Ideas for a large rare earth magnet?

[Larry Edgerton]

Someone gave me a rare earth magnet that is 36"x4" and about .125 thick. It is out of a commercial printer, and it is extremely strong. I stuck it on the hoist and had to get help to get it off. It will hold me up and I weigh in at 260 pounds. It is strong enough that it should be kept away from people with pacemakers as well.

Its cool, but I have not come up with any good ideas as far as what to do with it. I already have an Industrial Magnetics nail picker upper, so got that covered.

Ideas, fun or practical?

Larry

[Joe Kieve]

If you can devise a secure holder for it, tie a rope to it, drop it overboard, and drag it around a public lake. No telling what you'll come up with.

[John Conklin]

I don't have any ideas for ya, just a word of warning to be careful with that monster.

When I was a kid my dad worked in a machine shop and brought home a couple magnets that came with a piece of equipment for mounting that weren't used. They were the size and shape of chalkboard erasers and were strong enough that if you let them come together, the only way to get them apart was put one in a vise and beat the other one with a rubber mallet. I had the bright idea that it was fun to see how close I could get them without letting them attach. I was holding them in front of me and bracing my arms against my torso... nothing could go wrong with this, right?

I got them too close and they slammed together with a chunk of belly between them. I somehow yanked them off my gut and got to watch an epic 1/2" x 3" blood blister/bruise form.

I imagine yours could do even more damage, be careful.

[Chuck Wintle]

If you can devise a secure holder for it, tie a rope to it, drop it overboard, and drag it around a public lake. No telling what you'll come up with.

who knows what is at the bottom of a lake.

[Brian Effinger]

who knows what is at the bottom of a lake.

Dead bodies :eek:

[John McClanahan]

I've worked in commercial sheetfed printing for over 25 years and can't think of any machine that would have a magnet like that. Any ideas of what it came out of?

John

[Curt Fuller]

I don't have any ideas for ya, just a word of warning to be careful with that monster.

When I was a kid my dad worked in a machine shop and brought home a couple magnets that came with a piece of equipment for mounting that weren't used. They were the size and shape of chalkboard erasers and were strong enough that if you let them come together, the only way to get them apart was put one in a vise and beat the other one with a rubber mallet. I had the bright idea that it was fun to see how close I could get them without letting them attach. I was holding them in front of me and bracing my arms against my torso... nothing could go wrong with this, right?

I got them too close and they slammed together with a chunk of belly between them. I somehow yanked them off my gut and got to watch an epic 1/2" x 3" blood blister/bruise form.

I imagine yours could do even more damage, be careful.
:eek::eek::eek:

[Larry Edgerton]

I don't have any ideas for ya, just a word of warning to be careful with that monster.

When I was a kid my dad worked in a machine shop and brought home a couple magnets that came with a piece of equipment for mounting that weren't used. They were the size and shape of chalkboard erasers and were strong enough that if you let them come together, the only way to get them apart was put one in a vise and beat the other one with a rubber mallet. I had the bright idea that it was fun to see how close I could get them without letting them attach. I was holding them in front of me and bracing my arms against my torso... nothing could go wrong with this, right?

I got them too close and they slammed together with a chunk of belly between them. I somehow yanked them off my gut and got to watch an epic 1/2" x 3" blood blister/bruise form.

I imagine yours could do even more damage, be careful.

Already did that trying to get it off of the hoist.......:rolleyes:

Have no clue as to the use of this magnet and I am not allowed to ask questions about where he works.

Hey the lake thing sounds fun, and it will give me an excuse to buy a boat.........

Larry

[Leigh Betsch]

Mount it to the front of a old truck. Have a load of fun watching people try to parallel park in front of you, while the magnet sucks them in. You might collect a lot of insurance money! Oh, forgot cars are all plastic now.
Mount it under your kitchen table, put some little reverse polarity magnets under your plates, impress the neighbors with your levitation ability!

[Stephen Tashiro]

Use the large rare earth magnet to cast an even larger rare earth magnet. (Is that possible?)

[Brian Ashton]

I'd get it on a rigid backing plate asap as they're quite brittle - especially at 1/8"

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Drag it around the desert looking for meteorites?

[Myk Rian]

If you can devise a secure holder for it, tie a rope to it, drop it overboard, and drag it around a public lake. No telling what you'll come up with.
That's exactly what I was going to suggest.
Motors, anchors, rods/reels.
In fact, take it to Fletchers Floodwaters in Hillman. I actually watched 2 bozos lose an un-chained 6hp motor when they nailed a stump. Had to get towed back to Jacks Landing. Then they had to work out payment for the motor.

[Sam Murdoch]

You could end up grabbing a holt of some submerged unseen that weighs so much that the magnet will need to be left behind. That would be sad.

No ideas of any worth yet coming from my little head - but I am intrigued. I like the looking for meteorites idea.

[ray hampton]

[QUOTE=Sam Murdoch;2239919]You could end up grabbing a holt of some submerged unseen that weighs so much that the magnet will need to be left behind. That would be sad.

If your magnet attach too-much weight to pull in, then leave a buoy-marker that will support the rope until you can make a call to the local police

[Larry Edgerton]

I have a lifting plate for misc. stuff on site so I drilled some holes to line up with the threaded holes in the plate and bolted it to that. I have a winch in the ceiling and the only thing close was a Delta DJ20. It picked it up! Not sure how much one of those weighs, but not light. The plate is 1/4" thick after I got looking at it.

Myk, I've fished over there in the winter, can't imagine taking a boat I like over there. I live close to Burt and Mullett lakes.

[Dave Kirby]

If you can devise a secure holder for it, tie a rope to it, drop it overboard, and drag it around a public lake. No telling what you'll come up with.
^^^THIS x10!!^^^ Make sure that you fabricate a holder for it so that the magnet is guaranteed not to become dislodged or otherwise come off of your rope while underwater. That would end your fun real quick. Also keep in mind that it may be bringing up some decent weight with it (ie: boat motor) so consider that when making your holder and build it strong! You can find some awesome artifacts in lakes sometimes...you might even make some money with it! Good luck!

[Frederick Skelly]

Im speculating here, because I dont know how rare earth magnets are made nor what they are made of. But if you could find a way to cut such a magnet into strips, you could make some great chisel/file/saw holders for your shop wall. You could also make some magnetic jigs or accesories for the shop. Youd need to build-in a lever to break it loose of course, but I bought a feather board built like that and it wouldnt be hard to duplicate - IF theres a way to cut it.

Otherwise, trolling for treasure as others suggested sounds like fun.

Fred

[Larry Edgerton]

On closer inspection I do not think it is one magnet but about 20 parallelogram magnets on a steel plate ecased in some sort of teflon sort of substance. Tough but slippery whatever it is. They are arranged in such a way that there is always uniform coverage of material as it ran under it.

I did some surfing and it appears that there are some printing processes that they use these for to make sure the paper is metal free, but I could not find out much more than that.

I thought about holding jigs, but I do not want to cut it up just yet.

And, there is a warning to keep this away from people that have pacemakers. Dad can't come out to the shop....

Larry

[Bill Cunningham]

Dead bodies :eek: If it hauled up a dead body the victim would certainly not have had a iron deficiency :rolleyes:

[Dave Sheldrake]

Neodymium Iron Boron , also used in wind turbines among other things. EDM or Diamond cutters if you try to machine it.

Great fun to play with (I have boxes of NdFeB magnets) but can be quite dangerous if you have the larger versions (think 1,000 Kg +pull rates)

cheers

Dave

[Myk Rian]

And, there is a warning to keep this away from people that have pacemakers. Dad can't come out to the shop....

Larry
I have one also. Just keep the magnet put away, and let him know where it is. He'll be ok.

[Ryan Mooney]

Heh glad I'm not the only one to blood blister myself on a magnet. I'd bet one that size could take a finger if you oops up just wrong.

If you drag them along most beaches or (better) river sand you'll end up with buckets of black sand. Mix that with a little high viscosity oil to make ferrofluid. Hours of fun.

[Eric DeSilva]

Have you seen Breaking Bad? Specifically Season 5, Episode 1?

[Steve Peterson]

Use the large rare earth magnet to cast an even larger rare earth magnet. (Is that possible?)

Most likely, the new magnet could not be as strong as the original. They probably use electric coils to generate magnets. Use lots of turns of wire and crank up the current really high.

Steve

[Bill Cunningham]

I had a bunch of old Hard Drives, and scavenged them for the magnets. I find most are strong enough to flatten a warp in 3mm Baltic Birch to the laser table. If they get set down on solid steel, your gonna have a good time pulling them off

[Jim Creech]

Those of us in the lutherie business use magnets to align cracks for gluing and other repairs where mechanical clamps and other such devices won't work. Perhaps, with some experimentation, you could use it for some difficult clamping situation.

[ray hampton]

I had a bunch of old Hard Drives, and scavenged them for the magnets. I find most are strong enough to flatten a warp in 3mm Baltic Birch to the laser table. If they get set down on solid steel, your gonna have a good time pulling them off

pulling two magnets APART by pulling along a straight path is the hard way, BUT the separate of two magnets get easy if you pull them sideway

[Larry Edgerton]

.I just looked up the weight of the DJ20 it lifted, 576 pounds.

Larry

[Dave Sheldrake]

Water body dragging here tends to result in large very old objects that can go boom :)

cheers

Dave

[Ethan Spronk]

Id love to see a picture of this thing!

[Myk Rian]

Whatever you do, I suggest a heavy gauge plastic bag to put it in. You'll probably never get iron shavings off it without some kind of cover.

[ray hampton]

Whatever you do, I suggest a heavy gauge plastic bag to put it in. You'll probably never get iron shavings off it without some kind of cover.

plastic bag will work UNLESS piece of steel are moving at some speed when it hit the magnet and cutting a hole in the bag , a PVC pipe will withstand more abuse if the piping comes in a size big enough