Tuesday, March 27, 2018

a magnet stick

The photo shows a simple tool for holding a nail. YOu'll need to look closely to see the rare earth magnet embedded at the tip. Very small nails are difficult even for a child to hold and there's a tendency to hit the fingers. This simple cherry stick with a 1/8 in. diameter rare earth magnet embedded in a hole drilled at one end is a useful shop made tool for woodworking with kids. It takes only minutes to make.

Today I'll make another simple device using a rare earth magnet. This will be to hold nails on a workbench so they'll not end up on the floor. When I have several students in a class, each needing to draw from the same box of nails, nails are dropped and lost with the sweeping at the end of class. This will be to avoid that.

Make, fix and create... assist others in learning lifewise.

3 comments:

  1. Doug,
    Would a V-groove or half-circle slot in front of the magnet be useful to hold the nail straight?
    Roger

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  2. Yes, a v-groove or thin saw kerf would help hold the nail vertical, but in using this, it didn't seem necessary. This is the second version of this tool. The first ones I used regular 12 in. diameter magnets of much lower strength. These are sized just right.

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  3. I meant 1/2 in. diameter button magnets.

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