scrap hard drive questions

I have a few questions on hard drives. I am not a big time scrapper, I do it as a hobby compared to others. I have lots of computer scrap as I have worked on computers for well over 30 years now. Anyway I have lots of old hard drive scrap. I enjoy taking apart old drives and have quite a bit of old hard drive parts. I have drive motors and also the head drives that reads the platters. I have a few 5 gallon buckets of the drive motors and other parts. I see a lot of aluminum I can salvage. But the local scrap yards just rate as copper,iron,aluminum,etc and would rate this as scrap. Would it be worth melting the aluminum somehow or just tossing it in the iron/steel scrap? If its worth melting down how is the best/cheapest way to do it?

Originally Posted by willy3486

I have a few questions on hard drives. I am not a big time scrapper, I do it as a hobby compared to others. I have lots of computer scrap as I have worked on computers for well over 30 years now. Anyway I have lots of old hard drive scrap. I enjoy taking apart old drives and have quite a bit of old hard drive parts. I have drive motors and also the head drives that reads the platters. I have a few 5 gallon buckets of the drive motors and other parts. I see a lot of aluminum I can salvage. But the local scrap yards just rate as copper,iron,aluminum,etc and would rate this as scrap. Would it be worth melting the aluminum somehow or just tossing it in the iron/steel scrap? If its worth melting down how is the best/cheapest way to do it?

No dont melt it, most places probably wont take it melted cause you could have melted other, less valuable metals into it without them knowing.....

If I had all that, and it was already all apart....

the alum would go to local yard as mixed aluminum ~$0.20/lb
motors would be elec motor/transformers at around ~$0.08/lb
everything else metal/plasticy/etc would all go into the shred pile with any other random scrap I had....

The most valuable part, is the boards from hard drives.... they are ~$10/lb to a buyer on here. no where local to me buys them.

If I had whole harddrives, not taken apart, I take the boards of, and leave the rest whole and both go to a buyer on here. ($10/lb for boards, $0.20/lb for the harddrives whole without boards)....

Thanks for the reply. Locally they don't have a lot of classifications, mainly scrap steel,aluminum,copper and wire. . I probably will just pull out what aluminum I can and toss the rest into my metal scrap trailer. I have a trailer I toss steel and iron into a trailer to give away to another scrapper as I don't have a good way to haul steel scrap. The copper/aluminum payout makes it feasible for me to take to the scrapyard.

I like to break them down at work when things are slow. It keeps my hands busy and helps pass the time. Typical breakdown goes something like this:

1: remove logic board on back.

2: remove front cover. These vary quite a bit in the metal used so i chuck them in with the steel.

3 remove the reader arm. These can go as irony aluminum, aluminum shred, aluminum breakage. Whatever term your yard uses for aluminum contaminated with steel. Do check the voice coil on the reader arm. Some are copper. Some appear to be industrial gold ?

4: remove the platters. On the 2.5" drives, they're generally made of glass. On the 3.5" drives, the platters can usually go as aluminum sheet.

5: Remove the neodymium magnets. They don't take up much space in the shop so i save those. They might have value someday if there's a shortage of rare earths.

6: The motors are of two kinds. The first kind has three screws holding it in place. Easy to remove. They are classed as electric motors. The second and most common kind is a little more difficult. You flip the drive over and use a punch & hammer to drive out the center shaft. The part that pops out is irony aluminum. The part that remains is the copper/iron winding. These can go as electric motors, copper bearing, or whatever your yard calls it. You pry that winding out with a screwdriver.

7: The aluminum carcass that remains is probably either 6061 or 6063 extruded aluminum but many yards class it as cast aluminum.

It varies a bit from yard to yard but this is a general idea of how it can go.

It it worth doing ? It just seems like there's not a great deal of value there except for the better than scrap option. That's especially so with the 2.5" drives.

Where in TN are you? There's a coupla TN folks on here might could direct you to better local options

I am in the middle TN area. I have probably a couple of 5 gallon buckets of the drive platter motors and a 5 gallon bucket of the aluminum heads for the drives. I have sent off most of the boards. I have some of the cast frames I can sale locally. I was thinking of getting the aluminum off the arms and motors I could and toss the rest to the steel scrap pile I have.

I have read that the wiring on the reader arms, from the sensor on the tip, back to the connection, is Gold wires or just heavy in Gold content.
Id keep them aside. I do. I did read somewhere in a escrap buyers info sheet that they were buying just this part, the mylar sheet from the sensor tip to the connection.
I have no other info about it though.

They also mentioned the mylar connection between the Plasma screen, or LCD screen, to the circuitboard, and that thin Silicon chip strip. That they were buying them too.
I still have not found out what that Silicon strip does & it was one of my first questions here, lol.

Originally Posted by eesakiwi

I have read that the wiring on the reader arms, from the sensor on the tip, back to the connection, is Gold wires or just heavy in Gold content.
Id keep them aside. I do. I did read somewhere in a escrap buyers info sheet that they were buying just this part, the mylar sheet from the sensor tip to the connection.
I have no other info about it though.
They also mentioned the mylar connection between the Plasma screen, or LCD screen, to the circuitboard, and that thin Silicon chip strip. That they were buying them too.
I still have not found out what that Silicon strip does & it was one of my first questions here, lol.

There is gold in the reader arms, I never really saved them as I have not seen any place to sale them. As far as the mylar connection from the LCD to the circuit board I am not sure of what it does without seeing it. I make my living repairing computers and I have taken the LCDs apart to see how they work. Years ago I ran a computer shop on the side while working for a place keeping their computers up. Due to that I had a lot of computer scrap. I sent off about 100 pounds of processors and memory I forgot about, some 20 years or more old. I have a 30x52 workshop filled with old junk like this. I have been going through this as I plan to scale down and only work on tube amps on the side. So I am cleaning out these parts I can't use. I probably will have some gold connectors and such before long I may try to sale as well. I found a place online to sale to that makes it easy so I may see if they sale that way. Funny thing is back about 20 to 30 years ago I couldn't break even doing tube repair but made a good side living doing computers. Now that has switched, I make a great side living on amps and loose on computers.

Are you familiar with ExecuTone paging amps? I found a Model PBK-675 last week but it is not in working condition. It seems like some of those had tubes but this one doesn't.

Originally Posted by jimicrk

Are you familiar with ExecuTone paging amps? I found a Model PBK-675 last week but it is not in working condition. It seems like some of those had tubes but this one doesn't.

I am not familar with them. When I first got started I worked on tube radios and TVs. I worked for a few years doing consumer repairs before I got into computers. I did keep working on consumer type stuff since I got into tvs. I don't think I have ever seen a paging amp.