Beware of magnets!

[Martin Wasner]

Larry, I was definitely laughing! There must be something wrong with the way my brain works, because I find a LOT of humor in someone getting hurt. I always have. Not cut your hand off kind of hurt, but whack your finger kind of hurt, most definitely.
Glad you escaped and told the story.

Peter says it better than I could have.

[John K Jordan]

Its a funny story, LAUGH!
...It was a coupe of moths ago, I'm just dandy.

Ok, a chuckle now - it was indeed a great story. But I must have too much empathy. I can't watch those Funny Video shows without wondering if the guy who got kicked by the horse needed surgery and 4 months in the hospital.

JKJ

[rudy de haas]

umm, funny and sad - but.. as far as I know the strongest permanent magnets run around 20K gause at the surface/edge and that force, of course, falls off with the square of the distance so I'm having no trouble imagining what happened to you, but lots of trouble imagining magnets that small doing it. Still, even half the force you describe would hurt like h* so - my deepest sympathy.

[Sam Blasco]

You must have had fun typing this story for the thread...

[Sam Murdoch]

I'll admit it. I laughed. Not at the severity of the situation or the obvious pain you endured but in the way you told the story. Well done and I am glad you are ok.

Me too - I laughed out loud as I cringed but then read your story aloud to my wife for the entertainment. I read it with great enthusiasm and with lilting voice or agonized gasps as needed. You are a natural story teller. .

I too am glad you are OK today and didn't suffer much past the incident.

Thank you for sharing.

[Joe Calhoon]

Larry
I am still laughing, you are a great storyteller! I think this was brought on by your "magnetic" personality that attracted all those fast women to you.

[Eric Keller]

I usually don't remember how much it hurts to hit myself with a hammer until I do it again. I laughed a couple of times during the story, tempered with horror at the thought of the magnets squashing your finger. I had a finger squashed by a timing belt once, not my favorite experience. Had to get a couple of stitches after it popped.

A couple of my student groups used high-strength magnets for their projects. They are just amazing. And also a real pain (sometimes literally) to work with. Magnet vendors send you a stack of magnets put together. So your first job is to separate them somehow. Then they want to jump back together, and probably crack.

[Larry Edgerton]

It would be interesting to know how they cleaned the magnet from metallic junk in the paper plant, they must have had some sort of cover over it that you could pull off to drop the dross..

I was kind of wondering that myself. I can't really say where they came from but you have the end product in your wallet, so I would say that money was no object. We have a place up here, Industrial Magnetics, that makes all kinds of stuff and I have one of their roll around nail picker uppers, but it is simple, You pull a lever and it picks the magnet away from the metal plate on the bottom. Maybe something along those lines.

Glad some of you guys are getting a chuckle as was intended. I was worried that I had stumbled into a SawStop convention.

[John K Jordan]

Glad some of you guys are getting a chuckle as was intended. I was worried that I had stumbled into a SawStop convention.

You story did remind me a bit about my incident with the super glue at the lathe. I glued my fingers to something on the lathe, I couldn't reach the debonder and no else one was home. The only think useful I could reach was a sharp scalpel. I didn't lose much skin.

JKJ

[Steve Peterson]

I can't believe that you typed that entire story with one hand. See if you can also take picture with one hand and post it to help me understand the situation better.

Steve

[John K Jordan]

...I'm having no trouble imagining what happened to you, but lots of trouble imagining magnets that small doing it...

I'm imagining the forces from a row of magnets on an 18" rigid bar being attracted to another 18" row with the force from a long lever on the finger. The way the poles were orientated could make a big difference, but there are too many unknowns to estimate.

JKJ

[Paul K. Johnson]

Well....

I make a magnetic fixture system that I sell and I play with all kinds of magnets. A few years ago just for kicks I bought some pretty large rare-earth magnets and the place I bought them from explicitly warned that if you get a part of your body (like your hand, for example) between two of these magnets they can crush your bones to powder.

I can't pull several of them from a piece of metal. I have to put a lot of force into sliding them off the edge of the board.

I actually have no use for these magnets but the price was right and I figured they'd amuse me for a while before they collect dust the rest of their lives and one day I might accidentally drop an out-board motor in a lake accidentally and need to pull it out.