Success With Backing Draftboard With Magnet Material?

Has anyone had any success in cutting draft board with magnet material adhered to the back? I would love it if you would share all the things you learned…what type you used…settings, etc.

I guess you are referring to magnetic sheets? Like the promo items? Not sure if that stuff would be strong enough for the weight. I would suggest tiny inlayed super magnets, much more useful for applications.

I don’t need them to be super strong. And I’d likely be using the medium draft board not the thick.

The most difficult thing about the little super magnets is getting them to stick to the draftboard. They are stronger than wood glue. You need super glue or epoxy.

You can buy magnets with good steel shielding, but strong magnets even ferrite magnets have enough field to mess up the head. Also hitting them with a laser creates all sorts of magnet chips that end up who knows where. The rubber peel and stick sheets are problematic for their chemistry as well. far better is to add magnets after. you can get powerful for their size neo- magnets 3 mm dia x 0.8 mm thick 150 at a time for under $20 that can be put on with CA glue and could work well for refrigerator or “pins” however many as needed and even work undercover of thin cork etc.

I don’t think you want to try to use the GF to cut any of the magnetic material (adhered to the back of draft board or anything else), or that it even could since the magnetic sheets have ferrite (iron) content, and the GF is not the type of laser to cut metal.

The sheets sold for using on back of business cards can be easily cut with good scissors to what ever shape you need to apply to the draft board after they’ve been cut in the GF.

Searching for magnet sheet would have found you this in moments:

The TLDR for that link is:
“if (the seller) says it’s cuttable on a 40w CO2, you should be in good shape.”
and
“it weakens some of the magnet, so it won’t be as strong.”

So test prior to cutting - if it’s only barely strong enough, it won’t be strong enough after cutting!

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Magnets are notoriously difficult to glue/adhere to things. Are you making items not expected to last that long? Is so, it won’t matter much what you use. If they need to last a long time consider cutting a hole in the draft board and sticking the magnet in the hole. Then adhere a layer of thin material to both sides of the draft board to seal the magnet inside. The veneer they sell works great for this. You could also use felt or maybe a heavy duty paper. Anything thin that can be adhered to draft board.

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I sand my neodymium magnets to scuff the surface and slot them into a medium tight friction-fit pocket lined with yellow wood glue. I have yet to lose a single one.

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Good to know a new technique.

I wonder how much is “glue adhesion” and how much is yellow glue drying and adding its own mechanical friction fit. I’m probably only thinking of this because of the five minutes I spent last night using a pick to remove a tiny drop of dried yellow glue from inside a really tight recessed area.

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Hard to say, but it does seem to be pretty stuck in there. I had to remove one once, and it required breaking the wood apart to get at the magnet.

I have cut the thin magnet sheet. Just make sure it doesn’t have PVC in it. You will have to do some testing to determine best conditions for the Draftboard/magnet combo.

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In my experience, the stuff you can buy at hobby stores can support at least 4-5 its own weight, no matter the size or shape. i.e. if you end up with an irregular shape that weighs in at 1/2 oz, it will easily support an object 2-3oz.

The cut shape doesn’t reduce the strength. The reason for alternating bands on some is simply from how it’s manufactured, it doesn’t make it magnetically stronger.

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