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pencilvanian
1000+ Penny Miser Member
USA
2209 Posts |
 Posted - 10/29/2006 : 13:07:56
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If you are all gung-ho into melting coins and scrap, here is an idea as a profitable business.
When a computer has to be replaced, the owners of obsolete machines worry about identity theft via the information stored on the hard drive. Even the best efforts to remove information from a hard drive is never 100% effective.
Since most hard drives are aluminum discs, you, the metal melter, can offer the service of turning a hard drive into a one-of-a kind paper weight.
If the hard drive is melted, nobody will ever be able to access the information. (This is even more effective than a paper shredder.)
The beauty of this idea is,
you charge for the service of melting hard drives,
you work out your frustrations towards computers ( especially if you are an Apple fan, Take That Windows!)
and if the owner doesn’t want the hard drive back, that is a little bit of aluminum for the scrap dealer to buy.
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Edited by - pencilvanian on 10/29/2006 17:59:18 |
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Ardent Listener
Administrator
USA
4841 Posts |
 Posted - 10/29/2006 : 17:34:43
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Do you have any idea as to how much weight the hard drives would be?
People would have to be able to see you melt them. I'm sure they might enjoy watching.
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If you can conceive it and believe it, you can achieve it. -Napoleon Hill |
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pencilvanian
1000+ Penny Miser Member
USA
2209 Posts |
Posted - 10/29/2006 : 18:04:23
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I took apart my old computer when it finally died. The hard drive only was a few aluminum disks the size of a compact disk. Maybe it weighed a few ounces. I cut up the aluminum disks with a pair of tin snips. I can’t recall what I did with it, though. Probably in a box of odds and ends.
If the new hard drives are made of glass, like in laptops, perhaps melting the non metal hard drive in a forge is possible. Both glass and metal melt at just the right temperatures.
Now that would be naeat, a glass paper weight made from an old hard drive, must be a market for something like that on e-bay. |
Edited by - pencilvanian on 10/29/2006 18:05:41 |
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n/a
deleted
73 Posts |
Posted - 11/03/2006 : 03:12:23
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I actually bought some parts from old hard drives off ebay recently. If you still have the drive you took apart (I'm assumeing all the screws were #9 torx, that's typically what I find), take off the part at the opposite end of the head that writes the platters. You should find a semicirular piece of steel with torx screws holding them together. If you take that apart you'll get 2 strong neodymium magnets, one on each side.
The magnets I take out of hard drives usually lift about 13 lbs or so...wasn't real technical about it. Just attached them to cast iron weights that you may have if you have any weight lifting equipment. The magnets I got on ebay that were ripped out of hard drives lifted 25 lbs (saved me from doing all the work of buying broken hard drives and ripping them out myself). I asked the seller if he remembered what type or brand of hard drive he got those out of but he didn't remember.
Warning: If you do this you could pinch your fingers and it you let them smack together they can break easily becaues they're like a ceramic only they're nickel plated (usually). Also, don't leave them anywhere children could find them. |
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Business for melters?
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