[PLUG-TALK] magnets from hard drives

[Keith Lofstrom]

The head-deflection linear actuator in a hard drive has
a coil running between two powerful magnets.  Needing two
magnets for a project (actuating two door-closing sensors),
I took an old 10 GB hard drive apart and unscrewed the
magnets, and used the same mounting holes to attach them
to the door jams. 

Then polished the drive platters with a bit of emery paper.
The old bits take up less room if they are scraped off the
platters. :-)

Before tossing those ancient hard drives, pull the magnets
for future projects.  They are is refrigerator magnets, if
you have a refrigerator you want to mount on a steel wall. :-)

Keith

P.S.  I have not taken apart any 2 inch drives, or much
newer drives - those may be constructed differently.

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com