If you're looking to buy windchimes or something you may want to check out, oh, I don't know, windchime.com instead.
This Page is Due for an Update
Yes, it's been a while and an updated version will be posted soon. In the meantime, my main site/blog has changed to wingie.org and this page will soon (in the next three months) be moved there with updated pictures and such.
Slashdotted Too!!!
Welcome to everyone who found this site from the 2/23 BoingBoing link or the 2/25 Slashdot link! If you have any suggestions and feedback, feel free to e-mail me at winglmui at gmail. Thanks! =) And while you're at it, go visit the other parts of the site!
Read about my thought on surviving the Slashdot effect.
Also, I updated the page (encouraged by the hordes of people visiting) and there's now a new wind chime at the bottom of this page. Go take a look!
Many people linking this page on their blogs claim that this is a secure way of destroying your hard drive and its sensitive data. It is not completely true! The platters are never used in this HOWTO and could potentially be stolen by ninjas while you're making a wind chime and the data recovered by ninja-hackers. You must (at least) physically destroy the platters if you want to be 100% secure!
What?
This is a how-to on making a simple wind chime and a keychain out of hard drive components. It also tells you how to open up a Western Digital hard drive.
Why?
The original idea of making a hard drive component wind chime came from the summer of 2004, when I was working as an intern in the Amherst College IT department. I had several broken hard drives to get rid of and my fellow intern Devindra yelled out the phrase "hard drive platter wind chimes!!!", so I started Googling for how-tos on hard drive wind chimes. Sadly, while pictures of several exist there isn't a real guide. I eventually took them apart and made a decent wind chime with the components in a Western Digital HD. However, since I made it using cheap pink thread (the only thread/rope I had access to) it fell apart in a few weeks. The keychain I made from it is still functioning very well though.
Learning from that experience, I have decided to make another wind chime using those components and components from some new hard drives that need to be destroyed. Since these new drives contained possibly semi-sensitive data I rendered them useless (by opening them, stabbing the platters and smuding sweat onto them) before I took them home. Because I am a geek with a digital camera, I have decided to document the entire process and take pictures.
Warning / Disclaimer
By taking apart your hard drive you completely void your warranty and will probably destroy all data stored on it. So don't sue me if you stupidly took apart a HD with important information on it. Also, if you fail to do any of this correctly and hurt yourself, it's your own damn fault.
(Update: 2/24) This guide does not tell you how to securely destroy data on a hard drive. While taking apart your hard drive and exposing the platters to dust will probably destroy all its data, you never know what someone with the right equipment can recover. In fact, one reason why I do not use hard drive platters in these wind chimes is because they were physically destroyed as they may contain sensitive data. You've been warned. I am not responsible if someone rips data off your wind chime, however unlikely it is. =)
Part I: Tools
The tools I used (from left to right and bottom to top) are the following:
- Scissors
- Torx keys (T-4 to T-9, though I only used the T-6 and T-7 in this project)
- Keychain Ring
- Pliers (for those emergencies when you need violence)
- Small S-hooks
- Mini-screwdrivers
- Phillips Screwdriver (for Quantum Fireballs)
- 32 Gauge Beading Wire
- Flat-head Screwdriver (aka lever)
- Keys (to lock my room in case I need to go out so my suitemates won't come in and eat the hard drive platters--I live with weird people) and Pocketknife
The Torx keys (or screwdrivers if you perfer) are the hardest things to come by. I got mine from WidgetOnline.com. Everything else can be found in a hardware and/or craft store.
Part II: Salvaging the Components
I had two Western Digital Cavier and one Quantum Fireball hard drives. (I don't know what models they were as the sticker was not on the drives when I got them.) The following is a little step by step guide on how to take apart a WD Cavier drive. I don't like the Fireballs much, as you'll see later...
Feel free to skip this section if you already know how to take apart a hard drive.
Step 0: Decide Whether You Want the Platters
The hard drive platters are shiny round things. They are so shiny, in fact, that every other hard drive component wind chime I've seen uses them. However, I don't like them for three reasons. One: they don't make as satisfying clinks as the rings holding them apart. Two: they are too damn big. Three: they are so shiny that any slight touch from your fingers will ruin their perfection forever and make them really ugly. If you do want to use them, make sure that you do not touch them with your hands during the removal process, and store them in some plastic bag or something right after you remove them.
Step 1: Remove the Cover
Take the drive and remove the cover screws using the T-7 Torx key. Note the fact that there are seven screws holding the cover down, as seen in the seven screw holes in the picture below, though only five are visible. The other two are hidden under little stickers. Note that by removing those stickers you are voiding your warranty. So strip all stickers from the drive before unscrewing. Once you're done unscrewing, rip the sticker strip holding the cover down out, remove the cover, and you should get something like the picture above.
Also, make sure you remove the hard drive controller (the circuit board on the back of the drive), pull out every wire you see, and unsticker and unscrew every screw you find under the hard drive. This step is not necessary if you don't want to use the motor.
Step 2: Removing the Top Layers
Remove the screws at the red dots and then pry the top magnet (not pictured, because I lost mine...) out with a flatbed screwdriver. And then remove the little cover holding the platters down by unscrewing the screws at the blue dots (they are T-6 screws) and take the little metal ring off. Save these screws, they'll be useful later.
Note that the magnet is extremely strong. Keep it away from other electronics and metal. Don't hurt yourself. Seriously, do not underestimate these magnets!
Step 3: Removing the Platters/Rings
Once you have the cover off, move the head (the pointy black/silver thing) aside and just lift the platters and the rings between them out. Note that I didn't care whether or not I dirty the platters (since they will have to be physically destroyed later anyway) so there are ugly fingerprints on them. If you want to save the platters and use them as, sat, mirrors, make sure you don't dirty them.
Step 4: Removing the Motor and Read/Write Heads
Now unscrew the Torx screws at the blue dots in the picture below, and then take the motor out. Then take the flat head screwdriver and unscrew the weird screw-with-a-hole-in-it at the red dot. Finally, cut the ribbon cable at the red line to remove the head.
Congradulations! You now have a 7200 RPM motor and a hard drive read/write head wand!
I'm sure the motor can be used in some more... kinetic... projects, but I couldn't think of any that is legal and/or doesn't involve me getting hurt if I screwed up.
Step 5: Finishing Up
Now just yank the magnet out for another super-strong magnet, and you'll have an empty hard drive casing, as well as a bunch of other stuff.
Why I Hate Fireballs
Besides the fact that I don't have (Improved) Evasion?
The read/write wand doesn't come off, so I am reduced to breaking the heads blocking the platters using my pliers, and then bending the platters until they come out. This is what happened to the bottom platter by the time I got it out.
This once again proves that the application of steel (pliers) can solve most problems. But all this was for three little rings, as the motor and the wand aren't actually removable!!!
Also, these Quantum drives are only held together by phillips screws (though the platters were held down by Torxs) but those screws are damn tough! I couldn't get them off with a normal screwdriver! (This was the only one I could open out of five.)
Part III: Making a Wind Chime
Here's the design for the first (and simplest wind chime) I've done. Originally I used thread for it. However, it kept getting tangled and eventually the knots got undone. Also, it was pink. So I decided to use wire this time instead. Wire is rigid enough to not tangle, and has that metally shine that goes with hard drive components. I chose 32 gauge beading wire because it was the cheapest wire in the craft store and it is light (doesn't hinder movement much and easier to straighten out). It is also almost invisible, which is cool.
Ingredients
- 1 Hard Drive Motor
- 3 Platter Seperators (the little rings that seperate platters, more may be needed/used depending on hard drive model)
- 2 Screws from the Platter Cover (the little ring that holds the platters down, more may be desired/needed depending on hard drive model)
- Some Wire (depending on the size of what you're trying to make)
- 1 S-hook (for hanging)
Step 1: Hooking the Rings
First, decide how low you want the rings to hang and call that distance d. Cut three wires of length d plus 5cm (or 2in if you're a foolish American like me). Hook each or them to a ring, using 2.5cm (or 1in) of wire as slack/hook. Note that since we're using wires you can just twiddle and twist the wire around itself to make the hook permanent. If we were using thread we would need to tie very small knots.
Once you get three of them, set them aside. Do not attach them to the motor yet like in the next picture--I only did it to see how the wire would work. It will be much easier to work with the base motor without these rings on them just yet. And don't bother straightening out the wires now. If you do, you'll just curve them again.
Step 2: Attaching the S-hook
Now, take the two screws and tie two wires of equal length on them. Sorry the photo is blurry, my camera sucks.
Then screw them back on the motor! Screw them in so that they are diametrically opposite of each other for the most stability--we'll be hanging the wind chime from these wires. If you want to, you can do more than 2 of these as long as there are that may evenly spaced screw holes on the top of the motor.
Now take those wires and wind them around the bottom of the S-hook. Make sure everything is balanced.
Step 3: Attaching the Rings
Now take the rings and attach the other end of the wires onto the side screw holes (the ones that held the motor down to the drive case). You may need/want more than three rings depending on how many screw holes your motor has.
Now straighten out the wires and you're done! To make the chime cooler, you can add more rings to it.
Wind Chime in Action
As my old intro to engineering teacher would say: make sure whatever you build has lots of structural integrety! (He says it in a funny accent.) So here we have a budget wind tunnel test...
Oh it dings all right! And now, a final picture of the wind chime hanging from my lamp, over the gamepad that I use as a Winamp remote control and next to my hedgehog and computer. Sorry all these pictures have been so crappy--I live in a poorly lit dorm room and my camera is crappy.
Known Bugs
The problem with this wind chime is that it doesn't cling all that often... That problem can probably be remedied by adding more rings or a central rod (I'm thinking of sticking the read/write wand there for my next one--I still have enough to make at least one more). But when it clings, it clings very well.
Also, it is sad that it takes more than one drive to make one of these, and it doesn't actually use all the components. If you want to make one with platters you may find the motor is too small a base, in that case try using the hard drive controller.
It also is not the most balanced wind chime out there. I think this may have to do with the internal imbalance of mass of the motor.
Part IV: Bonus Keychain!
As a bonus, I use the little cover that holds the platters down as a keychain. I love it because it has many holes, so I can kind of hook up other keyrings to it as modules to keep my keys, my USB drive, my knife and stuff seperate.
The one I'm using is actually from a Seagate drive. I love it because it has six evenly spaced large holes for me to hook stuff on.
Part V: Final Words
Other than the hard drives, this project costed me about 13 dollars. (The Torx keys cost me 10, the wires 2 and the hooks 1, but now I have enough wire to make about 20 of these, hooks to make 8, and the Torx keys are very useful.)
Check out the hard drive wind chime at this site. (It used RAM sticks as well though.) There was another one I've seen several months ago that was on the site of a physics professor. He used platters and hard drive controllers, and it looked really nice, but I can't find his site now.
- 10/25/2004
Update: 2/23/2005
Here's a newer and more complicated wind chime that I made a few months after the original one. It's heavier and requires several more motors but since there's more stuff it clings rather well. =)
