Seriously. The best. I spent a lot of last week taking apart about 10 hard drives to get... actually, I'll give you some back story first.
Last Tuesday, my highly dubious friends came round to my house. Among other things, we discussed my web shooters and wall climbing gloves in great detail, with my friends making plenty of suggestions (some of which I may actually use). But getting to the point, when they were about to go, one of them - William - spotted the pile of hard drives next to the arts and crafts box in the kitchen. They were all dead and going to be thrown out, but he mentioned that they have really strong magnets in them which could be very useful.
So a few days later, I managed to take one apart (with much difficulty). And I must say, they are excellent little devices! If you want to make anything, odds are you'll find something useful in a hard drive. Here's an overview of the useful things you can get from one of them:
Aluminium plates. Most hard drives just have one on one side, with an exposed circuit board on the other, but some have the covers on both sides. They're only about a millimetre thick, but they're still strong enough that I can hardly bend them with my hands.
Mirrors. There are discs in hard drives, as you might have expected. They're like DVDs and CDs, except these are like actual mirrors, as opposed to just being a little reflective. Definitely useful if you need mirrors for something, though the downside is that they've got a hole in the middle. The first few hard drives I took apart had 3 discs in them, but the rest just had one.
Magnets. As my friend promised, these are really strong. Most of the hard drives I took apart had two, each attached to a separate piece of metal (though some of them had the two magnets on a single piece of metal that had been bent over on itself). When you put two of them together, it's ridiculously hard to get them off without using a screwdriver.
Motors. The motors used to spin the discs are excellent! They're incredibly smooth, and according to my dad, they spin at 5400 RPM (I couldn't find out if that's particularly fast compared to the average motor, so I'd be grateful if someone could tell me).
Screws. I know this isn't particularly impressive, but each hard drives has about 10 or 15 screws in it, which would be useful to those who need them.
And that's pretty much it. The disc reader looks very cool and sci-fi-ish, though that's only useful if you're making a model or something; not an actual device. Also, just as a tip in case anyone tries taking one apart for themselves, do remember to take off all the stickers you find. Or at least check whether or not there's something under there. You see, several vitally important screws are hidden under stickers, so you'll need to remember that.
Now, just to prove how useful hard drives can be, I'll give you a brief list of possible things you could make using them.
Iron Man suit - Metal plates and motors
Web Shooters - Motors and magnets
Death Ray - Mirrors
Wall Climbing Gloves - Metal plates
Everything - Screws
Last Tuesday, my highly dubious friends came round to my house. Among other things, we discussed my web shooters and wall climbing gloves in great detail, with my friends making plenty of suggestions (some of which I may actually use). But getting to the point, when they were about to go, one of them - William - spotted the pile of hard drives next to the arts and crafts box in the kitchen. They were all dead and going to be thrown out, but he mentioned that they have really strong magnets in them which could be very useful.
So a few days later, I managed to take one apart (with much difficulty). And I must say, they are excellent little devices! If you want to make anything, odds are you'll find something useful in a hard drive. Here's an overview of the useful things you can get from one of them:
Aluminium plates. Most hard drives just have one on one side, with an exposed circuit board on the other, but some have the covers on both sides. They're only about a millimetre thick, but they're still strong enough that I can hardly bend them with my hands.
Mirrors. There are discs in hard drives, as you might have expected. They're like DVDs and CDs, except these are like actual mirrors, as opposed to just being a little reflective. Definitely useful if you need mirrors for something, though the downside is that they've got a hole in the middle. The first few hard drives I took apart had 3 discs in them, but the rest just had one.
Magnets. As my friend promised, these are really strong. Most of the hard drives I took apart had two, each attached to a separate piece of metal (though some of them had the two magnets on a single piece of metal that had been bent over on itself). When you put two of them together, it's ridiculously hard to get them off without using a screwdriver.
Motors. The motors used to spin the discs are excellent! They're incredibly smooth, and according to my dad, they spin at 5400 RPM (I couldn't find out if that's particularly fast compared to the average motor, so I'd be grateful if someone could tell me).
Screws. I know this isn't particularly impressive, but each hard drives has about 10 or 15 screws in it, which would be useful to those who need them.
And that's pretty much it. The disc reader looks very cool and sci-fi-ish, though that's only useful if you're making a model or something; not an actual device. Also, just as a tip in case anyone tries taking one apart for themselves, do remember to take off all the stickers you find. Or at least check whether or not there's something under there. You see, several vitally important screws are hidden under stickers, so you'll need to remember that.
Now, just to prove how useful hard drives can be, I'll give you a brief list of possible things you could make using them.
Iron Man suit - Metal plates and motors
Web Shooters - Motors and magnets
Death Ray - Mirrors
Wall Climbing Gloves - Metal plates
Everything - Screws