my carbo-magnetic vise ;)

I got kinda scared by the various stories of how people damaged their razors (or themselves) during restoration. So I put this little thing together in the hopes that this won't happen to me.

It's basically three magnets hidden under a big heap of sticky tack (though any putty-like substance would work). The rationale behind it is that the magnets and the stickiness of the putty keep the blade in place, with the putty protecting the blade from the magnets' edges. At the same time you can shape the putty quite easily to support the hollowness of the blade, preventing cracks from too much pressure. At the edge, the putty is folded up/over slightly to prevent accidental cuts to the hands and a rotary tool's catching the edge.

I find that the magnets are pretty strong by themselves, so I do without the extra stickiness and wrap everything into plastic to ease cleanup and blade removal.

What do you guys think?

Wow, that's a great idea. The putty is great because of its ability to conform to the shape of the blade. Are you using rare earth magnets?

great idea
regards Peter

Very nice. Could you either show or describe the magnets? Where did you get them?
Thanks.

The magnets are the 1/2" ones from here:

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...=1,42363,42348

Lee Vallley also sells steel cups that fit the magnets and which I screwed to the piece of plywood that you see in the pictures.
They are located in one line in the centre of the blue stuff where it is thinnest and the spine rests ( so the magnets hold on to the spine mainly ).
This has the advantage that the spine is the most solid part of the blade (aside from shank and tang) and when I want to remove the blade, I can very easily and safely just flip it up (edge up) and then peel it off in an upward motion. There is virtually no force on the delicate parts of the blade this way.

Redwoood

Redwood

There are very very few things worse than a smart alec, but one of them is a smart alec that actually boasts about an idea that actually works really well, is cost-effective, and is so annoyingly simple that people like me look at it and can't help but saying "Doh!".

It may take a few years before I can bring myself to forgive you, but this simple idea has a huuuuuge number of applications beyond straights.

Well done and great lateral thinking. Unfortunately, I would have never thought of it, so I hope you fall off your chair and get severe a brain injury - that way I may be able to beat you to the Patent Ofiice.

But seriously, thanks mate. I'm certain there will be many others here that will also benefit from this great tip!

Cheers Squire!

where did you find that much blu-tack? when i took a look around for some it just came in tiny little strips which would cost like 150$ to buy that much of it to make a big old slab. so, where did you find it in bulk or were you using some putty more cost effective?

~J

I'm not sure I can help you. I just bought the first package I came across. containing a dozen or so strips, and I still have one left. It's called Tac'n Stick and is made by Ross.
As I said, nothing special about it, bought it at Shoppers Drug Mart, which is a notoriously overpriced store and paid about 3$ Canadian for it, which I thought was too high, but I was too lazy to look around.

You should be able to get as much as you would ever need at your local dollar store I'd assume.

Redwoood

Spiffy idea redwood. After hearing some of the horror stories about people wrecking blades from pressure, the first thing I did was make sure I had some sort of soft(ish) surface to work on. In my case, it's just an old mousepad. I also shaved off abit of one of those white erasers so that the hollow grind of most blades sits nicely on it.

The magnets you've used are the neodymium rare earth magnets. They are some of the most powerful permanent magnets in existance. I love these things! Just so useful and fun to play with. Though, I've only handled the small ones. Some of the bigger ones I've seen can easily crush fingers.

Anyways, in case anyone else is interested in them, there's a few other online shops that specialize in them. One is K&J magnetics and the other is magcraft. Figure some other science geeks like me might want a few :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Redwoood

I got kinda scared by the various stories of how people damaged their razors (or themselves) during restoration. So I put this little thing together in the hopes that this won't happen to me.

It's basically three magnets hidden under a big heap of sticky tack (though any putty-like substance would work). The rationale behind it is that the magnets and the stickiness of the putty keep the blade in place, with the putty protecting the blade from the magnets' edges. At the same time you can shape the putty quite easily to support the hollowness of the blade, preventing cracks from too much pressure. At the edge, the putty is folded up/over slightly to prevent accidental cuts to the hands and a rotary tool's catching the edge.

I find that the magnets are pretty strong by themselves, so I do without the extra stickiness and wrap everything into plastic to ease cleanup and blade removal.

What do you guys think?

---

What do I think? I`ll tell you what I think ,I have ordered the magnets I need ,that`s what I think
excellent idea,keep them coming:cool: :cool:
Kind regards Peter

Hard disk drives have some very powerful magnets in them as well. If you have an old one that's trashed, a few minutes with a screw driver and you're in business.

http://www.usbyte.com/common/HDD_3.htm#Basic - look for the magnets in the voice-coil actuator ( shown in the lower left of the image )

-Mike

The Rare Earth Magnets are also available at widgetsupply.com . For those living in southern ontario, "K-W Surplus" has a wide variety of these magnets, from tiny ones, about 1/8th" across, to larger 1" sq. (30lb capacity). The prices are also very good, starting at around $.50ea. I bought some of the large ones and the girl behind the counter handed me the large pile of them. She said, "Take as many as you want, I won't do it anymore, they hurt too much." They can give an awful pinch.

A note of caution with kids! Even small earth magnets, swallowed in amounts more than "1" can cause a great deal of damage. 2 medium sized magnets swallowed 20 minutes apart will send a person to the operating room!

And for those that can't find the amount of sticky tack needed, I'm sure that clay or unfired femo should work just as well. Even a scrap of leather would work, I expect.

Another note of caution:

Keep your credit cards, devices with hard drives, VHS tapes, etc, away from these magnets!

They quickly destroy information stored on magetic media, so don't sit down on these magnets with your wallet in the back pocket ;)

Redwoood