Grinding machine made of hard disk. How to make a sander from an old hard drive

With emery from the hard disk of a personal computer, you can edit and sharpen hand tools, knives or small parts. The main advantage of the device: a minimum amount of tools and auxiliary materials are required for its manufacture. At the same time, the performance of the hard drive does not play a special role: its functions will be completely different.

Today's computer hard drives are not very well suited to this concept. The fact is that on the HDD of the first generations, the magnetic circles were distinguished by large dimensions. This allows you to expand the range of processed items.

To assemble an emery machine, you must prepare the following materials:

HDD;
abrasive material;
standard power supply;
power supply connection kit;
materials for the assembly of the protective casing (at the request of the master);
rubber caps as a support for the future machine;
controller for the drive.

The purchase of the latter item depends on the type of hard drive. We are considering a brushless drive application that will not function on standard AC or DC voltage. The controller is a special unit that generates a voltage of a special frequency for the smooth operation of an electric motor. It operates from a voltage of 9-12 V based on the characteristics of a particular model. The cost when ordering from China is $ 2.8–3.2.

The main advantage of the controller is the built-in function of manual adjustment of engine speed.

In the process, you will need the following tool:

a set of screwdrivers for disassembling a hard drive;
small drills;
screwdriver;
soldering iron;
glue.

How to disassemble a hard drive

With the right tools, the disassembly process is a simple task.

The first step is to remove the top cover. Modern models are fastened with several hex head bolts. Older versions are designed to use the classic Phillips screwdriver. If during the entire period of operation the disk has never been disassembled, during the removal of the cover you will have to make quite serious efforts: at the factory, the screws are tightened with a high tightening torque.

The next stage is a complete disassembly of the hard drive. It includes the following steps:

We dismantle the dust collector. In the image, it appears as a small white detail. Its function was to filter the incoming air from fines that could damage the hard drive.
We remove the neodymium magnets and the electronic control board. Its performance does not matter: it will not be of value for the future electric emery. Exceptions will be discussed below.
We remove the read head and all leads except for the power supply.

After carrying out the work, a bare case with a drive and discs should remain.

Assembling mini emery from a hard drive

After preparing the necessary tools and materials, you can start assembling the electric sharpener from the hard drive.

The process begins with the preparation of the abrasive surface. There are two options:

The nozzle is cut from the sheet along the contour of the disc. An additional hole is made in the center.
In a hardware store, you can purchase a set of abrasive wheels for a grinder and bring their size to the specified parameters.

The wheels themselves can be made of aluminum alloy or glass. We recommend gluing the discs on all sides to obtain a larger number of processing surfaces. This will increase the interval for their replacement. Use different grit abrasives to expand your machining capabilities. By purchasing sandpaper with a margin, you can make removable attachments from the remaining material.

Any all-purpose adhesive can be used to attach the attachment to the disc.

After preparing the disks, they are installed back to their original place, tightening all the screws.

Then you should start making a case for the controller. The easiest option is to buy a junction box with dimensions of 100 * 100. These dimensions are sufficient to comfortably accommodate the controller, power socket and engine speed control mechanism. Lovers of modern technology can independently design a case and print it on a 3D printer. It is attached to the hard drive with standard bolts.

The last step is to install rubber feet, which will dampen vibration and provide additional stability during operation. They can be ordered at Aliexpress or made by yourself.

Power connection

There are several options for supplying power to the machine:

Use a standard power supply unit of a personal computer of a suitable format.
Disassemble an unnecessary power supply unit of any household appliance that operates with a voltage of 12 volts. A board is removed from it and built into the existing electrical circuit of the machine by soldering electrical wires. Do not forget about installing the standard power supply socket into the machine body.

After that, you can start testing the invention. Please note: the direction of movement of the actuator can be reversed using a switch on the controller.

It is impossible to machine massive tools with this machine. The reason lies in the low power of the classic motor: it runs on ferrite magnets, which have never been particularly powerful.

Magnets made on the basis of rare earth elements are installed in powerful drives.

An alternative option is to replace the existing winding with wires with a large cross-section. This will increase the amperage.

Many inventors who do not use a controller in their design are faced with the following problem: after power is applied, the rotation stops after 10-15 seconds. The reason is the lack of heads. There are several ways to solve this problem:

Leave the lower head when disassembling.
Make a separate power supply for the drive.
Correct the existing wiring diagram.

Subject to the availability of a schematic diagram, the latter option seems to be the most preferable. The task of the wizard is to block the signals that cause the engine to stop. As a rule, it is enough to remove a few transistors for this.

Hard disk emery is a handy homemade product that can be used to process small tools and household appliances. What do you think about engine power? Perhaps, to increase productivity, it is advisable to use a motor made of aircraft toys? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Any hard drive sooner or later fails, but this is not a reason to throw it away, it can still come in handy. For example, you can make a useful thing in the household from it - a sharpening or grinding machine. This will require the hard drive itself, a computer power supply, a power connector and sandpaper. In addition, you need a Torx screwdriver, with which you can disassemble the hard drive, scissors, soldering iron and wires.

Both a 3.5-inch hard and a 2.5-inch hard drive will do, but the rpm and pancake size of a laptop hard drive is smaller, so it is less efficient. But it is powered by 5 volts, so it can be run from USB, including using a portable charger.

Disassemble the hard drive and remove the pancakes from it. Keep in mind that one or more screws are usually hidden under the sticker - if you don't find and unscrew them, you won't be able to remove the cover. Remove all unnecessary components (reader, etc.), leaving only the logic board, motor and spindle. Do not throw out the pancakes, you will need them. Place one pancake on sandpaper, trace around it, and cut a circle out of the paper with a hole in the middle.

Glue the emery wheel onto the pancake. Use a glue that peels off easily so that you can replace the sanding paper as it wears out. Attach the pancake back to the spindle and secure it with the ring and bolts. Supply power to the hard drive from the PSU.

When the circle starts to rotate, you can start working: sharpen knives, grind bolts, grind something, and so on.

Usually there are several pancakes in hard drives, so you can stick on one coarse sandpaper for rough work, and on the other fine one for more delicate work. Of course, such a sander is unlikely to be useful for serious work, but you can use it anywhere, powered by a 12-volt battery.

If you have an old hard drive from your computer, do not rush to throw it away, you can make a small handy emery out of it! The motors in such devices almost never break, and we don't need other parts. These motors are brushless, they develop high revs, withstand heavy loads and are durable.

An interesting homemade product in that with the help of a special controller you can control the engine speed. This is very handy when you need to process something very small. The author pasted over both discs on both sides with sandpaper, so they should be enough for a long time. If you are interested in the project, I suggest that you familiarize yourself with it in more detail.

Materials and tools used

List of materials:
- old hard drive;
- sandpaper;
- controller for the engine;
- connector for power supply;
- power supply unit for 12V / 6A;
- wires;
- materials for the body.

Tool list:
- a screwdriver for untwisting the hard drive;
- soldering iron;
- 3D printer (optional);
- glue.

Emery making process:

Step one. Disassembling the hard drive
You will first need to disassemble the hard drive. In most cases, the cover is fastened with hex head screws. And on older versions, there may be conventional cross screws. The screws can be quite tight, so without a good screwdriver it can be difficult to unscrew them.

After removing the lid, we remove the filter, this is such a white bag, it is designed to collect the smallest dust particles. You also need to remove the read / write head of the hard drive. It is fastened with one screw, and you will also need to remove two powerful neodymium magnets. We also remove the electronic board, we do not need it, even if it is working, there is little sense from it. As a result, only the engine with disks should remain.

Step two. Test engine start
The motor is installed here brushless, which means that it will not work if DC or AC voltage is applied to its contacts. Here you will need a special controller that generates a voltage of a special frequency, from which the engine runs. To start the engine, you need to buy a controller, you can order it from China. The controller is convenient in that it has a speed control function. The device can be powered from a voltage of 9V to 12V.

We supply power to the controller, the green LED should light up, which will indicate the operability of the controller. The disk is spinning, everything is fine, let's move on.

Step three. We glue the disks
We remove the discs, in most cases they are aluminum, and there are also glass ones. The author glues sandpaper to them. You can glue the discs on both sides, then you don't have to glue the paper often. You can simply swap or flip the disks. As a result, we get 4 work planes. If necessary, you can glue paper of different grain sizes. And if you have more discs, you can make yourself a good supply of sanding discs.

We put the disks back, it is not necessary to tighten all the screws, even 3 should be kept fine, but for reliability it is better to tighten everything.

Step four. Installing the legs
Our machine at high speeds will vibrate quite strongly and if nothing is done, the emery will ride on the table. To solve this problem, the author is screwing rubber feet to the hard disk. They are quite common, you can order from China, or you can make it yourself from rubber, and so on.

Step five. Device case and assembly
The author has a plastic case, he printed it on a 3D printer. A controller is installed in the case, as well as a socket for connecting a power supply and a speed control knob. You can also make such a case from plywood. Auto screws the case to the hard drive with its own screws.

Step six. Testing
That's all, the homemade product is ready, you can test it! The author's emery can easily sharpen a knife, and even sparks fly. The revolutions are conveniently regulated, so it is not necessary to turn on the machine so that it works at the limit of its capabilities.

Hello everyone! The idea itself is not new. They say the internet is full of such records, I have not seen it yet, the idea appeared by itself. I was impatient here, you know, to urgently sharpen a knife and a screwdriver ... But "OH GOD!" Emery is in the garage, and at work there is not even a file ... Well, we are “sysadmins” people are simple and I got into the “bins of the Motherland” and took out ... An old hard drive from a PC ...

We take scissors, screwdrivers, sandpaper, our hdd and double-sided tape

Everything we need.

We unscrew the bolts. 7 bolts are always hidden under the sticker.

……………………………………………………………….

We open it. and everything is so beautifully packed there. glitters.

We turn off the actuator and the lever for moving the heads, Magnets for experiments, the rest can be scrapped.

Unscrew the disc mounting cover and remove the washer above the disc, as well as the disc itself

We put the disc on sandpaper, outline the contours and cut out

These are the bagels)

We glue double-sided tape to our disc (you can add it to glue, but it will be easier to replace the sandpaper with scotch tape)

……………………………………………………………………………………

ISKRIM))))
Well, about the work of this device.

It is better to take sandpaper with a small fraction, it is rather weak for a large engine. But I had enough to sharpen everything I needed, even very much. Bye everyone!