TSA shaving mirror out of a hard disk drive (what are those shiny platters made out of anyway)?

What are the shiny CDROM-sized platters in an old desktop disk drive made out of?

I glued two of them together so that the offset covered the center hole to use as an indestructable traveling shaving mirror.

A friend said they won't pass TSA security but they're not sharp. They are just really shiny and really flat.

What are they made out of anyway?

Reply to
Elmo
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Elmo wrote

of?

They are usually glass or aluminium.

They are usually glass or aluminium.

Reply to
Rod Speed

Hi, They are metal platter.

Reply to
Tony Hwang

I've taken them apart but I didnt' try bending them. If you really think the tsa will complain, bring another one you can bend for them. Maybe that will help, if they really do complain. Or bend the double one you're bringing and use the bent part as a stand.

On Leno tonight, Headlines. someone was photographing a pedestrian, but he turned his head away and put a file folder between his head and the camera. Unfortunately the glass window behind him gave a perfect reflection. Something he might not have known from his vantage point!

Reply to
mm

On Tue, 22 Jun 2010 04:48:56 +0000, Elmo ??o??:

The same shit your brain is made out of. Don't cross post this crap all over the place.

Reply to
Meat Plow

A bit of a strange choice of material for *traveling* shaving mirror (and shape, too: how do you hold it while shaving?) - there are plastic mirrors that are brighter and lighter. You'd think weight would be an important parameter for a traveler...

But I think TSA should definitely have an issue with you bringing it into the cabin (why do you need a shaving mirror there anyways? Half the wall space in a lavatory not enough?) . If it's a ceramic platter, it should be able to shutter into very sharp shards useful for well, I don't know, slashing someone's throat to hijack a plane?

Leave it at home.

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Reply to
DA

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to

re

Any HDD I've taken apart I'd be concerned about from a safety standpoint... the platters don't "bend" at all, and if you try too forcefully they will explode into a whole mess of tiny, sharp shards. Good if you're trying to destroy one that you're decommissioning; not so good if you've packed it with your underwear.

nate

Reply to
N8N

I retract my suggestion.

Did they teach you the word potsherd in high school, or did you read the word in museums, regarding broken things found at excavations of ancient man?

For decades my brother and I both pronounced the word pots herd, until one day I looked at it and realized it was pot sherd.

Reply to
mm

We must be talking about different things because these two CDROM-sized mirrors are extremely light - you can barley feel them in your hands. No mirror I've ever seen in my life is this light. Or as indestructible.

As for traveling, the two platters glued together are really shiny and extremely light and they don't break when I drop them and they're exactly the right oblong size (when glued together offset) for a face ... so it's a PERFECT traveling shaving mirror IMHO.

I've had glass mirrors (which obviously shatter); I've had plastic mirrors (which scratch too easily and aren't all that reflective; and I've had even used nicely handled old round concave (or are they convex?) Japanese-motorcycle mirrors (which eventually broke due to the glass).

Most store-bought mirrors have more "frame" in them than mirror, whereas these mirrors are 100% mirror without any frame or handle to have to carry. Many store-bought mirrors come apart after repeated use in the shower (I always shave in the shower).

So far, I can't think of a more perfect traveling shower-shaving mirror ... as long as the TSA will let it through.

Based on the responsese so far, I'm guessing, since the material is non magnetic, and it's certainly not glass, that it must be extremely highly polished aluminum.

What are these polished aluminum platters used for anyway (in the HDD)?

Reply to
Elmo

They have a very thin oxide coating on them for the magnetic surface.

They are so highly polished because they need to be very smooth since the heads fly so close to the surface so the magnetic domains are as small as possible so the bit density is as high as possible.

Reply to
Rod Speed

I thought they were reflective mirrors for the lasers or something.

I didn't realize these were the actual magnetic material. They are soooo smooth and shiny. I expected concentric circular lines of something or other like the bottom of a CDROM or DVD once it has been burned.

These platters are so polished that you can't make out a single bit of "thin oxide" coating. Shinier than any metal or plastic mirror I've ever seen and more indestructible than glass.

In short, they're the perfect wet-shower traveling mirror if TSA will allow them through.

Reply to
Elmo

That's where the data is stored. In little magnetic spots.

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Reply to
Coffee's For Closers

Nope, there are no lasers inside those hard drives.

Nope, there are no visible lines unless the drive has had a head crash.

Yes, thats the result of that very perfect surface.

Some were in fact made of glass.

them through.

I wouldnt like to predict what some trained ape will make of them.

Reply to
Rod Speed

Older drives did use an oxide (like "ferric" magnetic tape cassettes).

Newer drives, such as the one which donated its platters for your mirror, have a more complex magnetic recording layer. It's a complex coating of alloys, vacuum-deposited on the polished aluminum (or glass or ceramic) surface using a process known as sputtering. The resulting magnetic layer has an extremely fine "grain" structure, which allows for small magnetic domains and thus lots of storage per area.

You won't be able to see the lines which make up the individual data tracks... they aren't physically carved or burned into the magnetic coating, and consist only of varying patterns of magnetism.

Yes, the surface is very smooth and shiny. It needs to be - the disk drive heads "fly" over the surface, at a height far less than the diameter of a human hair. Even a particle of cigarette smoke is too big to fit between the "flying head" and the surface.

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Reply to
Dave Platt

You're suggesting that TSA use any sort of rational criterion when deciding what to let through?

Sylvia.

Reply to
Sylvia Else

I wouldn't take a chance.

I'd put them in a protective sleeve. I'd use one of those free AOL disk sleeves you find in piles everywhere.

Reply to
TimR

So he'll have an excuse to bring a razor! A straight razor with a blade 4 inches long. He can use is leather briefcase as a strop.

Reply to
mm

Convex. Easy to remember. The other ones are like caves, and they're called concave.

Reply to
mm

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And yet they let the FA's pass out aluminum pop cans, that when drained and folded in half, then torn by flexing them across the edge of the fold-down tray, make two dandy slashing weapons, with convenient hand grips.

To anyone who has had any training (and no, I haven't had any), the cabin is full of all sorts of improvised weapons there for the taking, not to mention how easy it is to make a weapon look like part of a carry-on bag. Security theater, nothing more. The real security is the armored cabin door, and the revised protocols for hijack situations. In short, cabin crew and pax are expendable, and the bad guys know it. Cabin crew and pax know it too, which is why you had people swarming the last few idiots. Can't hijack a plane any more, but you may be able to destroy one in flight.

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aem sends...
Reply to
aemeijers

another illusion to keep the sheeple lulled into some form of lassitude . The first job of the school system. Grooming consumers, factory workers and the military. and of course tax-payers all.

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July 4 is a time when Americans celebrate life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But when we're spending hundreds of billions on the Afghanistan War,not tho mention Iraq. and when we're cutting education and unemployment insurance benefits in a dismal economy, it's clear that War is killing the American dream.

Let's get our priorities straight so... we can declare independence from bloody, costly wars. and Oil.

Please share this video with your friends.

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VFW

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