Make a Grinding Magnet

M

Mike Jones

Google Master
This is a tutorial of how to make one of these:
hpim1797.jpg



Get some scrap wood (I used locust, because I think it's pretty), mild steel, two ceramic magnets, and some pin stock (forgot it in the pic)
hpim1787.jpg


Line it up/drill two holes in the steel. Measure it to stand out from the wood somewhere near 1/8"
hpim1788.jpg


Match up the holes on the wood, again with the steel sticking out a little
hpim1790.jpg


Cut the wood into two pieces (one for each side) I also cut another piece without holes for the bottom
hpim1791.jpg


Epoxy and clamp it all together
hpim1792x.jpg


Peen the pins, smooth the corners, make sure the top edges are clean and line up correctly (grind them to be equal)
hpim1794.jpg


Put a coating of your choice (I used wax) to help protect the wood and part of the steel.
hpim1797.jpg



Now you're done, with a nice wooden magnetic holder to help you grind!
One thing to watch out for is while the wood will stay pretty insulated, the pins can still get very hot, so if you're grinding heavy, don't hold the pins.
 
It is amazing what those magnets will do when you get them sandwiched between two layers of steel. Those magnets can be found at most any brick and mortar store. I know Lowes has them. I made one with three magnets. don't do this, you can't hardly get the blade back off.

Great job by the way, yours looks much better than mine.

Paul
 
Great post.

I have purchased quite a few magnets from http://www.kjmagnetics.com/ They deal in rare earth magnets...VERY VERY strong little buggers. I bought 2 1" disk magnets and as they snapped shut, they removed a chunk of pinched skin. Getting them apart was nearly impossible. While I don't recommend something quite that strong for this tutorial, they have a lot of other magnets that are smaller and more throttled back. :D

How wide is that gap between the steel? Looks like a good spread to be able to clean all the grinding grit out of very easily.
 
Thanks Paul. I made this based off of the magnet that texasknife has for $20-$25.
TwinBlade said:
How wide is that gap between the steel? Looks like a good spread to be able to clean all the grinding grit out of very easily.
Click to expand...
There's about 3/8" of space, but it's kinda hard to get the grit out, because it's attracted to the steel and the magnets inside.

Josh, go for it. It's easy and cheap to make, and you can find a lot of purposes for it.
 
I found this one at Northern Tool and it seems to work good (about $8).

rubber_handle_magnet.jpg


I would be cautious about heating it up as it appears that the magnet setup is simply expoxied in. Sort of figured I would use it as is and if it comes apart I'll then take the innards and do what you did.

So far it's worked great. I've been covering the magnets with blue painters tape to keep all the shavings out and it came with two covers that essentially make it non-magnetic when it's not in use.

Charlie
 
zzknives said:
you could also use a welder magnet:

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=1938

not as pretty as a grinding magnet but works
Click to expand...

That's what I use for flats/tapers and sometimes bevels. Plenty to hold onto, and now my fingertips are starting to grow back :p. I wrapped it in electrical tape to make it easier to wipe the grindings off. (saw that idea on someone's WIP, works good... I seem to go thru a lot of electrical tape around the shop and house :D )

Mike's would of course be better if you want to slip the blade into it for profiling the spine and so on.
 
Last edited:
Sorry about taking so long for these pics that you guys asked for... I strayed away from making knives for a while, but I'll get some pics, since I'm going to be using it today.

Mainly, I use it for holding the thin steel against my disk grinder (same as others using a platen) I just try to flatten steel or remove scale with it. I'll grind a bit here and take a couple pics and get them up today :)
 
zzknives said:
you could also use a welder magnet:

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=1938

not as pretty as a grinding magnet but works
Click to expand...

I have one of these only mine has a hole in the center, although I mostly use it when sanding the flats. When you set it on the 45 side you can put your ring finger through the hole. Rest your other hand on top and really lean into sanding on my surface plate. I've never tried using a magnet with the grinder though.
 
So I'm going to make another knife from an old file... I added some tape to help keep the file teeth from damaging the magnet much.
dsc05617e.jpg


Sorry about the very blurry pic. I didn't realize my camera moved as much as it did... But you can see I'm holding the steel with the magnet to the disk grinder.
dsc05618y.jpg


The tooth-free file! (except for 2 deep tooth marks that will come out later in my grinding)
dsc05619o.jpg
 
Hold on to your files, people, Mike's on a roll :D

Just a note about welding magnets... as I stated above, I wrapped mine in electrical tape to make the metal dust easier to wipe off. Which worked pretty good for a while... but when the tape starts to wear through after several blades, things get gummy from the adhesive. Soooo if you're going to do that, pay attention and replace the tape when that starts to happen.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top