This has probably been done a few times in here, but I wanted to share my experience with hard drives.
I just tore down 20 hard drives the other night to check the yields. I bought them for 50 cents per lb and the 20 weighed a total of 22 lbs.
It took me 12 minutes to take off all the boards which weighed 1 lb 12 oz. I can sell those at $11 right now -$2 shipping so that's $17.25. For the 20 lbs left I can get $7 at 35 cents per lb as 10% dirty aluminum.
The total would give me $24.25 for a $13.25 profit on 12 minutes tear down plus hauling them around. That's not too bad especially if you have large quantities.
Then I went on to completely tear them down and these are the results.
Clean Al 10 lbs 5 oz at 45 cents = $4.64 local yard
Stainless 2 lb 7 oz at 40 cents = $1.10 don't use a neodymium magnet to sort the screws, it will pick up a lot of stainless ones just by drawing on the nickel content
Plastic 1oz = 0 board backing plus reader arm stops and dessicant packs (the only true waste)
steel 3.4 oz at 6 cents =.01 local yard
platters (disks) 32 for 1.25 lb at $2.50 =$3.12 average of recent ebay prices
magnets 3 lb 2 oz at $2 = $6.25 average of recent ebay prices
motors 12 for 1 lb 3 oz at 20 cents em = .24 It could be argued that these will sell on ebay for .30 -$1 ea but I haven't sold any (the ones mounted with screws, the others I get in with clean AL)
reader arms 13 oz at 20 cents em = .16 They go in my electric motor bin for now, I may try to snap off the copper winding and put the rest in dirty AL
This total is $15.52 compared to the $7 dirty AL price and I get $8.52 for an hour's labor. $15.52 + $17.25 = $32.77 total - $11 original cost is $21.77 profit on 20 drives and my haul yesterday was 300.
It is definitely worth it to buy them to get the boards and I'll probably strip most all the way down but if any give me any trouble they hit the dirty AL bin.
Sorry for the packed post, but I had a lot to get in and I hope it helps out someone.
Notes on the teardown. You'll absolutely have to have a #8 torx screwdriver. The others you'll need are #6 for a lot of the Westells and possibly a #7 for a few oddballs. The boards are almost always put on with the #8 or a #1 Phillips. The cases can also be held together with #2 or #1 Phillips.
Ribbon wire on the arm on most connects to gold plated pins that should be kept also. Most of the covers also have one or two hidden screws under the label. This lot I picked to be a good mix of manufacturers. Some older Seagates have more platters than others and heavier magnets which are nice but STRONG. If you have any questions just ask....20 down 280 to go.
Some have a circuit board that covers half the back and some more up to covering the full back of the drive and weighing almost double so take this into account when buying.
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