Magnetic knife block

Made on a Glowforge
1

I bought a bunch of these magnets to hold boards down flat on the Glowforge. I figured I may as well try making a magnetic knife block.

The top plate is Proofgrade medium maple hardwood, with a very deep manual etch (500 speed at full precision power) for the magnets, to thin out the board and register them. They are a little over a millimeter deep.

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Then comes some fully cut out 1/4" plywood:

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Followed by another piece of 1/8" maple hardwood for the back plate. I ended up reusing a piece I had inadvertently etched the wrong diameter into, but that all ended up on the inside so no problem.

I put the magnets in and glued the top and center segments together. The magnets serve to register the parts, which makes it easy. Big tip: work over a steel baking sheet, or the magnets can come flying out of their holes and join in a big group hug, and you will probably shatter a few. Ask me how I know.

I epoxied the magnets in place for security:

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Then glued on the back plate. Sanded the edges and finished with food grade mineral oil. Mounting will be with 3M Command Strips onto tile, or I would have made provisions for countersunk screws.

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55 Likes
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Nice! I like it!

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Lovely! If I hadn’t bought one for the purpose I would prefer that one! :grinning:
(And I know that group hug.)

7 Likes
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The bleeding edge of design, sir. Good job!

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Very cool! Will this go on a wall or maybe to a surface it will be held to by the magnets?

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I’m going to mount it on a tile backsplash, so I will be using these:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LOQMCDM

With four strips, it should hold up to 16 lbs, which should be sufficient.

5 Likes
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Looks great!

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Cool! nice tip on preventing that group hug. :sunglasses:
Did you happen to see that post @karaelena did of a video - “Now you see 'em ,Now you dont”? Magnets holding down the work and as the head passed over they were gone… I still laugh over that.

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Supposed to let wood glue set for 24 hours before testing the joint, but eh, seems pretty solid, and this isn’t a high load application:

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Should have gone with a darker wood.

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Cool! Great idea. Nice work :slight_smile:

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I like the contrast. Looks great! :slightly_smiling_face:

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Really awesome project! Thanks for the details.

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Fantastic idea!

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Just stain it :sunglasses:

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Like most nice projects here I will probably lift this at some point.

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That turned out amazing!! Love the contrast too.

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Are stains food safe? Or should I not be worried about it for this?

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Coffee…coffee stain is probably safe…lol

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You probably don’t have to worry, but you can always put a layer (or several) of food safe finish over the stain. Then it is darker and shiny.

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This looks great–me and mine just decided to ditch our Kapoosh for a couple of strips, so I’m excited that you offered this up. Thank you!

1 Like