c. 1995 …
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could be the type of magnet in it? not really sure. i haven’t had that problem, but can’t remember exactly how old some of the drives i used were. i had a box of them in the crawlspace storage in my attic.
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This was one that evaded a big purge a few years ago. There are probably a few 20G drives in the cabinet that have aged out of utility at this point. I’ll give it a go with something a little newer at some point soon.
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I’ve had some hard drive magnets (don’t know the year, but probably around 1995) shatter on me. But that was only after a couple times snapping together. The first few times I accidentally let then snap (and hurriedly removed my fingers and/or cussed a lot) they didnt break. Maybe it’s just the way they collided that one time?
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The magnets don’t go there but single socks sometimes don’t go there either. It has been a few years since I could reach my feet without too much pain in back and legs so have set all the socks free.
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Nice design, thanks! I’ve lasered over the edges of the ones from @pubultrastara number of times so I’ll probaby need to replace them at some point. I would be tempted to replace that bottom layer of your design with something much thinner, like veneer, to make the pull as strong as possible at that point.
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Thank you for the write up and files.
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Thank you @cynd11, and you’re quite welcome. You might try it with a 1/16" hardwood but I don’t know if the veneer would be strong enough to hold the magnet in place, unless of course you epoxied it to the top layer like some people did with the exposed magnet versions. I was just so impressed by the power of these magnets that I thought the 1/8" bottom would be fine. So far mine are holding quite firmly when resting on top. When cutting on large sheets of thin material like posterboard or cardstock, I also recommend putting a hold down in the middle of the work piece because as the material gets cut on the edges it is no longer held down and depending on the size and shape of your cut, can cause pieces to flap around. You probably know this already.
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Nice solution.
Yes, the rare earth magnets are brittle, and fracture pretty easily. They also have what I think is a nickel plating that does a good job of impersonating a razor blade.
I use those same ones, and their affinity for each other has caught me off guard before, resulting in a hard finger pinch. The only time in my life of 63 years that magnets have drawn blood. I believe the warning I saw on one that was a 5" cube that warned of an amputation hazard. 
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Holy crow!
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That would be one way to get rid of crows feet.
Nice share! Will have to give this a try.
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Thanks for sharing. 
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I love the design, but when I ordered the magnets from the link you provided, they were 3/16" larger in diameter than the hole in the middle layer. Other than wasting a little bit of MDF, it was not a problem. I put your SVG file into Inkscape and rescaled by 128%, and all is good. For most applications, I like these much better than the honeycomb pins. I have a steel support post in my workshop right next to my Glowforge, so I can store the magnets on the post in easy reach.
If they were removed from the metal plate, they are like potato chips
they’re basically the same as any other neodymium magnet. if they clap to something too hard, they can break off pieces. but yeah, they’re more stable on the metal plate.
Thank you so much. This is great. 
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