Thread: Workshop cleaning - neodymium (rare earth) magnet

Here's a Youtube clip for retrieving rare earth magnets from discarded hard drives.

how to get neodymium magnets for free - YouTube

Ken

That has to be one of the poorest implementation of a magnetic broom I have every seen.
He was lucky the swarf didn't jump up around the side of the container and attach itself to the magnet and then he would have a devil of a time getting the swarf off.

A much easier way to do it is to attach a magnet to the end of a piece of ally tube or rod (A) and then insert A inside a bigger ally tube (B) which is a neat fit for A and sealed at one end. Push A all the way into the sealed end of B and wave this around to pick up the swarf. Then holding the swarf over a rubbish bin put your hand around B about 2" from the end and pull up A inside B. The swarf slides up the outside of B until it gets to you hand whereby it falls off into the bin.

Originally Posted by BobL

That has to be one of the poorest implementation of a magnetic broom I have every seen.

Well, he was Russian

Originally Posted by BobL

That has to be one of the poorest implementation of a magnetic broom I have every seen.

I thought he did a great job not getting it stuck to any of the steel tube about the place. He wouldnt have been laughing if his fingers were in the middle. At least he doesnt have to worry about it sticky to his "safety boots"

I made a little one out of some PVC pipe with an Aluminium cap on the end, a broom handle with a screw in the end and a doz or so 1/4" magnets.

Stuart

side note: Blu-Tack is great for cleaning magnets...

This type works well:

Ebay 231023938842

It can be easily poked underneath the lathe bed etc.

I bought one a while back ex-Hong Kong for about half this price.

Jordan

I use these on the lathe

I'm a bit less sophisticated - old speaker magnet on a wire

Dosen't work on aluminium very well though

Rob

Originally Posted by nearnexus

Dosen't work on aluminium very well though

Rob

Arthur loves cleaning up the machines with my pickup wand. A few months ago, i was turning a lot of ally, he came to me one day with the wand and a sad look on his face and said "Daddy, me no" waving the wand at me (thats about as complicated a sentence he comes out with so far) he dragged me to the lathe and showed me that the wand wasn't working, all the while shaking his head saying "Me, no" (with a sad voice).
Ever tried explainingto a 3yr old why ally doesn't get picked up by a magnet? Not the easiest thing.....

Great tip on the blue tac Josh, have to try that.

Cheers,
Ew

Originally Posted by Ueee

Arthur loves cleaning up the machines with my pickup wand. A few months ago, i was turning a lot of ally, he came to me one day with the wand and a sad look on his face and said "Daddy, me no" waving the wand at me (thats about as complicated a sentence he comes out with so far) he dragged me to the lathe and showed me that the wand wasn't working, all the while shaking his head saying "Me, no" (with a sad voice).
Ever tried explainingto a 3yr old why ally doesn't get picked up by a magnet? Not the easiest thing.....

Great tip on the blue tac Josh, have to try that.

Cheers,
Ew

I have a hard enough time explaining it to myself... :P

I can't take credit for the blu-tack idea, that came from Renishaw, with the ball bar came a Renishaw branded blu-tack (they called it something else) that is used to clean the ball bar balls and magnetic cups. I have also used it to clean out those magnetic power couplings on macbooks, a tricky task to do satisfactory any other way.

-Josh

Originally Posted by Ueee

Ever tried explainingto a 3yr old why ally doesn't get picked up by a magnet? Not the easiest thing.....


Cheers,
Ew

No problem Ewan, just let him loose with the shop vacuum cleaner.

Just check what's in the the bag before you empty it

Rob

Originally Posted by nadroj

This type works well:

Ebay 231023938842

It can be easily poked underneath the lathe bed etc.

I bought one a while back ex-Hong Kong for about half this price.

Jordan

Hi Jordan
at about half that price I'd be interested
Do you have a link to where you got yours?

Originally Posted by nadroj

This type works well:

Ebay 231023938842

It can be easily poked underneath the lathe bed etc.

I bought one a while back ex-Hong Kong for about half this price.

Jordan

Just out of curiosity, how did they ship it? Magnetic objects that strong shouldn't be in the post.

Originally Posted by eskimo

Hi Jordan
at about half that price I'd be interested
Do you have a link to where you got yours?

I found the paperwork.
I was mistaken about source - it was bought from an Australian supplier via Ebay.

It's called a 22mm x 250mm Magnetic Wand, Item no NMW22250, $25.95 with free postage in Jan 2012.

Supplier was Gundrill Trading a.k.a. Magneticworld in Qld. They do water filters and magnetic items, but don't have a the wand showing up on Ebay at present.
Their phone is 07 5500 4755
Email

[email protected]

Jordan