Drill presses?

[datahaze]

I have been thinking about getting a drill press for the shop to drill holes into drives before sending them to the recycling facility. Have any of you done this? Should any tabletop drill press be able to do this or do I need to get a particularly high HP or special type of drill bit? Any help appreciated .

 

[lcoughey]

I find the drill press quite messy, noisy and goes through a lot of drill bits.

 

[datahaze]

So I ended up getting one in case anybody else was wondering about this. Got a super good deal, but entry-level tabletop models are around $100 USD. It *is* very messy, you'll probably want a large berth for it so you can sweep around it. I think it works for our workflow but it may not work for yours. I'm used to seeing drives having the tops drilled, but actually getting through the bottom is easier on a lot of them particularly Seagates. A hydraulic press might be a wiser investment.

 

[kinleyparker]

nice information

 

[lcoughey]

For future reference, a 2 tonne arbor press is just as effective, yet quieter and less messy. But, one of these days I'll take the time to order an actual hard drive crusher (http://purelev.com) which isn't very expensive at all.

 

[datahaze]

How difficult is manually applying that much pressure? Or are you using a powered one?

 

[lcoughey]

when compared to the drill press, it isn't much different in effort...2.5" drives are stupid simple. Some models of desktop drives are a bit tougher. But, they'd both be a breeze with the hard drive crusher I linked to above.