Hello all:

FWIW, some time ago I ordered some rare-earth ring magnets from Lee
Valley:
http://www.leevalley.com/hardware/pa...48&cat=3,42363

Got a few of the 1" dia rings and the cups to hold them as shown on the
page. The cup has a countersunk hole for mounting.

Lately I've been very annoyed with my el-cheapo-brand magnetic
indicator base, but was unwilling to pay for a quality base. Over the
weekend I found one of the ring magnets in its cup (once in the cup it
will never come out...), reamed out the hole by hand for a few moments,
and slid a 1/4 x 20 x 3/4" long FH screw through the hole. (Picking the
shavings off the magnet gives a new definition to "fun.")

Unscrew the magnetic base from my old indicator holder, toss it in the
trash. Saw off the stud that had screwed into the holder, drill and
tap that rod for 1/4 x 20. Screw on the new rare-earth-magnet base.

It holds much better than the old base did, but just grab the rod and
tilt it a bit, and the base comes unstuck from the lathe. As a bonus
it's not as big and bulky as the old base was. The downside is that I
still have to pick shavings off the base, but I can live with that.
I'll just learn to machine only aluminum and plastic....grin

Best -- Terry

wrote:
Hello all:

FWIW, some time ago I ordered some rare-earth ring magnets from Lee
Valley:
http://www.leevalley.com/hardware/pa...48&cat=3,42363

Got a few of the 1" dia rings and the cups to hold them as shown on the
page. The cup has a countersunk hole for mounting.

Lately I've been very annoyed with my el-cheapo-brand magnetic
indicator base, but was unwilling to pay for a quality base. Over the
weekend I found one of the ring magnets in its cup (once in the cup it
will never come out...), reamed out the hole by hand for a few moments,
and slid a 1/4 x 20 x 3/4" long FH screw through the hole. (Picking the
shavings off the magnet gives a new definition to "fun.")

Unscrew the magnetic base from my old indicator holder, toss it in the
trash. Saw off the stud that had screwed into the holder, drill and
tap that rod for 1/4 x 20. Screw on the new rare-earth-magnet base.

It holds much better than the old base did, but just grab the rod and
tilt it a bit, and the base comes unstuck from the lathe. As a bonus
it's not as big and bulky as the old base was. The downside is that I
still have to pick shavings off the base, but I can live with that.
I'll just learn to machine only aluminum and plastic....grin

Best -- Terry


Make a "shower cap" for your base by slipping a plastic sandwich bag over it.
When you take off the base, just pull off the plastic, inverting it over the
chips, then empty out the chips in the trash and put the plastic back over the
base. If "shower cap" isn't macho enough, call it a "condom" .. :-)

GWE

Grant Erwin wrote:
wrote:
Hello all:

FWIW, some time ago I ordered some rare-earth ring magnets from Lee
Valley:
http://www.leevalley.com/hardware/pa...48&cat=3,42363

Got a few of the 1" dia rings and the cups to hold them as shown on the
page. The cup has a countersunk hole for mounting.

Lately I've been very annoyed with my el-cheapo-brand magnetic
indicator base, but was unwilling to pay for a quality base. Over the
weekend I found one of the ring magnets in its cup (once in the cup it
will never come out...), reamed out the hole by hand for a few moments,
and slid a 1/4 x 20 x 3/4" long FH screw through the hole. (Picking the
shavings off the magnet gives a new definition to "fun.")

Unscrew the magnetic base from my old indicator holder, toss it in the
trash. Saw off the stud that had screwed into the holder, drill and
tap that rod for 1/4 x 20. Screw on the new rare-earth-magnet base.

It holds much better than the old base did, but just grab the rod and
tilt it a bit, and the base comes unstuck from the lathe. As a bonus
it's not as big and bulky as the old base was. The downside is that I
still have to pick shavings off the base, but I can live with that.
I'll just learn to machine only aluminum and plastic....grin

Best -- Terry


Make a "shower cap" for your base by slipping a plastic sandwich bag
over it. When you take off the base, just pull off the plastic,
inverting it over the chips, then empty out the chips in the trash and
put the plastic back over the base. If "shower cap" isn't macho enough,
call it a "condom" .. :-)

GWE

You beat me to it. Also, your air blowgun will knock chips off a magnet
quite well. Just be careful where you send them.

Grant, Rex, thanks for the suggestions! I will go out to the shop and
put a wrap of polyethylene over the magnet.

I'll also try the blowgun, though these rare-earth magnets are pretty
strong. A colleague bought some to play with. He held two of 'em a
couple of inches apart and let 'em go. Slammed together so hard that
he had magnet chunks.....

Best -- Terry

wrote:
Grant, Rex, thanks for the suggestions! I will go out to the shop and
put a wrap of polyethylene over the magnet.

I'll also try the blowgun, though these rare-earth magnets are pretty
strong. A colleague bought some to play with. He held two of 'em a
couple of inches apart and let 'em go. Slammed together so hard that
he had magnet chunks.....

Yeah, those things are amazing strong. I keep a couple of dime-sized
ones on the gear cover of my 9" Logan to hold the chuck keys. Air will
blow the chips off them, no problem. You just have to watch you don't
blow the magnet out the door into the dirt
I also use them to hold things like the inlet vent registers on my
fireplace heatilator. After years of trying to use screws into the brick
and mortar, I stuck a couple of rare-earth magnets on the corners, and
pop them in place. Works great.
I have some more, including some pea-sized ones. Anybody else got
an innovative use for them?

Rex B wrote:
wrote:
Grant, Rex, thanks for the suggestions! I will go out to the shop
and put a wrap of polyethylene over the magnet.

I'll also try the blowgun, though these rare-earth magnets are pretty
strong. A colleague bought some to play with. He held two of 'em a
couple of inches apart and let 'em go. Slammed together so hard that
he had magnet chunks.....

Yeah, those things are amazing strong. I keep a couple of dime-sized
ones on the gear cover of my 9" Logan to hold the chuck keys. Air will
blow the chips off them, no problem. You just have to watch you don't
blow the magnet out the door into the dirt
I also use them to hold things like the inlet vent registers on my
fireplace heatilator. After years of trying to use screws into the
brick and mortar, I stuck a couple of rare-earth magnets on the
corners, and pop them in place. Works great.
I have some more, including some pea-sized ones. Anybody else got
an innovative use for them?
I have a bunch of the 1/4 inch ones on order.
Three epoxied to thr back of a indicator = magback that will hold on almost
any shaped surface.
Latches for boxes and cabinets.
Holding panels in place.
Eddy current clutch?
Magnetic chuck.
'Sticky notes'.

Ken.

--
Volunteer your idle computer time for cancer research
http//www.grid.org/download/gold/download.htm
Return address courtesy of Spammotel http://www.spammotel.com/

Housecleaner came and found 2 pairs of 1"x1"x2" N40 magnets and decided
to put them in the same container. One mess being better than two.
No fingers or eyes lost but about a 1000 lb collision with sparks and 2
shattered blocks.

Rex B wrote:
wrote:

Grant, Rex, thanks for the suggestions! I will go out to the shop and
put a wrap of polyethylene over the magnet.

I'll also try the blowgun, though these rare-earth magnets are pretty
strong. A colleague bought some to play with. He held two of 'em a
couple of inches apart and let 'em go. Slammed together so hard that
he had magnet chunks.....


Yeah, those things are amazing strong. I keep a couple of dime-sized
ones on the gear cover of my 9" Logan to hold the chuck keys. Air will
blow the chips off them, no problem. You just have to watch you don't
blow the magnet out the door into the dirt
I also use them to hold things like the inlet vent registers on my
fireplace heatilator. After years of trying to use screws into the brick
and mortar, I stuck a couple of rare-earth magnets on the corners, and
pop them in place. Works great.
I have some more, including some pea-sized ones. Anybody else got
an innovative use for them?


Earlier this year I used one of those Lee Valley magnets with its
matching mounting cup to make a "strong" magnetic catch at the top
center our home's front hall closet's bifold door. I finally got PO'd
after twenty years of having bulky winter clothing hung inside that
closet pushing the center of the door back open, and did something about
it. The compression spring gadget at the end of the track (Which works
on the principle of applying force offset from the center hinge pivots
to keep the door closed.) just wasn't strong enough to do the job everytime.

I screwed a piece of 16 gage steel to the back of the top of the door
adjacent to where it folded and fastened the magnet to an aluminum
bracket located in the right place.

Hardly rocket science, but it grabbed the door so well I had to put a
couple of layers of masking tape on the steel piece to make it easier to
open. I gotta admit, I do get a satisfied feeling when I come home, hang
up my jacket and feel that magnet suck the door in with a "click" when
it gets about a half an inch from being closed.

As far as "other uses" go, making a diamagnetic levitation demo can be
fun, and it can be a cute science toy "curiousity piece" on your desk,
sort of like a "hand boiler" or a "drinking bird" or even one of those
Crookes radiometers which was driving me nuts a couple of weeks ago.

I made a diamagnetic levitator demo a couple of years ago. Excuse me if
I've posted this link befo

http://home.comcast.net/~jwisnia18/jeff/diamag.html

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia

(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"Truth exists; only falsehood has to be invented."

Jeff Wisnia wrote:
Rex B wrote:

wrote:

Grant, Rex, thanks for the suggestions! I will go out to the shop and
put a wrap of polyethylene over the magnet.

I'll also try the blowgun, though these rare-earth magnets are pretty
strong. A colleague bought some to play with. He held two of 'em a
couple of inches apart and let 'em go. Slammed together so hard that
he had magnet chunks.....



Yeah, those things are amazing strong. I keep a couple of dime-sized
ones on the gear cover of my 9" Logan to hold the chuck keys. Air will
blow the chips off them, no problem. You just have to watch you don't
blow the magnet out the door into the dirt
I also use them to hold things like the inlet vent registers on my
fireplace heatilator. After years of trying to use screws into the
brick and mortar, I stuck a couple of rare-earth magnets on the
corners, and pop them in place. Works great.
I have some more, including some pea-sized ones. Anybody else got
an innovative use for them?



Earlier this year I used one of those Lee Valley magnets with its
matching mounting cup to make a "strong" magnetic catch at the top
center our home's front hall closet's bifold door. I finally got PO'd
after twenty years of having bulky winter clothing hung inside that
closet pushing the center of the door back open, and did something about
it. The compression spring gadget at the end of the track (Which works
on the principle of applying force offset from the center hinge pivots
to keep the door closed.) just wasn't strong enough to do the job
everytime.

I screwed a piece of 16 gage steel to the back of the top of the door
adjacent to where it folded and fastened the magnet to an aluminum
bracket located in the right place.

Hardly rocket science, but it grabbed the door so well I had to put a
couple of layers of masking tape on the steel piece to make it easier to
open. I gotta admit, I do get a satisfied feeling when I come home, hang
up my jacket and feel that magnet suck the door in with a "click" when
it gets about a half an inch from being closed.

As far as "other uses" go, making a diamagnetic levitation demo can be
fun, and it can be a cute science toy "curiousity piece" on your desk,
sort of like a "hand boiler" or a "drinking bird" or even one of those
Crookes radiometers which was driving me nuts a couple of weeks ago.

I made a diamagnetic levitator demo a couple of years ago. Excuse me if
I've posted this link befo

http://home.comcast.net/~jwisnia18/jeff/diamag.html

Jeff


Another cool trick with little round rare earth magnets is to put about 3 of the
1/2" ones together forming a pellet, cut a piece of 1/2" hard copper pipe about
10" long, suspend the pipe vertically and drop the magnetic pellet into the
pipe. You would expect it to fall right through but it does not! It floats down
slowly because of the induced eddy currents in the copper. Really good science
show'n'tell ..

A really good place to buy these little magnets is:
http://www.rare-earth-magnets.com/index.htm

GWE

On 18 Apr 2006 03:44:34 -0700, wrote:

Hello all:

FWIW, some time ago I ordered some rare-earth ring magnets from Lee
Valley:
http://www.leevalley.com/hardware/pa...48&cat=3,42363

Got a few of the 1" dia rings and the cups to hold them as shown on the
page. The cup has a countersunk hole for mounting.

Lately I've been very annoyed with my el-cheapo-brand magnetic
indicator base, but was unwilling to pay for a quality base. Over the
weekend I found one of the ring magnets in its cup (once in the cup it
will never come out...), reamed out the hole by hand for a few moments,
and slid a 1/4 x 20 x 3/4" long FH screw through the hole. (Picking the
shavings off the magnet gives a new definition to "fun.")

Unscrew the magnetic base from my old indicator holder, toss it in the
trash. Saw off the stud that had screwed into the holder, drill and
tap that rod for 1/4 x 20. Screw on the new rare-earth-magnet base.

It holds much better than the old base did, but just grab the rod and
tilt it a bit, and the base comes unstuck from the lathe. As a bonus
it's not as big and bulky as the old base was. The downside is that I
still have to pick shavings off the base, but I can live with that.
I'll just learn to machine only aluminum and plastic....grin

Best -- Terry
Over several years, the ones I have been using in a similar
application have deteriorated somewhat, causing the surface layer to
peel away.
Gerry :-)}
London, Canada