How to make a clock out of a hard drive

Have an old Quantum Fireball laying around collecting dust? Does that 1990's era, 4 GB hard drive in your desk drawer make you laugh when you think of your 1 TB RAID Array? Well turn it into something useful! This tutorial will show you how to turn that craptastic HDD into a thing of beauty, a clock.



First lets get the material list. It is quite large, and depending on the hard drive you have, you may need more, or less. This is what I needed for a 9.something GB Quantum Fireball from 1998:

• Old/Neglected Hard drive
• Hammer
• Punch
• Drill
• Massive set of drill bits
• Hobby Lobby Clock kit ($5.99)
• Epoxy or other extremely strong glue
• Set of latex gloves (if you have superglue - I've glue my fingers together many a time)
• 3/8" Drill bit capable of drilling through metal
• Parts dish
• Hack saw
• Nail file capable of filing metal
• 2 Hours of free time
• a vice
• 6 inches of stranded copper wire
  

I think that's it. A lot of stuff eh? But its worth it, you will be known as the classy geek.


Take all the screws on the outside that you can see off. Then take the ones that you can't see off. These will be hidden under stickers that said "Warranty Void If Removed". Screw warranties, we're making a clock! When you're done, it should look like this:

Concentrate on the read write head block in the lower left hand corner of the HDD. Take off all the screws circled:

Now you can take that 1st metal piece off. It will have one of the most powerful magnets you have ever seen, and it will take some prying to get off. If it looks like there are no screws holding it together - there isn't any - its just how powerful the magnet is.

Now take off the final screw holding it all together. Then pop out the read/write block from the HDD. It should now look like this:

Now, start dissembling the screws holding the HDD platters in.

Once that is done, remove all the metal pieces holding the platters in, remove the platters, and you should have this:

Now you get to hammer stuff! See how there is no convenient hole in the middle there to put the shaft of the clock mechanism? Make one. If you're lucky, the next step will make a hole big enough. If your not, follow the step after and drill a hole in the middle.

Flip the HDD around and use a punch to hammer out the spindle shaft:

When that is accomplished flip it over and take the spindle assembly off:

NOW you have a hole to put a clock mechanism into. Or do you? In this case the hole is not big enough. This is where the drill bit comes in handy:

The Hobby Lobby clock mechanism is roughly 3/8" wide. I have that size drill bit, so i drilled and hollowed it out a bit:

Now get your epoxy/superglue and glue the clock mechanism face:

And put that on the back of the HDD:

Depending on which glue you chose, wait until it is completely dry. In the meantime, working on the clock hands would be a good idea. Put the read/write heads in the vice and stark hacking each individual head off:

With the two heads that will become the minute and hour hands separated from the rest of the read/write block, file one down until it is short and the size of an hour hand:

Use some super glue or epoxy to affix these to their respective parts in the Hobby Lobby clock kit. Depending on your tastes, you might want to snap off part of the hands and glue it directly to the base of the ring that connects the hands to the clock mechanism (That's what I did).

Now start work on the second hand. Take a stranded copper wire, and wrap it around the second hand until it is completely covered - then snap off the excess at the other side of the base:

Do you remember some of the leftover parts you had when you took the platters off of the spindle? There should be 2 rings that just barely cover the edges of the platters. Glue two of them together to make one big one, this will keep the platter off of the hard drive case, and make it look better:

When that sets, glue that spindle to the HDD platter of your choice:

Glue that platter to the HDD case:

Now your clock hands should be dry enough to handle. Put those onto the mechanism poking out through the hole in the middle:

Polish the surface up a bit, and add the second hand and a battery - and guess what? YOU'RE DONE! Congratulations, you have an awesome bit of geek hardware!