I typically use yeti ramblers with a metal bases on them, though I’ve set ceramic mugs down on them too and they’ve not stuck. might depend on the drink a little?
I will keep the magnets if I ever get into this in the future, but not the platters. I’ll just safely destroy them and dispose of them.
So far I only had 3 laptops and no desktops. I had 0 HDD failures, since I only ever had 3 of them so far.
The oldest one is more than 17 years old 80GB 2.5" Fujitsu HDD.
Back in the day, I’d go through HDDs faster than systems-always needed to add storage before I could replace the CPU. I didn’t start disassembling them until they got up to the 500 _M_B range, but you’d often get 3 platters back then. OP must be harvesting from a whole workgroup - I’ve only got a 3cm stack and 7 drives waiting for the screwdriver.
If you wind a 2 or 3 layer pancake coil the size of the platter out of 12 or 14AWG magnet wire and dump a couple kJ through it from a capacitor bank, the platter will launch into the air. Don’t try it indoors unless you want a platter embedded in the ceiling.
I used to make clocks with the platters and give them to friends and family. Michael’s used to sell inexpensive clock mechanisms that looked really cool against the platter background. I haven’t seen them lately, but I’m sure someone sells them online.
The older IDE drives with the 5.25" platters and smaller ones make great wind chimes. The laptop ones are a bit .ore fragile due to thinner material. Years ago, we used to do this with a few of them.
I use old platters to hang around our chicken houses. The idea is to distract hawks and eagles with the sparkle as they spin in the breeze… Probably doesn’t work, but I like the shiny disks :)
Add comment