuple alen wrenches on top of eachother you could obtain enough distance to push the mag out so it could be grabbed.

Once the mages poked out a bit... A 6" C clamp was attached to the mount and one person held the clamp while I pulled with a pair of channel locks (used rag cushion to protect mags).

It required at least 50lb of pull to get these things out.

Once out... The fun began!

Don't get mags closer than 6 inches!!!   They will slam together with great force and despite the warnings in the group... My silly but wound up with a great respect for magnets of this strength via a blood blister.

One mag attached to a ruler with string and placed on our mantel could be slighlty moved from 17' away with the other magnet!!!   Movement was slight, but it was there!

Some of the magnets in the other 8 harddrives appeared to be epoxy coated (black) VS that of nickle... But the strength was the same.

I am not sure if I can use these curved mags for the Volvo mill project (because of their curve)... But they are great for experiments.

Summary:

If you have not had a chance to rip apart an old hardrive... DO IT!   It's way better than a cracker jack prize and I estimate those 8 free drives saved me about $160.00 in mags.   Found harddrives on a local recycling group called www.freecycle.org.

Also... Has anyone attempted to use the bearings out of these old drivers for a vertical axis mill?    If so, what type of results did you see with respect to weather, resistance, etc?

[DanB]

Sounds like the curved magnets we used to carry (which came from some sort of SeagateHD), they were about .25" thick, 1.25" wide and 1.75" long...

A lot of these larger ones come loose pretty easy.  Boiling water is one way.. but a bit risky I think.

I usually clobber the backside of the steel assembly with a hammer - a good quick sharp blow usually breaks the glue and they pop loose.  Then you have to push them out.  We disassembled thousands of those....

[wayne]

Hi

I used H/D bearings for my small 6" Lenz Turbine. Been working for almost a year now. Think they are good for light weight loads but nothing to big. I spins very little friction and lights up my LEDS. The H/D hub is mounted in a 6" PVC cap. Cheap and easy.

Wayne

[wiredwrong]

I had salvaged a lot of hard-drive mags in the past and the easiest way I found to get the mags off was to place the corner of the steel bracket in a vise and bend it back away from the mag with a pair of plyers, this even work well on about 60 laptop HD's the magnets in them are alot thiner than a regular HD and I did not break but 2-3 of them.

[MattB]

I think those are the magnets that Dan used in his "wood 103" project... as seen at

http://otherpower.com/woodmill.html

Is them the ones? They can indeed be hard to get off. After several different methods, we found it easiest to just throw the assembly hard onto a concrete surface... with the inner curvature of the magnets facing down. That would generally break them loose from their glued surface. THen use a flat piece of wood to push them out... a paint stirring stick seemed to work best.

We did break a fair amount of them that way though... especially the black ones. But it was quick.

-Matt

[zowwie438]

Yes... The ones I pulled out appear very similar to those.

[hiker]

i agree with wirewrong--just put the backing plate in a vise and bend the plate back with some visegrips--that breaks the mag lose--speaking of wirewrong i just rewired

a motor stater..was on the last phase when i noticed i was a notch off at the start of the second phase---------dang it!!!