# Fridge Magnets



## juteck (Oct 25, 2009)

What do you do with all of your pen blank cut offs?


----------



## alphageek (Oct 25, 2009)

Ok.. Those are seriously cool!


----------



## Paul in OKC (Oct 25, 2009)

Great idea!


----------



## Rollerbob (Oct 25, 2009)

Waste not want not!! Super idea, for shizzle!!


----------



## mywoodshopca (Oct 25, 2009)

Great idea!


----------



## bgibb42 (Oct 25, 2009)

juteck said:


> What do you do with all of your pen blank cut offs?



I know what I'm doing now!:tongue:  That's really cool!


----------



## PenTurnerfromMaine (Oct 25, 2009)

Great idea!


----------



## Wheaties (Oct 25, 2009)

Awesome! What a great idea! Thanks for sharing!


----------



## yarydoc (Oct 25, 2009)

Where do you get your magnets?


----------



## gpgsm (Oct 25, 2009)

Simple and brilliant, thanks for sharing!


----------



## cnirenberg (Oct 25, 2009)

Great idea, I like it.


----------



## Jim Smith (Oct 25, 2009)

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


----------



## sefali (Oct 25, 2009)

That exactly why I have a box full of little cutoffs now. I just didn't know it till now. :biggrin:


----------



## juteck (Oct 25, 2009)

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?



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.


----------



## RAdams (Oct 26, 2009)

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?


----------



## Jim15 (Oct 26, 2009)

Awesome idea, thanks for sharing.


----------



## Glenn McCullough (Oct 26, 2009)

great idea for that inexpensive item at a show, thanks!


----------



## turkey-slayer (Oct 26, 2009)

A great place to get those small magnets is at Hartville Tool. They now have them on Sale for 100 PK#k10339<45 ea. 1/4 magnet
                                  30 ea. 3/8 magnet
                                  25 ea. 1/2 magnet


----------



## juteck (Oct 26, 2009)

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?


 
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


----------



## Mrs Rojo22 (Oct 26, 2009)

Great idea!  I will have to try it!

Robin


----------



## RAdams (Oct 26, 2009)

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.


----------



## bruce119 (Oct 26, 2009)

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

.


----------



## johnnycnc (Oct 26, 2009)

Good idea, those look great!


----------



## txbatons (Oct 26, 2009)

Those are cool! I'm going to try my hand at some to use on my whiteboard in my classroom.


----------



## Daniel (Oct 26, 2009)

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.


----------



## Rick_G (Oct 26, 2009)

Another great idea for those leftover pieces.  I also make little wine glasses to be used as game pieces.


----------



## Manny (Oct 26, 2009)

Here is a link to the magnets and cups
About magnets
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=1&p=40077&cat=1,42363


to buy
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=1&p=42348&cat=1,42363

Manny


----------



## juteck (Oct 26, 2009)

Here's a picture of the jam/screw chuck I used to turn the magnet blanks:





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





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


----------



## Manny (Oct 26, 2009)

Most excellent!
Thank you. 

I predict a fridge magnet tool being sold in the near future!!!

Manny


----------



## bruce119 (Oct 26, 2009)

Really nice tutorial we need to get this in the library. I got in my file.
Thanks John for sharing this.

thanks


----------



## Daniel (Oct 27, 2009)

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.


----------



## thewishman (Nov 8, 2009)

Great idea! There must be 300 scraps in my "save" box that would be perfect for fridge magnets.

Here are a couple of magnet suppliers with lots of options and no minimum order: 
http://www.kjmagnetics.com/proddetail.asp?prod=D82
http://www.magnet4less.com/product_info.php?products_id=119

I haven't purchased from either supplier, but wanted to add options to an already great thread.


----------

