HDD Magnets

[motoman465]

Hello everyone,

I saw a posting on this once, but can't find it now.  I recently got a hold of a bunch of old hard drives.  What is the easiest way to go about removing them from their holders and also the easiest way to cut them in half.  Thanks!  I LOVE THIS BOARD!

Todd

[northkorea]

mabey one of these is the post your looking for both use hdd mags

http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2006/9/27/112728/576

http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2006/9/25/71516/9912

[motoman465]

Thanks, northkorea, but neither of those are what I am searching for.  The Quest continues...LOL!

Todd

[northkorea]

well what ever your searching for im looking for to im tryna cut a magnet

and i tried a cutting disk at 35,000 rpm and it cut a tiny nic so thats gonna take for

ever

[Ungrounded Lightning Rod]

They're wide, thin, and brittle.  Try scoring the coating, then clamping one between wood blocks in a vice and a vicegrip pliers, and BREAKING it in half.  B-)

(Wear safety glasses - they can throw sharp chunks.)

[RogerAS]

NK,

If you're trying to cut hard drive magnets I'm sorry. :-)

I do not suggest that YOU or ANYONE do as outlined below:

Wearing eye protection, and armed with 2 pair of large pliers, grip one end of the magnet about 1/3 of the way from either end. Place the second plier nose to nose with the first at the same grip point. With a quck bending motion, directed away from the body, the magnet should break on a fairly straight line. The middle 1/5 - 1/3 of these magnets have a no-mans-land of neither N nor S. Discard that section in a repeat of the first break motion. These broken ends will need sealed from the air.

I have a small pile of these HD magnets, and many other "assorted" super magnets, awaiting such treatment when I finally build my dual rotor. Hey any discarded CD or DVD player has a pair of small neo magnets in the laser head. Salavage enough of those and with tedious placement one could almost make an arc segment or complete rotor in radial format. Imgine all those going into the trash every day!

Fall is about here and our windy season is nigh! Sigh....

[motoman465]

Thanks for all the responses!  I did not know that CD players had neos in them. I got a few computer CD players, I will have to investigate that.  Although that puts my other plans on hold.  I was going to device a way to link the lasers together to take care of Sunday drivers when I am on my way to work.  LMAO!

Todd

[northkorea]

i took the round magnets from a micro wave is there no way to cut them

[northkorea]

i just took the mags out of a cd player and there about 3mm*5mm*1mm size there are so

tiny

[Flux]

You can cut ceramic magnets with a diamond saw wet.

The diamond will cut neo but you need a flood of water, the slurry is not very user friendly so treat it with respect.

If you have diamond tile cutting saws in your part of the world they work. Attraction of the magnet to the steel blade means that you virtually need to make a sliding support to hold the magnets to guide them.

[motoman465]

Thanks for all the input, it is very greatly appreciated.  One other question.  How do I go about getting the magnet off the mounting bracket?  Am I able to just get under it with something and pry it off?

Todd

[ghurd]

Trying to lift the magnet off the plate isn't going to work very often.

Free magnets are a lot of work.

Remove the whole plate it is stuck to.

Clamp the end of the plate in a vice. Slowly(!) bend the plate away from the magnet.

The glue is gummy, a quick bend will break some magnets.

Clean up all the metal sawdust around the vice before you start.

I utility knife all around through the coating, then snap with pliars.  Not fun. Lose less that way.

The center 'no man's land'... mine seem like some man's land. Just not very predictable. Removeing the center 10% or whatever will keep from having part of the wrong pole in the stack.

I lost a lot of blood on the peeling coating.

Not all have 2 poles on one side. Those don't need cut. You will know when you see them.

Somewhere in the plastic near the magnet is another tiny neo. Near the back of the voice coil, maybe in a different piece of plastic.  Maybe 1/8"D x 3/16L, some are square, etc.

Get some of those out too.  'fridge fun for the whole family!

And be careful.  "A good sized stack of HD neos can be dangerous!" I said bleedingly.

G-

[northkorea]

diamond cutting saw well i dont have what ever that is could i use a diamond cutting wheel for a rotory tool 5000 to 35,000 using that there would just be the problem

of keeping it wet and not getting the drill wet sounds hard but what ever thanks

for the info

[MickS]

Here is how I do it.

It is easy and no fuss and works every time.

To bend the backing plate use a spanner (shifter) on each end of the backing plate and twist gently.

The backing plate will bend and the magnet stays straight. Lift it gently so as not to damage the nickle coating too much.





I pile the mags onto a metal plate up to the height I want the magnet to end up at.

The magnetism holds the pile nice and firm so no clamps needed.

To see where to cut exactly just sprinkle a few grains of iron filings on top of each magnet pile. You will see a nice straight line which is where you cut them.

Cut each pile with an angle grinder. The thin cutoff discs make it very easy.





Then you just turn over one half if the pile and hey presto, there is one magnet for your genny.







Mick S