I always have an old hard drive (or 2 or 3) laying around. I’ve found a great use for them (assuming that the drive is not functional) is to remove the magnets inside. You’ll need a small TORX driver, but the 5 minutes of work is worth the effort. I won’t go into the drive breakdown, but I will explain how to remove the magnet from the steel it’s mounted to, and then some possible uses for these super-strong magnets.
Once the magnet assembly is removed, it’s time to strong-arm it. Using a vice is the easiest, but I’ve also done this will a couple pair of pliers. The trick is to bend the steel backer plate and the magnet will separate.
Ok, so now that you have a magnet, what to do with it? On my workbench, the shelving is metal so attaching underlighting could be done with double-sided tape or using a couple of these magnets. Being able to remove the light makes the magnet a great choice. The best way to attach these magnet is to use this: Scotch mounting tape. It is really, really strong tape, and it holds these magnets in place. You’ll need a screwdriver to remove it.
Once attached, I put the light up under the shelving. Rocky decided smell the light for some reason.
These can be used to hold tools in place, mount power strips or hold hardware. Just be careful not to let the magnets attach to each other, they are really difficult to pry apart.
Here’s a gallery of all the images:
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