Funny story....... Well, now it's funny.

[Larry Edgerton]

Someone gave me this magnet that was used in a printing operation to pull metal out of the paper. Its about 3' long, 2 1/2" wide and consists of a 1/8" stainless sheet with a bunch of some kind of magnets bonded to it that are parallelograms spaced about 1/4" apart the whole length. EXTREMELY STRONG!!!! its so strong my buddy and I picked up my DJ20 with it easily. Easy for the magnet, not us. There is a warning on it to stay ten feet away if you have a pacemaker.

I had it screwed to the wall to hold shaper bushings and decided that I was going to make a magnetic fixture out of it, so I took it down and cut it in half. I was putting handles on it, coming from the drill press heading back to the bench when WHAM!

As I walked by the other half sitting on the saw magnet side up the one on the saw jumped up and bit me. No, really, that is what happened! You always hear of trees jumping out and biting cars so I know this stuff can happen.

SO...... Here I am in my shop working alone with my finger caught between two magnets that are capable of lifting a jointer. This hurts a little bit. You know that instant when you hit your finger with a hammer? Well, just keep that going. I don't suggest that you keep hitting yourself with a hammer to get an idea what it felt like, just take my word for it. To give you a clue, I have broken both legs at the same time, and this hurt worse. Or, maybe I an just getting to be a wimp in my old age?

So in screaming pain I am trying to get this off my finger. Can't pull it out, probably a good thing in retrospect and I only have one hand to work with, the other one having a couple of foot and a half magnets clamped on it. Plus my vision was little blurry, probably had something to do with the magnets making my eyes water. I didn't know magnets could do that? Who knew?

I'm hoping I can figure out a way to get it off because I am not sure I can drive the ten miles to town with the magnets making my eyes water. I can't pull two magnets apart with one hand, something I had never thought about before. Its true, you can't do it! I was almost ready to head for town when I spied the rail on my slide saw. I slipped the open end that was fighting its hardest to mate with its sibling over the rail, grabbed the saw wrench that hangs there and jambed it in between, prying enough that I could slip my finger out.

The pain then got worse, and I thought I was going to have to visit the porcelain goddess. My finger was no more than a 1/4" thick. Didn't know exactly how much bone was in my finger, and now I do, about 1/4 inch. It took a half hour for it to regain is somewhat normal shape, and as it did the pain subsided with it.

Its ok to laugh, I do now......

Oh yeah, I screwed the two halves back on the wall and that is where those little buggers are going to stay.....

Larry

[Michael Weber]

WOW! I can't laugh at that. Glad your okay and there wasn't something vital between the halves when the came together. That's just really scary.

[Ryan Mooney]

I've been bitten by smaller hard drive magnets. Instant blood blister!!

I can't imagine getting caught by a bigger one like that, you're darn lucky you came out with nothing actually broken

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Rare earth magnets are powerful!

At age 15, while working on oil rigs for my Dad, I was driving some new teeth into a set of pipe tongs when a sliver of steel sheared off and went into my left forearm. I had that piece of steel in that for arm for nearly 40 years. Other than a "blue" mark under the skin, it never was a problem other than when I climbed inside the bore of the magnets on 1.5T MR scanners. When in there working, I could feel the magnetic field rotating the piece of steel. It wasn't painful and didn't present a problem.


When I got ready to install locally a 3T MR scanner, it became a different story. BTW, a 3T magnet is roughly 50,000 times the earth's magnetic field strength which though being argued again, is generally considered 0.6 gauss. We used a small rare earth magnet used to mount routers inside a computer chassis. You can't pull or lift the magnets straight off a surface. You have to slide them off an edge. I took one of the magnets with me to an appointment to have that sliver of steel removed from my arm by my personal physician. When he suggested we needed x-rays to locate it, I used the magnet to pull on the piece of steel to show him where it was located. He decided we didn't need x-rays. In fact, he was so intrigued by the strength of that magnet, he asked my permission and then brought his entire staff into the room to witness the event. After he made a small slit in the skin, care to guess what he used to pull that little metal piece out of my arm? He didn't have to do any probing.

Rare earth magnets have incredible strength!

[Mike Lassiter]

I could see that as clear as day! Glad it turned out ok.
You know - I bet everybody here COULD tell similar stories of something that has happened to them over the years.

here's ONE of mine:

I grew up at a boys home called Youth Town. I was learning about cars and stuff from the ones that had been parked for various reasons that didn't run or work anymore. Had a 60 Chevy at the tool shed where we parked the tractors and stored hay for the cows and horses. Pole shed that had poles about 20' high the tin roof was fastened on. I was trying to pull the engine out of the car with a cheap cable come-a-long that I needed to attach to something above the car. That turned out to be the wooden joist between the creosol poles. So here I go shimming up the creosol pole with a chain trying to hang on and climb up the pole with my arms and legs around it - and trying to carry the 20' chain up with me. I was about 15 at the time (mid 70's). So I made it to the top of the creosol pole and managed to get the chain around the joist and slide over sort of close to the center but my legs and arms are numb. Been bear hugging that smelly pole trying to hold myself up with nothing but squeezing my legs around the pole and one arm somewhat.

So happy with the chain being hung. I can pull if over more once I get down on the ground. I started shimming back down, but my legs are THROBBING and hurting like crazy. I NEED to get down before my legs quite working. I got to hurry up before I fall. So down I go, until a sharp pain starts stabbing my inner right thigh. I cannot go down any more! There is a BIG LONG splinter that was pointed up on the side of the pole that is now piercing my thigh and the creosol is burning like my leg is on fire! I needed to climb back up to get off the splinter, but I cannot. My legs are about to fall off! Can't continue down and unable to go back up. I ended up hugging the pole as tight as I could with my arms, which freed my legs somewhat from holding me up them had to twist my leg out away from the pole and break the big splinter off in my leg. The guys that were there with me got a good laugh as I again started back down the pole. When I got down on the ground my legs were totally numb. And sticking out of my pants leg was the splinter about 10" long. I then had to pull it out of my thigh muscle. the splinter was in my leg about an inch deep. And even today over 40 years later I still have a black stain from the creosol in my leg from that.

[Larry Edgerton]

Good stories! I feel better.

The worst part I think was that I did not see that second magnet sitting there as I walked by. I had no idea what was happening till I looked at my hand.

I have a story to match yours Mike.

I owned a share of a paving company when I was a young man and we had an old D8 dozer that had a blown head gasket. I took it all apart but could obviously not lift the head as they are extremely heavy so I got the boom truck, an ancient Diamond T 2 ton with a homemade boom on the back.

I hooked it all up and put some stress on it and nothing happened. I went back to the dozer to make sure I had all the head bolts out and they were all out. So I tapped on it with a hammer and nothing. I tried driving a wedge in between the head and the block, nothing.

So in one of my many strokes of brilliance I went back and really put some pressure on it. I lifted the front of the boom truck off the ground about two feet. Nothing. I went and tapped on it, nothing. I checked the bolts again, yup, they were all out.

I was getting down to look for another way to attack it when it let go.......

Not good. The boom truck being up in the air treated the whole setup like a big heavy catapult. The head came off and flew up through the tin roof, then came back down and made another hole.

Yeah, that was a real "Duh" moment...........

Larry

[Kent A Bathurst]

Larry - I believe you may have inadvertently invented a new "small critter trap". I can see rodents, squirrels, and stray cats in a mag sandwich.

Refine it and sell it, is my advice.

[Larry Edgerton]

Seems to work pretty good for large critters too......

[Jim Koepke]

At one time I had a lot of magnets from old hard drives. Everyone who saw them needed a pair for some reason or another. Seems everyone who got a pair had drawn blood, their own, within 5 minutes of being given a pair.

jtk

[Mike Lassiter]

Good stories! I feel better.

The worst part I think was that I did not see that second magnet sitting there as I walked by. I had no idea what was happening till I looked at my hand.

I have a story to match yours Mike.

I owned a share of a paving company when I was a young man and we had an old D8 dozer that had a blown head gasket. I took it all apart but could obviously not lift the head as they are extremely heavy so I got the boom truck, an ancient Diamond T 2 ton with a homemade boom on the back.

I hooked it all up and put some stress on it and nothing happened. I went back to the dozer to make sure I had all the head bolts out and they were all out. So I tapped on it with a hammer and nothing. I tried driving a wedge in between the head and the block, nothing.

So in one of my many strokes of brilliance I went back and really put some pressure on it. I lifted the front of the boom truck off the ground about two feet. Nothing. I went and tapped on it, nothing. I checked the bolts again, yup, they were all out.

I was getting down to look for another way to attack it when it let go.......

Not good. The boom truck being up in the air treated the whole setup like a big heavy catapult. The head came off and flew up through the tin roof, then came back down and made another hole.

Yeah, that was a real "Duh" moment...........

Larry

I got a few old dozer stories too.

A few years later at Youth Town, the farm manager and I were trying to get an old IH dozer he bought to run. Being the car nut I was (anything mechanical in fact) I had a compressor gauge that had a rubber tip on it sort of like some of the air blowguns you can buy. We had the fuel injectors out and decided to see what the compression was in the engine. Neither of us actually knew what good compression was for a diesel engine, but back then around 125-150 psi was fairly common on gas engines.

So he worked the starter and I held the compression tester in the injector hole. He spun the engine over, and well - let's just say we never really found out exactly how much compression the 4 cylinders had, but we knew it was more than 300 psi. On #1 cylinder when it hit compression - it blew the tester out of my hands, shot up and ricocheted off my head then hit the bottom of the tin roof of the pole shed we were in and fell back down to the ground. I was sort of shocked - and in pain. And fearing we had destroyed my compression tester, I picked it up and looked at it. At first we didn't think it worked until we realized the gauge was actually pegged out. High reading was 300 psi on the gauge so we figured it was good if it had that much.

So when we did the remaining 3 cylinders I basically leaned on the gauge when the engine was spun over. Each time the compression hit it felt like shooting a shotgun the jolt that I got when the piston came up. But it didn't go airborne again.

[Kent A Bathurst]

I assume this thread/topic is not the appropriate place to say "no photos, didn't happen"?

[John Coloccia]

Larry, I should have sent over one of my ex's to help. Perhaps her repulsive personality could have saved the day.

[Robert Payne]

I think you guys are trying to compete for this year's Darwin Awards!

[Malcolm Schweizer]

My wife had a similar situation happen. My friend was working on a project for a scientist who was inventing a new magnetic seal for an MRI machine. Apparently they use insanely powerful magnets. All month he had told me about these magnets and how powerful they were. They were wedge-shaped, and when put together just right, they would form a circle. There were two of these circles formed from smaller magnets.

I was in town, and visiting with my friend and couldn't wait to see these magnets, because magnets are cool. We were talking and my wife decided to pick up one of the rings, and before I could yell NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! She did so, and the ring collapsed on itself, pinching her in it. That's not all- the other ring literally jumped off the table and flew about 3 feet through the air to join the whole mess, trapping her hand even worse. She was pale and almost in shock. My friend and I looked at each other knowingly- there is no way to get those magnets apart. I believe they each had a 250 pound pull rating if my memory doesn't fail me. I assume that means two of them together have a 500 pound pull. Luckily they had broken when they hit and ultimately they were just pinching the skin of her hand. Could have been much worse. She ended up just ripping the skin to get free.

I'm glad this thread came up. Folks, believe me, a rare earth magnet of even a few inches can have over 100 pound pull, and can do a lot of damage. Do not play with them. I ended up having to replace the magnet that was damaged, and I had to sign a legal waiver before being allowed to order it. The waiver basically stated that I knew these things could mame or kill and I was responsible if I did something stupid with them. :-)

John Coloccia, that comment above is the funniest thing ever.

[Judson Green]

I assume this thread/topic is not the appropriate place to say "no photos, didn't happen"?

Yeah really Larry!

A reenactment is necessary.

Glad your OK.