# Attaching Rare Earth Magnets



## North40 (Oct 17, 2007)

I've meant to do do work with rare earth magnets before, but never really had a reason until now. I've attached metal items to wood before, and had good luck with silicone adhesive and poly glue. But I've tried both the silicone and the poly, and neither seems to stick to the magnets. I haven't tried epoxy yet. What do you guys use?


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## RyanShervill (Dec 18, 2007)

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


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## GaryK (Jun 25, 2007)

I agree with Ryan.


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## rikkor (Oct 17, 2007)

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


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## Recycler (Feb 4, 2008)

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


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## Harry72 (Feb 2, 2008)

Cool tip on the washer!
Thx mate.


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## North40 (Oct 17, 2007)

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!


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## Tangle (Jul 21, 2007)

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


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## jimc (Mar 6, 2008)

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


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