Nice idea. I've seen the same thing done before on wood sculpture and it was
pretty cool where the pieces fitted together but could be removed and
rejoined just by the hidden magnets. I've done this myself in some wooden
puzzles where you have a "magic wand" over a piece and it unlocks part of
the puzzle. Of course, the magic wand just has a magnet embedded in it as
does parts of the puzzle.

I do it in woodturnings also a little bit but just for making miniature
scale woodturnings as refridgerator magnets. I have this one little "knob"
made from a really exotic and rare Magnetic Purpleheart wood that I take to
demos. It actually sticks to metal! g Of course, it's just a tiny
rare-earth magnet embedded in there but you can't really see where it is or
how it's in there. It freaks some people.

Your idea should work but as others have noted, you REALLY need to know
where it is (location and depth) or else you're going to have it flying
around the shop fairly quickly. You'll also need to have a maximum of about
3/16" of wood covering each one in the finished product, depending on wood
specie, size of the magnet and how much force you want the two magnets to
exert together. Most woods are far more dense than human fingers or hands
but maybe not many heads g (referencing the oft-demonstrated trick of
putting these magnets on either side of a finger or hand and having them
"stick") and it doesn't take much wood to degrade the performance of these
really powerful magnets.

Just don't blame a "catch" on the magnet spinning too close to the gouge as
you're turning it! g

Let us know how it goes if you try it,

- Andrew



"Darren" wrote in message
...
I would guess that most people see the subject and say "what the hell?"
....
so bare with me on this ..

I make pepper grinder \ salt shaker sets for wedding gifts etc. I
sometimes
make them the same size and have the salt shaker the exact opposite as the
pepper grinder (salt - convex shape where pepper would be concave) so that
they kind of "fit" together. I was talking to someone about them and they
said that I should try to really make them fit almost like a jig saw
puzzle
when they are side by side. Then the thought went further that it would
be
cool to have them "click" together magnetically. I was thinking that I
could get those round magnets and embed them in the wood when I glue up
the
blocks before I turn them. After they are turned, they could be
magnetically attracted to each other without seeing the magnets involved.

The question - would there be any "issues" with turning a glued up wood
block with magnets on the inside?

Thanks
Darren