Hard Drive Desktop Clock

Intro

There some hard drive clock in Pinterest for sale. I always want to make one of them for my desk. COVID-19 quarantine gives me the chance to make one. Because of the virus, I must make it from anything I have in house so This is my first Instructable project so I hope to be good. It is an easy project Let's do it

So as I said this project

made from salvage parts you need:

1. Old hard drive

2. Old clock

3. Magnet (optional)

4. Copper wires or pen holder

Tools:

1. Set of Star screwdriver

2. Pliers

3. 123 glue

4. 2 face glue

5. Paint spray

First of all, the cover should pick up. There are 4 screws on the cover that can see. In some cases, there is another screw under the company label but in my hard drive just that 4 screw.(pic 1)

OK now it is needed to undo that screw on the center of the disk to Separate it from the motor.(pic2) this hard has one disk but in some cases there are multiple disks. This is challenging too do I almost ruined the screw. After many disappointing tries, finally, it unscrewed.(pic3)

Now we can see axis (pic5) we will bring it in front of the clock face this for decoration. In hard drives exist one or two powerful neodymium magnets one on axis another under it. In this hard drive, the top one hasn’t magnet and its screws were undo when we opened cover so it can lift with a flat screwdriver (pic6) (if you have any plastic flat tool it could be easier because of the magnetic field can attract steel screwdriver) for bottom one has a screw to pick up it, turn around the hard drive (pic7) undo circuit and motor screws.(pic8-10) there is a tag that covers a screw of the magnet undo that too.(pic11)

I have seen some hard drive clock use this part to decorate in the end but these brushless motors have good quality so I plan to save motor and its circuit for future projects.

There is a little magnet near a motor, take it too. (pic14)

So I have an old clock (pic 1) collecting dust so I decide to use its motor.

Ok clock hand can be apart with little pull (pic 2) but you should be careful to don’t pull motor shaft with the second hand which I did it. (pic 3) If you did it too don’t be worry about it, it is fixable. The bolt in (pic 4)should be open. (pic 5)

Now to fix it, the back cover should be lifted. It has two pins sides of the box.(pic 6)Place of gears is obvious so put them in their place (pic 7) put the shaft in (pic 9) close it and test it if it works that mine work perfectively.

At the beginning, I was planning to paint the hard block with metallic gold paint but after I opened it has a nice black paint so I decide to keep it that way [pic 1] but I don’t have a black spray so if you have, paint the cover for the stand. [pic 2]

For numbers I wanted to try laser engraver to scratch the disk but because of quarantine I couldn’t so if you have fancy laser-cut setup in garage go for it.

First of all, put back the top magnet steel for support of the axis.[pic 3] Mine was without magnet [pic 4]if yours has magnet you can pull of magnet from base steel with pliers, it is hard but doable. Use two screws any suit you.[pic 5-6] Glue the disk be careful to disk face won't be gluey.[pic 7] Now put the motor in the back of hard before glue it makes sure the shaft be long enough to get through to the other side and be in the center. [pic 8] Put all parts together at the end glue the axis on the magnet base. [pic 9-10]

Stand, I use the cover.[pic 11] First of all, paint it if you want then glue magnet back the cover for gathering paper clips or acupuncture needles. You can use the magnet we salvage from the hard drive but because it is too strong and I have small magnet that strong enough I prefer to use them.[pic 12] use some 2 face glue tape to make them fixed [pic 13-14].

I make a pen holder with copper wire [pic 15-16] and in the end glue with the 123 all together [pic 17]

now the clock and the stand glue each other [pic 18]

In the end, you have a nice desktop clock that you can customize with your stuff and a brushless motor with its driver, two magnets, some screw for other projects, I hope you enjoyed it.