3" diameter (top) 3.3" diameter (bottom)
1/8" maple and walnut, 1/16" maple and walnut.
Wipe on satin polyurethane
1/16" thick neodymium magnet. (Amazon.com)
The gist is that there are three 1/8" layers, and a pair of 1/16" layers. I could have done an engraved pocket for the magnet at about 1/16" deep, but I had the 1/16" stock in maple and walnut so I just did it as layers. Kept the inlay process a lot simpler.
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Here it is before polyurethane and sanding. The pins are pretty secure on there, they would definitely stay stuck to the surface if I pick it up.
This, to me, is the best daily reason to wish you had a pro. Makes it really easy to slip materials in from the front and efficiently run jobs like this.
One could also engrave a pocket for the magnet into 1/8" to get it close to the surface.
The first time I had the magnet stack delivered it was stuck about waist high on my insulated front door.
Those are the only magnets that ever drew blood on me.
I considered it but then it’d be down to trial and error to get the pocket depth correct, and engraving is slow. I had plenty of 1/16" stock, so cutting was definitely the right move for me. If all I had was 1/8" I would have done that instead.
I see they also sell 1/8 magnets. That is a very interesting idea! Though thinking an array of smaller magnets could use a larger face and either cup magnets or steel washers might reduce the hold to what is underneath,
Yup I have some. The issue was that I wanted the magnets to be completely hidden and still have good holding power, so 1/16" thick was the direction I chose. I tried it with 1/8" wood and the magnets just didn’t hold the pins as well.
1/8 for the hole and 1/16 for the surface, Also I think that the washers on the other side increases the side without them, not sure where I read that.
If I were going to do that, I’d do the inlay first, then jig it up and engrave the pocket through the inlaid wood. The request was for a “magnetic pincushion that isn’t ugly”, so inlay came first.
I’ve done inlay/jig/engrave-cut before on a lot of my round boxes. It works well.
quite pretty, cool design
it glows! I wanna touch it!!
