Hard Drive Cast Aluminum

I am researching a project from a layman's perspective and was wondering if someone can help me.

Problem: to build a puncture press that will push a hole in the cast aluminum and platters of a hard drive.

Given:

Air compressor with 150 PSI max pressure and a jig to hold the hard drive. Air cylinders of any required size A "punch" that will fit on the end of the air cylinder to be driven through the hard drive.

What cylinder size will be required for the given pressure? What size should the piercing end of the punch be in order to penetrate the cast aluminum, the platter and the circuit board?

All help is appreciated.

Mgr

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You have a design problem.......you need a design engineer

OR

you need to do some simple experiments to determine the answers to your questions.

Trying to do this yourself is false economy....it will cost more in time & money than getting a professional to do it for you.

Aso you need to better define the requirements of you project; objectives, raw materials, etc

Dozens of question come to mind as I ponder your situation

cheers Bob

Reply to
BobK207

Probably a bullet from a handgun or rifle would surely do the job of hard drive destruction much easier, if that is your intent.

Reply to
Jim

Or just melt the thing in a furnace, even if you dril four holes through the platters (as we do) there will still be recoverable data.

Reply to
Grimly Fiendish

Yes some imediate ones that spring to my mind are 150 PSI doesn't sound anywhere near enough to do the job, also securing the drives in the jig and the punch well enough to withstand the shock and preventing bits from flying out and causing injury.

Reply to
Grimly Fiendish

The term is PSI Pounds per square Inch.

So if you have a 1" piston (punch we think) you have 150 pounds of pressure.

If you use a Chrome molly or such - e.g. lathe cutting tool that is M42 or MAX ... grind a 5 mill pin then drive the pin. Now the psi on the point is very high.

Why not just hit the hum at an angle and rip it that way.

The platters make great mirrors - nice in a shop. You can even play Dr. and have a lamp screw in one side and socket on the back. View from back...

I think you want to do a hydraulic piston and have the air drive the input and the piston ram drive through a pin punch or something.

Martin

Mart> I am researching a project from a layman's perspective and was

Reply to
Martin H. Eastburn

Martin nailed it - it's all about the PSI, and, I suppose, how you're fixturing it. (i.e. pressing down on a drive held against a flat surface, rather than pushing on it in a "goal post" fixture holding 2 ends is going to change things because of flexing, etc.)

A couple of things come to mind here. One is that the possibly the problem definition should be taken back a step to "prevent recovery of data" or "prevent reuse of drive". These are 2 completely different things as I'm sure you're aware.

My hunch is that you could have some more viable method other than a BF-Hammer powered by air.

I'd think Hydraulic could do you much better. Just check out your local business surplus sale. Also, "chipper shredder"ing drives in some sort of a hammer mill or grinder/compactor might work. A huge oscillating magnet might work (the FBI can apparently do crazy recovery stuff, so this would have to be a tested method). Or even proper heating might work. (Watch your aluminum eutectics though!)

J> The term is PSI Pounds per square Inch.

Reply to
jonceramic

IIRC most hard disk platters are made of glass, because they have to be so smooth. The heads fly at about 100 angstroms altitude.

Cheers,

Phil Hobbs

Reply to
Phil Hobbs

Twaddle ! All 2.5" drives are indeed glass/ceramic platters All 3.5" drives are aluminium (or similar) Of course there may be exceptions bu t i have yet to see one, although it is possible that more 3.5" drives might use glass/ceramic platters in the future, although this may not be possible as ever increasing spin speeds require thicker platters and the manufacture of aluminium ones is probably much easier and cheaper.

The smoothness does not come from the disk material but from the magnetic coating and protective coating/lubricant applied to it (a bit like electroplating works) The reason glass/ceramic is used in Laptop drives is that the platters need to be thinner due to the size, aluminium at the thickness would not be rigid enough. Another advantage of using glass/ceramic is that it is light and therefore well suited to Laptops, being light also means that it can spin up quicker with a less powerful motor. The reason glass is not used in 3.5" drives is probably due to higher cost of manufacture, but also that non glass platters are more robust.

Reply to
Grimly Fiendish

You haven't said why you want to destroy the hard drive. I, and others, can assume you want to destroy the data that is on it. In addition, that hole you want to punch into the disks will not destroy 100% of the data. Some will remain accessible.

From experience, I suggest you place the hard drive in a freezer for a couple of days. The magnetic fields of the disks will break down. We had a cold winter day in Chicago where we were attempting to demonstrate software to a client. The person in charge of the PC decided to leave it in the rental car over night. The next day the hard drive was totally wiped clean from the cold in less than 12 hours. I believe extreme heat will do the same.

Reply to
Jim Y

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