Make your own Magnet Mounts!

melev

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http://www.cawanee.com/magnetmounts/magnetmounts1.htm
 
Very nice find Marc
I just got through gluing up some acrylic ones
That looks a lot easer plus it totally encapsulates the magnets
You could easily make them for the coral mounts also
Ken
 
I have no clue where to get that 2-part plastic mix he uses, but just FYI, you can harvest neo magnets out of dead hard drives. (I'm gutting a dead harddrive for a set right now, actually. Powerful lil' suckers!!!)
 
This is a great little DIY.
I wonder though, What affect does the magnet(s) have on the PH?
I noticed that when I use my mag float near my MJ1200 that you can feel a litte tug/Vibration on the Mag float.
Either way it's still a cool DIY, I think I might try it.
 
The hobby lobby type casting resin takes 24 hours to fully cure.. if you can dent it with your fingernail, or if the color is still patchy, give it a bit longer.
 
a great diy project.

Brian, any hints on how to harvet the magnets out of the hard drives? i have a couple of dead maxtors .....
 
Howard, here's a few hints...

You'll need the screwdriver to open the drive... USUALLY a Torx drive. There are usually 6 screws around the perimeter of the drive, and 2 or more "hidden" under stickers on the face of the drive. I circled in red the various places where I removed screw from the one I just harvested to get the lid off:

Drive_Magnets2.jpg
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Once you get the cover off, you'll see something like this. Where the neobdynuum magnets can be found is circled in red (Note, the magnets had already been removed from this drive!)


Drive_Magnets1.jpg
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You can either mangle the back end of the read/write head asssembly to get it out of the way, or be neat about it and back out the screw holding the read/write assembly out (I THINK it's usually bastard threaded, not sure though) enough to gently move the heads off the drive platters, and then remove the screw holding it in place completely off.

The magnets themseves are usually held in place with at most 1 screw, and I've seen many drives where they were just in there wedged in place. It can sometimes require a bit of fiddling to get the bottom one out.

Please note - These magnets are STOUT! If you get your finger stuck between them when they wanna connect to each other, it WILL HURT and CAN DRAW BLOOD from pinching!!!

Here's the magnet assemblies I removed from the drive pictured above. The magnets themselves are the smaller bits on the inside of the larger memtal holders. I usually leave them attached to the larger part of the assembly though because the magnets themselves are VERY brittle, and will shatter easily once removed from the support of their backing.


Drive_Magnets3.jpg
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Hope that helps!
 
I just thought I would bump this project since I am very happy with the outcome on mine.

Here are a couple of money saving tips:

Every week or two, Hobby Lobby advertises a coupon for 40% off any item in the store. For instance, if you were to look on there website today and click on specials/coupons you can print off the coupon. The resin sells for around $14

Also, there is a magnet company in East Plano that will sell you neo magnets from there store and very helpfull. I bought four magnets for $12.99. You can do a search for "magnet plano tx" and they should pull up.

One more thing, I only used the casting resin for the mount inside the tank. I like the look of the square polished steel looking magnet on the exterior of the tank.
 
FYI a place in Richardson called
"CDC Products" has magnets that
are the strongest you will see, on
a regular basis.

CDC products is a machine tooling
surplus store but you never know
what else you will find in there.
No affiliation just a long time satisfied
customer, I buy all of my end mills, lathe
bits, drill bits, grinding stones, sand paper
and all kinds of other stuff there.

No website he does not want one.

WoodDragon
 
Wood Dragon,

Do you have an address/location for them? I tried the address I found online and could not find the store.

Thanks.

Lee
 
Brian, I never saw those pictures from last August using a harddrive. DARN! I must have thrown out 5 harddrives a few months ago.
 
@goinbroke wrote:
I just thought I would bump this project since I am very happy with the outcome on mine. Here are a couple of money saving tips: Every week or two said:
sweet, thanks, got the coupon. gonna get some resin, and call that store for some magnets! awesome find marc, this is too cool...
 
I printed the coupon and went to Hobby Lobby, but all they carried is a clear Polyester Cast Reisin. They do, however, carry some stuff to tint it whatever color you want, including white (but not black..grr). I just finished taking apart an old drive and salvaged the magnets. Following Brian's advice (thanks Brian!), I left the magnets on the metal plates, but used a cordless Dremel to saw off the excess metal. Now if I could just find a good container to use as a mold...the search is on!
 
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