Floppy question

I do not have a local buyer for boards. I've been hoarding hard drives and floppy drive to sell whole somewhere eventually. I've now started to break them down to sell the steel locally. My question is, is there anything in a floppy besides the main board, that warrant further break down. I will ship the boards when I get enough. I was going to throw the rest in with shred. Your opinions wanted. Thanks.

If you feel like it, the motors are pretty easy to remove...they barely weight anything though.

I pull the motor on the back of the floppy drives. I also actually pop the back off if there are just 3 or 4 screws and then, if I can get it with a couple of screws, I pull the motor on the inside and throw it into copper breakage as well. My yard pays copper breakage for them which is about 25cents a pound. I take in a 5 gallon bucket at a time. I fill up a bucket in about a week to 10 days. It weighs about 25 to 30 pounds when I take it in. (side note, my yard also buys fans at copper breakage and I don't have to break off any plastic. unscrew the fans from desktops, clip the wire, fan into the copper breakage bin.) The same is true for DVD/CD roms. If they are DVDRW drives and they work, I ship them to PTScrapper here on the forum.

For the hard drives, I actually break them all the way down if they are small drives or broken drives. (If they are larger and work, I send them to Terry as well. Well, and the occasional bad drive.) You have some stainless, some aluminum, the platters and the magnets. You even get some gold mylar. There is zero waste in a hard drive. The small bits of plastic in them have metal attached to it so I throw it in shred or, if I can get the plastic off, I throw it in stainless. The covers are stainless most of the time, but sometimes they have metal coverings you have to pull off, or else just throw it in shred. The screws are sometimes non-magnetic stainless as well. Watch out for those The magnetic screws go into my shred 5 gallon bucket for screws. And...the spacers between the platters are either stainless, shred or aluminum depending on the hard drive.

Oh, and I know that the drives in the end don't pay a lot, but I get my two boys to sit around a table with me and we talk while we dismantle the drives. They get a kick out of using the power screwdrivers and I get time to talk to my boys. It is a win win.

Good luck. If anyone sees something I'm missing, please let me know.

Thanks a lot guys. Last question, on the hard drives, what is the disc itself?

Platinum coated Aluminum. About 1.00 a Lb.

Some just take a flat bar or chisel and pop the connector with the gold pins off the back side and toss the rest into shred. I've been doing the same actually, might reconsider, but thinking there's only a low grade brown board inside, and don't really see a tiny motor worth the time to go in there after

As others above...

Board and motor, and if 3.5 drives I grab those connectors on the board, rest goes to shred.

The motors may be light when single but they do add up fast if you have a good supply.

That's my .25 cents, and yes I want my change!

Goodluck!

Sirscrapalot - Still has ten fingers after exploding things all weekend.

Originally Posted by Sirscrapalot

As others above...

Board and motor, and if 3.5 drives I grab those connectors on the board, rest goes to shred.

.

Does this mean your 3.5 floppy don't get tore down, other than remove the connector?

Oh I break it down to the board, remove the board, then the connector. Easier for my fat fingers to get to. LOL.

If I remember later I'll break one down when I'm in the shop an take some pics of how I do it. Maybe it'll help someone!

Sirscrapalot - Being helpful and confusing all in one post..go me!

I've been sticking a wide chisel into the end, under the board, and just pry till the connector breaks off from the board, without removing the board or any covers/screws

Hrrm, I will try that later. The good lord knows if I don't have to deal with a bunch of screws I'ma happy scrapper.

Sirscrapalot - Learning something new everyday is a good thing.

Thanks guys. The ones I did today all had a dbl green board. I got it and the motor. If not for that board, I wouldn't have thought about breaking down at all. Thanks for all the info.

Sorry guys. I was confusing DVD with floppy. Broke a bunch down today very efficiently with your advice. Thanks

Originally Posted by carolinajunkman

Sorry guys. I was confusing DVD with floppy.

ohhh, yeah, haha, I do that a lot! ; )