Attaching Rare Earth Magnets

I use a lot of magnets…in fact, just in the last ten minutes I’ve installed 16 of them, from 1/8” X 1/8” up to 1” X 1/8” for a jig series I’m doing for Canadian Home Workshop magazine. Not knowing what your sizes and applications are, i’ll give you both methods:

1: Small magnets (3/8” or smaller) Clean the magnets well with a solvent. I like brake cleaner, but mineral spirits or alcohol will work.
rough up the glued side slightly with 220 grit paper, and glue in place with 5 minute epoxy.

2: If you are using the larger magnets (1/2” – 1”), because of their strength, the best method is to secure a like-sized washer to the wood with a screw that sits flush with the surface of the washer, apply some epoxy to the washer, and stick the magnet in place (treating the magnet the same with the solvednt/paper).
This will hold pretty much forever, and backing the magnets with steel actually increases their strength as well.

Hope this helps.

Ryan

-- If you can't set a good example, at least serve as a horrible warning... www.rarewoodcreations.com

I agree with Ryan.

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

Thanks Ryan for the “how-to”. I have some 3/4” by 1/8” that are really aggressive. I’ll be using your advice.

-- Maplewood, MN

I’d never thought of the washer+epoxy approach—only one or the other. Nice tip.

Cool tip on the washer!
Thx mate.

Thanks for the great advice, Ryan! I’ll give it a try again today.

For some reason, I always try new techniques on gifts. Most gifts have a very specific deadline, and when the new technique doesn’t work as planned, then I’m in trouble! Fortunately I still have a couple of days!

-- Coffee is best with a fine layer of sawdust on top. -- http://www.north40custom.com

I’ve been insetting them and using 2P-10 to hold them. Seems to work so far. I like Ryan’s method as well.

-- Thos. Angle, Owyhee Design, Oregon

Another method is to use the cups available for most sizes of the disk magnets. It increases the power of the magnet considerable and give you a metal-to-metal glue surface. The cup can be inset into a correct sized hole drilled with a fostner bit or surface mounted. I think that Rockler sells the cups, if not you can get magnets and hardware at http://www.kjmagnetics.com/categories.asp?cat=86.

JimC