# Removing steel from rare earth magnets



## alexxx (Mar 14, 2013)

Just a quick video on how to remove the metal bracket from rare earth magnets found into a hard drive disk.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Riucp20tVDU&feature=youtu.be

As a side note, I am buying these magnets at $2.80 / lb shipped to montreal / Canada.
Loads of 10+ lbs I will pay 100% of your shipping cost.

cheers

Alex


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## ericrm (Mar 14, 2013)

did you keep track of the average weight of magnet by hard drive ?


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## alexxx (Mar 14, 2013)

ericrm said:


> did you keep track of the average weight of magnet by hard drive ?



with a sampling of 1000 units from various brands

average of 18.54 grams of clean magnets per hard drive disk (desktop only, no laptops nor old servers)


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## kjavanb123 (May 2, 2013)

Those magnets are Neodenium alloyed with Nickel. 

Regards,
Kevin


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## Dizzious (May 25, 2013)

kjavanb123 said:


> Those magnets are Neodenium alloyed with Nickel.
> 
> Regards,
> Kevin



They're actually made of Neodymium alloyed with Iron and Boron. Many are plated with Nickel, but Nickel is not included in the alloy.


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## sccw171 (Aug 7, 2013)

If you just take 2 pairs of pliers grabbing each side of steel on magnet and bend just a little bit you can slide a razor under Neo magnet and it will come right off. It takes me about 10 seconds per magnet unless steel is very thick...it takes a little muscle but I', sure we all have that and much easier and faster than using bench vice.


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## chlaurite (Aug 8, 2013)

sccw171 said:


> If you just take 2 pairs of pliers grabbing each side of steel on magnet and bend just a little bit you can slide a razor under Neo magnet and it will come right off.


Came in here to say that exact method. Really really easy.

If the mounting plate won't bend (too thick), you can also use a vice very slightly misaligned (one jaw on the side of the plate, one jaw on the side of the magnet, with a thin strip of wood between if you want to minimize the chance of the magnet cracking) - Tighten slightly and POP!

One side note on either of those, however - They frequently leave the magnet missing a small section or two of its coating. NIB magnets, without their coating, *will* disintegrate into a useless pile of yellowish dust over the course of a few months when exposed to water and oxygen. If you want to keep the magnet actually as a magnet, you'll need to give it a drop of nail-polish (or something similar) anywhere the coating cracks.

Out of curiosity, where do you _sell_ recovered Nd? I know it goes for around $30/lb, but if I took a lump of Nd to my local scrapyard, he'd look at me like I have three heads. :lol:


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## solar_plasma (Aug 8, 2013)

The bracket is not made of steel, but permalloy, about 80% Ni, rest Fe, Mo, Cr, Mn. So it has a much higher value than steel.


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## pcscrapper (Dec 22, 2013)

I've approx 75lbs of these harddrive magnets as I disassemble all harddrives, would like to know what your'e paying for them Please send Me a private mesg thanks.


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