Free mirror from old hard drive

[bulrush]

I took apart an old hard drive from a computer. The platters these days are now a highly polished aluminum surface. Platters about 6 inches in diameter with a 1 inch hole, just right for a signal mirrow. Fairly light in weight too, and tough.

Now if you can get the powerful magnets out too, those have other uses.

[Rick]

While items like the platters or CDs, etc. might make a decent impromptu mirror, I would never rely on one as my primary signal mirror. You'll find MUCH better range with a true survival mirror and a brighter reflective flash. And that is what being found is all about. Any port in a storm of course but if I'm taking something from home, it's a true survival mirror.

Doug Ritter offers an excellent write up on this subject at:

http://www.equipped.com/signal.htm

[bulrush]

The brightness of a CD does not compare to the brightness of my HD platter. The HD platter is not just bright, it's "OMFG" bright. I have no idea how scratch proof it is though. As an impromptu mirror, I think the HD platter is pretty darn bright. In fact it puzzled me why it would be so bright for simply storing data. I think if you actually saw it you might even say "DAY-yum!".

As a mirror for shaving, it's far better than the scout mirrors in the scout camping kits. It would be a perfect shaving mirror if it were not for the 1 inch hold in the middle, but then again, I only need to see my chin, not my ugly mug.

I realize it's possible different models of drives might contain platters of a different brightness. So "Your Mileage May Vary".

[Rick]

Here's a look at some platters for those that don't know what they are. Platters are the shiny round "things".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:SixHardDriveFormFactors.jpg