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 Post subject: Hard Drive questions
PostPosted: Sat Apr 23, 2016 12:10 am 

Joined: Wed May 20, 2015 10:57 pm
Posts: 6
Amateur scrapper here. I feel like I have heard a lot of different stories about what you can really get out of hard drives besides the logic boards.

Is it true the aluminum cases can grab more from the recycling centers if they milled vs. cast?

My first batch of hard drive motors went into the copper bearing motor pile, is this the way to get the best price for these?

Is there any truth to the thin metal covers of the cases being anything more than steel? I think I heard something about stainless steel in some brands?


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 Post subject: Re: Hard Drive questions
PostPosted: Sat Apr 23, 2016 12:00 pm 
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Added a few bits.

Hard drives are a good place for a lot of small payouts. There's no real garbage in them.
Modern drives.

The top of the case is a glued two-ply cap.
The magnetic layer is 446 or 505 stainless
The aluminium layer is a high grade spun al.

The case is a molded (cast) aluminium, not die cast and is a small bit more valuable.

The magnet(sl) vary but are usually cobalt or neodymium.
The backing of the magnets, the big plates, are a special alloy of carbon chromium and aluminium known as permaloy (and various similar spelled trade names).

The motors should be placed slightly higher than cbm since they are aluminium cased, not steel.

Platters have multiple variations. Base metal is either a high grade plate spun aluminium or a special steel known as hematare which is a hematite, carbon, iron, glass. microplating is palladium or platinum. Value ranges fro 10c-70c so boardsort is in the right range on buying them unknown.

The heads are spun aluminium, remelted and cast. The pickup is almost always rhodium. The wire will be gold or rhodium.
The run 50-70c/lb
Pickups run $1200-1250 /lb
Wire is $860-939/lb
The io connector will be gold pin connector or pin-board. Depending on the format and run 50c-1.50/lb.

The screws are all brass or low 300 series stainless. The two to 6 pegs are either brass or aluminium.
The magnetic magnet stoppers are almost always cobalt. (The tiny black dots in a plastic arm).
The flat wire is either silver plated nickel or gold plated nickel and will go high grade. 1.20-1.50/lb as of yesterday. Unless it was a SAS drive which, so far, has always been a clean pure 22k gold wire, sell as gold laminate for $50-$75/lb the wire will be black on the outside and look like black plastic with dull, almost brass looking connectors. Some high speed drives like the raptor and SG thunderball also have them.

If you are buying them whole stay under 50c/lb Lb and you're making money.

The catch is finding a large enough yard to buy the scrap by grades and friendly enough to do so in small amounts.


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 Post subject: Re: Hard Drive questions
PostPosted: Sat Apr 30, 2016 4:12 pm 

Joined: Wed May 20, 2015 10:57 pm
Posts: 6
Thank you so much for the thorough reply! All of that information was great! time to sort and break down :)


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 Post subject: Re: Hard Drive questions
PostPosted: Sat Apr 30, 2016 4:56 pm 
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Added head pickup rates inline above.
The only major variation is old (pre-mid-80s) drives, 5¼ inch or 8inch.
Many had platters made of alloys with precious metals. Old deskstar platters have a MELT value for a prepared refinery over $200 per lb and have a scrap value of around $75-$150 for the platters. The xerox "Re" drive is solid 80/20 nickel/palladium. Runs about $15-$20lb. The commodore sourced Amiga 2½ inch drives for the 500/1000/1200 have thick gold plated platters that will fetch $150-$175 on average. (The drives with 2 platters, later single platter drive platters are industry standard for the time—30¢-50¢)


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 Post subject: Re: Hard Drive questions
PostPosted: Sat Jun 25, 2016 5:35 pm 

Joined: Sun Jan 17, 2016 11:04 pm
Posts: 12
I have had luck selling the magnets on eBay. I have had science teachers and art & craft people buy them. I price mine at 35c each with free shipping. I wait until I have at least 30 before listing. My price is low, but it is better than leaving them in the cases.


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 Post subject: Re: Hard Drive questions
PostPosted: Sat Jun 25, 2016 7:55 pm 
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I've seen some of the old monster magnets from single platter drives fetch $10+ on ebay.
Most buyers use them for crafts or educational reasons but I'm sure someone out there is slaving away in the garage with a clay bowl and Blowtorch refining nickel flake. ;)


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 Post subject: Re: Hard Drive questions
PostPosted: Wed Jul 27, 2016 10:43 am 

Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2014 12:19 pm
Posts: 8
Thanks for the information! I've since started changing the ways I scrap hard drives. My one question is: where can you sell the wire and rhodium pickups? I normally throw all that into my aluminum bucket and the scrap yard buys it as aluminum. Thanks!


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 Post subject: Re: Hard Drive questions
PostPosted: Wed Jul 27, 2016 12:48 pm 
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You'll need to find a yard that buys small amounts of pm
(or Ebay: coins->bullion->other)

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 Post subject: Re: Hard Drive questions
PostPosted: Wed Jul 27, 2016 3:04 pm 

Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2014 12:19 pm
Posts: 8
Thanks!


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 Post subject: Re: Hard Drive questions
PostPosted: Mon Aug 22, 2016 7:23 pm 

Joined: Mon Apr 14, 2014 12:41 pm
Posts: 558
Hi lostinlodos.

Would you be so kind and post a picture of what a pickup run from a hard drive looks like?

Thanks a lot.


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