Sorry…missed it. I thought I had read through the whole thread.
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I started with the small neodymium magnets I had from a craft store. I ended up using tape to wrap them. Use a larger strip of tape, place magnet in middle, and press the ends of the tape together. You end up with a magnet with a flag, basically. Now I can easily get them to release, from the bed or from each other. And since then, I haven’t pinched my fingers between magnets snapping together, either.
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I don’t have any problem removing even the large neodymium magnets from the bed but that’s just me. The wife’s fingers are likely not strong enough.
Where I had a problem was laying them down and having another magnet jump 4 inches to pinch my fingers. So I screwed a steel socket rail to my bench to place the magnets.
I slid the socket tabs off the rail. 99cents at Harbor Freight.
Thought about using the front pass thru shield instead. Not like I will ever use it.
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That’s a really good idea to wrap them with tape.
Brilliant solution! I’m going to do this. I think I have the same magnets…they’re about 1 1/8" diameter and quite strong!
My latest thought for a simple hold down is a wood screw through a wooden ‘washer’ strip, down through the honeycomb, and screwing into another wooden strip/ block underneath.
Two of these at opposite sides of the highest point of the warp, clamping the work down flat, and with sacrificial tops if they are not well positioned !
Mine are from the craft store, and really tiny, less than 1/4" across. I was having problems removing them from the honeycomb and the floor of the Forge. Neuropathy sucks.
I used to design a lot of products that relied on magnets. I found that the easiest way to increase the strength of a magnet is by encasing it in a Steel “cup”. It increases the magnet strength by about 4x by focusing the magnetic field to point only forwards. It works kind of like head of a flashlight, where a single LED’s light is redirected to all shine forwards.
Anyway, you can buy steel cupped magnets quite easily. Sometimes they are called steel cupped magnets. Other times they are called encased magnets. I bought a set of 8x from McMaster. Part number 5685K26
They cost around $2.35 each and hold 20lbs each.
When used together, my set works great and will flatten most any slightly warped thin plywood.
Tip: not all encased magnets or steel cupped magnets have a hole in the back of the cup. If it does, they say that the hole is for “mounting”. It certainly works for that. I will also point out that the hole makes it easy to lift the magnet off the crumb tray using the dentist pick that you are probrably already using for weeding your parts. Also, it makes it possible to push the magnet out of the cup if you want to. Without that hole, no way you are getting that magnet out of the cup.
Hope this helps,
Jason
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