Fridge Magnets

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juteck

juteck

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Dec 10, 2008
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Location
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What do you do with all of your pen blank cut offs?

1_magnets.jpg
 
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Now that's one of the coolest things I've seen in a long while. Great idea and they should make terrific Christmas gifts. Thanks for sharing.

Jim Smith
 
That exactly why I have a box full of little cutoffs now. I just didn't know it till now. :biggrin:
 
Thanks for your comments. These magnets were made by request of my sister, and ended up being quick and fun to do.

yarydoc said:
Where do you get your magnets?
Click to expand...

I bought the 3/8" rare earth magnets from Lee Valley, along with the cup holders and friction discs. Woodcraft, etc., also sell the rare earth magnets.

Using a 4-jaw chuck to hold the rounded blank, I trued up the base and drilled a 1/2" hole using a forstner bit to fit the cup, and a 5/64" hole about 3/8" deeper, to fit a #4 x 1/2" screw. To turn the top side, I started using a jam chuck turned to fit the 1/2" hole, but didn't have enough grip, so I added a #4 screw, and made my own mini screw/jam chuck.

After assembling and inserting the magnet, I found that the magnets didn't always stay put in the cups like I expected and would stay stuck to the fridge, so I ended up epoxying them into the cup with J.B. Weld. Hindsight, I will use 1/2" magnets instead of the 3/8" magnets and cup, and just epoxy them in place.
 
1/2"? How big are your blanks? Could you show some pics of the chucks maybe? and what is a cup holder and friction disc?
 
RAdams said:
1/2"? How big are your blanks? Could you show some pics of the chucks maybe? and what is a cup holder and friction disc?
Click to expand...

The blanks I used were generally 3/4" to 1" square pen blank cut offs, by 3/4" to 1" long, or so. Some were a little less than 3/4" square, and turned down to a little more than 5/8" round. I'll set one up tonight and take a couple of photos of the screw chuck, etc.


Rare Earth Magnets:
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=&p=32065&cat=1,42363,42348

Steel Cups & Friction Discs (I did not use the washers shown on this page):
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=&p=32066&cat=1,42363,42348
 
Thank you for the links! I look forward to the pictures. Some of my blanks are smaller than yours, but i could just scale down and still use em.




Another really good source for weird stuff like magnets, and some amazing gifts for young kids is a website called American science and surplus. I have ordered from them several times and have had no problems. And their stuff is AWESOME! I could spend a million bucks at that website.
 
That looks like it mite just work. I made a whole bunch of book marks from cut offs and there just not selling. I guess people don't read books as much as they used too. Everything is digital heck they do all there reading on the net.

Thanks for sharing

.
 
Bruce, I did the same thing several years ago. I still have a whole bag of bookmarks that we don't even use around here lol. I really like this idea.
 
Here's a picture of the jam/screw chuck I used to turn the magnet blanks:

1_PA262839.jpg


And here's another with the magnet blank mounted, ready to be parted to length and shaped:

1_PA262838.jpg


And a quick how-to is also attached for reference.

Alternatively, if you don't have a chuck, you can make a wooden morse taper as a jam/screw chuck, or use as a glue block for drilling on the lathe.

http://www.woodturner.org/community/youth/projects/MorseTaper_1.pdf


 

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Thanks Mannie, that is more info than you can ever want about magnets, I knwo I read it all. Couple of thoughts that I am just looking for confirmation of.
in all the reading I saw that placing the disk magnet in a cup gives it 4 times the strength. On the magnet page itself a 1/2 inch disk magnet says it can lift a 9 lb steel block when sandwiched between to pieces of steel.

The way I am reading this is that a 1/2 inch magnet would have 9 lb of holding power if a cup and washer are used (Maybe just a cup) and 2.25 lb of holding power if just glued into a piece of wood.

Like I said I am just seeing if that is what others are reading as well. if so you could get the same 2.5 lbs in two ways. 1/2 inch magnet for $0.98 or a 1/4 inch magnet and cup for $0.88

It looks to me like this cup and magnet combo being the lower cost situation holds true for all of the magnets. Just a bit of a heads up on some not so obvious economy here. that is if my thinking is correct.
 
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