Given the challenge of upcycling for this year’s office secret santa I was desperate to spawn something from the ruins of the ancient paving slab (laptop) gathering dust in the depths of my bedroom.
…And the hard drive clock was born.
This is an easy project with some very impressive results. It makes a great little desktop clock and is the perfect present for anyone with the slightest geeky inclination. Plus if you have an old computer kicking around it costs next to nothing to make. My total expenditure was the grand total of £2 (spent on the clock mechanism).
The design is pretty intuitive, however, there are parts that can be quite fiddly to do. Computer manufacturers don’t like to make it easy for us to pry open their machines!
This is not a step by step but I have highlighted some of the challenges I faced when creating this beauty:
- Opening up the hard drive; i.e. removing the metal cover that protects the disc and the internal mechanism. Most of the machines I’ve encountered (I am by no means an expert) have had star screws – these can be hard to remove if you don’t have the right shaped screwdriver (I think that’s the point of them) – so I had to resort to sawing slits in individual screws and using a flat head screwdriver. This actually worked quite well.
- Removing the “middle bit” or the spindle from in between the discs; this is where the clock axle was inserted. I needed a power drill for this…although there is probably is a more civilised way of removing it. This was the most difficult step by far.
- Finally the stand that you see in the pictures is actually the hard drive’s metal cover bent backwards to make a simple base. I used the original screws for this so don’t chuck them out, they could be useful! The circuit board was stuck on after, it was the control board from the original hard drive. I added it as I thought it looked cool 🙂
Parts needed: Old hard drive, clock mechanism, AA battery
Tools used: screwdrivers, pliers, silicone glue, power drill with various bits, tweezers, junior hack saw (for sawing star screws).
it's all in the making 