On Mon, 02 May 2005 20:39:31 -0400, Dan
wrote:

:I just had to post this. While ago the original hard drive went out in
:my pc. I replaced it & all went well, and since I'd never looked inside
ne of these, I took it apart. The beautiful, nearly "industrial art
:sculpture" of the mirror platter assembly/aluminum motor, casting, all
:held with cool fasteners was impressive enough, but then I started
laying with the magnets from the pickup assembly. My god, they're
:strong! Neodymium, I think. So strong that I actually gave myself a
:small blood blister when the 2 snapped together as I played with them.
:About this same time, the door catch broke on my faithful 20 year old
:clothes dryer. Not a chance of getting a replacement catch, so for the
ast 2 weeks I've been propping the unused base from my drill press
:against the door to hold it shut. Then it dawned on me: "I bet those
:magnets from the HDD are more than strong enough to hold this thing shut
:against the seal & force of the door switch". Works like a charm, in
:fact I only need ONE of them! Judging from the pull now required to
pen the door, it's actually tighter than it was with the original
:catch! Further justification for my "never throw ANYTHING out" policy ;-)
:
an

The only reason my stove's oven shuts reasonably tight is that I screwed
a large ring magnet at the top between the stove and the hinged door.
Did this probably around 10 years ago - works great.

I took apart my oldest HD around 6 months ago, a 220 MB Maxtor. Pretty
things in there, but be careful with those shiny disks. I'm informed
that some of them are made of glass, not the metal you might suppose and
some people have been cut badly playing with them. In my case, I think
they ARE metal, and they are not only very pretty, they make a very nice
sound when they clang against each other. They'd make a very nice
mobile, is my thinking, when I get around to it.

I have several other retired HDDs, and plan to similarly pillage them.
The magnets are indeed powerful, and what I did was saw them in half
with a hacksaw and glue them to wooden "handles" with 5 minute epoxy.
They are hard to deal with if you don't do something like that. As such,
they make fantastic refrigerator magnets. If you have a Sonicare
toothbrush, BTW, don't just throw out the brushes (you are supposed to
change them every 6 months). You will notice two tiny magnets on the end
of those brushes, and they come right off if you pull on them with a
pliers. They are extremely powerful, and glued to a small piece of wood,
they make fantastic refrigerator magnets.

Dan (as well!)

BTW, I do not subscribe to the policy of never throwing anything away.
If it's potentially (there's the value judgement) useful, keep it. If
not, you really better get rid of it.