If you have a magnetic drawing board, you may have run into trouble removing the super-strong rare-earth neodymium disc magnets. The problem is that they are small and hard to grip. I solved this problem by gluing wooden discs to the magnets. The wooden discs are slightly larger than the magnets, making them easy to pick up and fun to place. Here are some tips for making these ergonomic wonders:
- You can buy wooden discs of various sizes at Michael’s. Buttons would probably work well and look great!
- You will find your magnets to be more enjoyable if you glue them with their magnetic poles facing in the same direction. This allows you to stack them for storage and keeps them from fighting with each other.
- Epoxy works well for gluing the wood to the magnets. One of the ironies of epoxy is that it is very slippery until it sets. If you don’t somehow clamp the magnets to the wooden discs, they will slide around. A great, hassle free way to prevent the magnets from moving while the epoxy dries is to sandwich the wooden discs between the magnets and a roofing shingle. The magnets grip the metal through the wood and stay in place.
- I have had some trouble with the epoxy failing to adhere to the magnets. To minimize this problem it helps to rough up the magnets with some sandpaper before applying the epoxy.
- Make lots of magnets. They are tactile and fun to play with and you can never have enough.
