Mastering Hard Drive Disassembly – Extracting Key Parts for a DIY Rotary Tool

In Part 1, we explored how the motor inside a hard drive holds the potential to become a powerful rotary tool. Now, it’s time to take action. In this part, we’ll walk through how to disassemble a hard drive step by step and extract the essential components for building your DIY grinder. This isn’t just dismantling—it’s precise harvesting of valuable parts. Most discarded hard drives, whether IDE (PATA) or SATA, contain platters, arms, controller boards, strong neodymium magnets, and of course, a BLDC spindle motor. To convert it into a rotary tool, you’ll mainly need the motor, rotating shaft, and the structure for attaching the tool head.     1. Tools You’ll Need Torx screwdriver set – Common sizes: T6, T8, T10 Thin flathead screwdriver or prying tool – To lift the casing Tweezers or utility knife – For cable removal Wire cutter or pliers – To cut or remove fasteners Most HDDs use star-shaped Torx screws. If you try forcing it with the wr...