"The Pewter Box" from 2600 Magazine, Fall 2002, by Mark12085

OK, you can't really call this box an actual "box" since it really has
nothing to do with phreaking, unless you get really creative. It is,
however, something that is worth throwing togeather on a weekend and
showing off to your family!

The Pewter Box is a speaker made from a hard drive. But Mark! You're on
crack! Believe it or not, you can actually make a very decent speaker
for your radio, boom box, or whatever from a broken hard drive.

The first step is to find a non-working hard disk that's any size, from
any system, smells like anything. Hopefully the warranty is already
expired otherwise you are going to expire it now. If the top cover is
simply screwed on, then unscrew it. There is usually one or more screws
under a "Void if Removed" sticker. If the top is riveted on, break out
your handy Black & Decker power drill and let the metal fly (you didn't
forget your safety goggles, did you?)

Once the top is off, spin the actual platter around with your greasiest
finger and move the head up and down like a DJ. Taboo, isn't it? Most
hard drives also have a PC board with all the microcontrollers and
passive devices screwed on the bottom. You would want to remove that
too. Strip all the PC boards, covers, etc.

What you are looking for are the wires leading to the coil which control
the read/write head. It wouldn't hurt to isolate the wires to the
platter either. On Seagate drives, or mine at least, a small ribbon
cable comes out from under the platter and head coils. Some drives have
terminals either directly under the coil or on top of it.

Get two 24 gague or so wires connected to the speaker output of a stereo
and turn the stereo up as loud as it goes. Warning: try not to short
circuit the two wires. Now connect the two wires to the coil terminals
of the drive. If they are the correct wires then you should hear the
coil like a speaker. The head tends to grind to the bassline (pretty
nifty huh). If you hear nothing then either, Those aren't the right
terminals (poke around the drive a bit more, hey it's already broken
anyways) or The stereo is not powerful enough or the volume is not high
enough. Once you've found the correct terminals, experiment a bit with
the wires to get the best sound. If you connect the stereo in parallel
to the platter, the platter will occasionally spin, adding a nice
effect.

Obviously this would not be very practical if a high powered stereo on
the highest volume was required. What you should consider is a small 30
watt or so amplifier, like the kits from Velleman or Ramsey electronics.
Connect two or three hard speakers in parallel with the sound source and
have a surround sound system. Now take this to school/work with you and
listen to The Greatest Oldies in style.