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for Xmas i like to either make gifts or buy something useful, funny and that applies to the gift receiver..... my friend is a nerd like me and i know that he would appreciate something such as a HDD clock.
thanks to Warrior for donating the broken hard drive and contacting me really quick about it! I was especially looking for a recent HDD to make it even more nerdy... i have several HDD clocks made out of 20 - 40gb drives.... but never a 1 TB drive! lol
the internals have stayed the same essentially. some of the metals have changed and I had initial issues with drilling through the core. so i had to buy a new drill bit... after that it was cake.
so heres the log with pics. this whole project can be achieved in about 1 - 2 hrs TOPS. i stretched over a 4 day period? just cuz i am lazy and had time
the HDD in question... to open it torx 10
Lid off.. try to keep your fingers off the platters as much as possible
Platters removed.... now take a hole punch or a nail and slam the middle of the spindle.... the center is a pin that allows you to take the spindle off the drive and drill easily.
These are all the parts you should have once you take apart your HDD.
once you start hitting it, a hit or 2 and the golden metal seal on the back will begin to crack... 4 - 5 hits and itll pop right out!
now, get a drill bit that corresponds to the size of the quartz movement shaft that will go into the hole.... mine movement shaft was 3/8ths, so.....
as mentioned previously, i used a high end metal drilling bit that was able to penetrate a portion of the spindle, so off to home depot for another drill bit, and this chewed through it in a few seconds
tall one is the new bit that i bought, shorter is the one I had from my other HDD clock projects.
Previously, I made stands for my HDD clocks out of plexi, but this time I had the lid in tact, so if you have a vice at home, tahts your best friend, I didnt so i placed it under my bed and bent it that way, works really well, the lid is really soft.
I should have taken a picture of where i drilled the holes in the lid to attach it to the back of the HDD, but whoops
the motor is attached with some epoxy, really simple...
clock hands attached and DONE.
if you are going to do this... but the LONGEST shaft possible, the longest Ive ever found was 1.25 Inches long i believe. i its any shorter and you will run into issues.
http://www.bearwood.com/CLOCKMOVEMENT-MINI.HTML
the prices of movements fluctuate by 1 dollar here and there. i buy mine off ebay generally.
so thats it. enjoy, I hope someone turns a dead HDD into a clock... and if you are too lazy or whatever, they sell on etsy!
originally, i bought my first HDD clock off etsy, when it arrived, it looked super simple, so i took it apart and figured out how that person made it.... this was 4th HDD clock
thanks to Warrior for donating the broken hard drive and contacting me really quick about it! I was especially looking for a recent HDD to make it even more nerdy... i have several HDD clocks made out of 20 - 40gb drives.... but never a 1 TB drive! lol
the internals have stayed the same essentially. some of the metals have changed and I had initial issues with drilling through the core. so i had to buy a new drill bit... after that it was cake.
so heres the log with pics. this whole project can be achieved in about 1 - 2 hrs TOPS. i stretched over a 4 day period? just cuz i am lazy and had time
the HDD in question... to open it torx 10
Lid off.. try to keep your fingers off the platters as much as possible
Platters removed.... now take a hole punch or a nail and slam the middle of the spindle.... the center is a pin that allows you to take the spindle off the drive and drill easily.
These are all the parts you should have once you take apart your HDD.
once you start hitting it, a hit or 2 and the golden metal seal on the back will begin to crack... 4 - 5 hits and itll pop right out!
now, get a drill bit that corresponds to the size of the quartz movement shaft that will go into the hole.... mine movement shaft was 3/8ths, so.....
as mentioned previously, i used a high end metal drilling bit that was able to penetrate a portion of the spindle, so off to home depot for another drill bit, and this chewed through it in a few seconds
tall one is the new bit that i bought, shorter is the one I had from my other HDD clock projects.
Previously, I made stands for my HDD clocks out of plexi, but this time I had the lid in tact, so if you have a vice at home, tahts your best friend, I didnt
so i placed it under my bed and bent it that way, works really well, the lid is really soft.
I should have taken a picture of where i drilled the holes in the lid to attach it to the back of the HDD, but whoops
the motor is attached with some epoxy, really simple...
clock hands attached and DONE.
if you are going to do this... but the LONGEST shaft possible, the longest Ive ever found was 1.25 Inches long i believe. i its any shorter and you will run into issues.
http://www.bearwood.com/CLOCKMOVEMENT-MINI.HTML
the prices of movements fluctuate by 1 dollar here and there. i buy mine off ebay generally.
so thats it. enjoy, I hope someone turns a dead HDD into a clock... and if you are too lazy or whatever, they sell on etsy!
originally, i bought my first HDD clock off etsy, when it arrived, it looked super simple, so i took it apart and figured out how that person made it.... this was 4th HDD clock
