Build a real hard drive clock

After allowing everything to dry for an hour or so I mounted the two head arm hands (!) and man does it look cool. There’s no need to attach the hour bearing in it’s head. And to answer the question I know I will get - Does it work? Does it fall behind? - Yes! No! The bearings are really smooth and do not provide any resistance at all and as long as everything is properly centred it will work just fine. That basically concludes part 3 and you can see the pictures of the finished clock below. Remember that if you have any more ideas on what to do with 20 hard drives then send me an email at ideas @ grynx.com or drop a comment below.

Return to the projects index page

9 Responses to “Build a real hard drive clock”

1. MAKE: Blog Says:
   December 9th, 2005 at 18:54

   HOW TO - Build a real hard drive clock

   Chris writes in about his his progress on hacking away with 20 hard drives, he writes “In part 3 of “Things to do with 20 hard drives” we take a look on how to build The real hard drive clock, using the arms with heads as hands. Even though this clo…

2. Dave W Says:
   December 9th, 2005 at 21:26

   How about a walking robot. Just use the Arms to cylce around in circles. You can create either a six or four leg model. You could also ad some basic remote control system to it.

   If you were really adventerous you could also use two arms and create a joint in each of the legs.

3. Grassynoel Says:
   December 11th, 2005 at 17:16

   How about using three running hard drives as a clock? With three HDs, each with their own controller and driver software, you could maybe get the arms to tick like second, minute and hour hands.

4. sry Says:
   December 18th, 2005 at 15:59

   You can build an computer case

5. Alan Says:
   December 19th, 2005 at 6:24

   Great idea. Looks 10 times better than simply sticking a few clock hands on it!

6. Jeremy.... Says:
   December 25th, 2005 at 16:17

   J….
   Where ya been? Every email address i have for you keeps coming back to me, where u at? Write me, its Cat from Chicago… UIMs ex…..
   Cat

7. Kyle Says:
   March 17th, 2006 at 21:47

   The huge hands take away from the good look. You should try to seperate the r/w arms to make them a little thinner!

8. sygyzy Says:
   January 7th, 2007 at 22:47

   Do you think a clock mechanism from a hobby store would be strong enough to move those arms?

9. Lucan Perpete Says:
   March 31st, 2007 at 22:52

   Is there any way to make the glowing (mountable LED with switch that control light on and off) and the acrylic case to cover and hold the Real Hard Drive Clock in the place.

   Any Suggestion?

Leave a Reply