Odds and Ends
Hints and Opinions

On this page will tell you some of the tricks I have learned since I began playing with NIBs.

Gluing Neodymium Magnets

I use anything from rubber cement to epoxy glues to attach NIBs to things or attach NIBs to other NIBs. If the application doesn't require a lot of strength I use rubber cement because it cleans up so easily. I once made 1" by 1" by 1/2" Block Magnets by gluing four 1/2" cubes together side by side with all the north poles on the same surface and all the south poles on the other. Since the glue had to be stronger than the repelling forces I decided to use J-B Weld epoxy after reading the specs. I made a jig to clamp them clamp them all together then mixed some epoxy and applied some to the sides of the magnets. Well it didn't work. J-B Weld is a steel epoxy and that steel flowed to the north and south poles of the magnets leaving little glue where it was needed the most. I had to go out and buy a weaker epoxy that had no steel in it. I've also tried gluing 1/2" cube magnets north to north trying to make a "Monopole" magnet. This fails because the repelling force can be stronger than the nickel plating on the NIBs. In addition to epoxy I also use a lot of Loctite Super Glue Gel Professional. It stays where I put it and you just have to hold the pieces together for a minute or so.

"They Are So Brittle!"

Neodymium Magnets are extremely hard and brittle. Combine that with a strong attractive force and you have a disaster waiting to happen.

Experiments like my Edisonian Levitator using Pyrolytic Graphite is a great smasher of small magnets. Rock it a little and the smaller magnet will fly up and into the lifting magnet quite rapidly. Chances are it will be damaged. One method I use to avoid this is to put a piece of self-adhering felt padding to the bottom of the top magnet. Felt furniture pads work nicely for this.

Another way of softening the blow is to use dipping plastic to put a plastic coating on magnets. This is the stuff they’ll dip a pair of pliers’ handles into to cushion them and/or insulate them.