homemade stirring plate from old hard drive

TEarley · Sep 18, 2012

i work in a PC repair shop so i have these parts laying around. only took me 10 minutes to make.

An old western digital external hard drive, I kept the controller board that had the light up button and power connector for 12 volts. just secured the wires with some hot glue and super glue.

Glued two hard drive magnets to the central hub of the fan.

sidepart · Sep 18, 2012

Didn't think using a spare hard drive case/fan. Were you able to put some kind of speed limiter or control in there?

I'm finding that above 1000 RPMs can cause stability issues for my stir bar. I also noticed that most of the stir bars in our lab seem to be going at about 200-500rpms but I don't think I can slow my fan down enough for that.

TEarley · Sep 18, 2012

I didn't that far yet. I've never worked with yeast starters and im still waiting for the starter kit i ordered. once i get the flask and bar i can test the rpm's. I try plugging the fan into the 5volt line or ill just get a speed pot to turn it down.

Sublimis · Sep 18, 2012

Looks Cool :rockin:

Firebat138 · Sep 18, 2012

Do you need to slow it down... and if so, can you ellaborate on how... I have three of these exact hard drives that are broken... it would be great...

DurtyChemist · Sep 18, 2012

Did this with a fan myself but never bought a stir bar because I couldn't find. Place that sells them for less than an arm and a leg.

sidepart · Sep 18, 2012

Firebat138 said:
Do you need to slow it down... and if so, can you ellaborate on how... I have three of these exact hard drives that are broken... it would be great...

If you need to slow it down, do what he suggested and wire it to the 5V line if there's one. Either that or get some fatty 1W rated resistors.

homemade stirring plate from old hard drive

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homemade stirring plate from old hard drive

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