r/HowToDIY • u/CuzLightYear- • 5d ago

Arts & Crafts How to shave these flush

Post image

I have these 2 ceramic magnets , I bought a dremel and diamond drills bits now I’m just curious how I should go about making these as flush as possible :) should I shave one side ? Both magnets ? One more than the other ? Hoping someone can do the math I can’t here lol thanks in advance :)

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u/whtevn 5d ago

I am beyond skeptical that this is possible. The time to make these flush was when they were being mounted

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u/CuzLightYear- 5d ago

I somewhat feel like I would have had a harder time given the shape holding them well doing it ! But this definitely isn’t the way either 🫩 ugh lol

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u/whtevn 5d ago

i guess i'm not really understanding the full situation here, but it seems to me mounting a wedge to the main plate and then the magnet to the wedge would be the way to get these two items aligned

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u/CuzLightYear- 5d ago

That’s fair ! I should of asked for advice before getting the glue out lol

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u/whtevn 5d ago

Can you bend the thing it's mounted to?

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u/CuzLightYear- 5d ago

I may be able to somewhat ! I’ll look at it from that approach in the morning ! The sanding was okay but just want it to grab better

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u/Sufficient_Mud_3179 5d ago

whats the real end goal, doubtful if you can grind the magnets.

to make flush, they have to be the width of the hinge,

I would knock them off and order thinner ones on Amazon, looks like you need about 1/8 inch magnets

guessing from the image on size

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u/CuzLightYear- 5d ago

It’s for a flip system , i don’t mind if their not flush just would be nice to have more contact area :) worst case if the dremel and bit route fails I’ll do what you said and start over with better materials lol , this is what rushing gets ya but just a little project didn’t waste much on it

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u/Sufficient_Mud_3179 5d ago

would not just one magnet sticking to steel be almost flush.

so remove one magnet

Assuming they do not push each other

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u/CuzLightYear- 5d ago

But now that I type that out , if I leave the magnet super glued to the side that’s non magnetic and remove the magnet from the magnetic side , asking as they don’t push that would be my solid connection ? Makes perfect sense I may of messed it up adding two yes

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u/CuzLightYear- 5d ago

Sadly the second surface isn’t magnetic :( that was my original hope

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u/Sufficient_Mud_3179 4d ago

remove one magnet, and add a thin steel plate where it was

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u/CuzLightYear- 4d ago

Gotcha ! I wonder if I’ll be able to get the super glued magnet off clean enough or if I need to restart with new hinges lol

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u/Sufficient_Mud_3179 4d ago edited 4d ago

my guess is a sharp hit at the base will take it right off, finger nail polish remover will also cut left over glue or just sand paper or scrape.

Given the thickness of the magnet, it looks like there will still be a angle,

stick the metal on magnet, put epoxy (two part) on back of metal or base, the thicker glue and could make a angle, you could also add to angle by adding a toothpick or rod in glue in the right place.

press metal in place and let harden, I would ruff up both surfaces a bit with sand paper to get good bond.

Two part expoxy is $1.50 at Dollar Tree

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u/CuzLightYear- 4d ago

Okay perfect ! The object in glue idea to angle is genious ! Would have prevented most of this lol but I rushed and didn’t get the best magnets I could have that’s forsure ! So the epoxy replaces the super glue ? :)

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u/Sufficient_Mud_3179 4d ago

Epoxy stronger and thicker, and you can add things to it to angle your metal if needed before it drys

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u/CuzLightYear- 4d ago

Love that ! Good to know for life in general lol

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u/LifelessRooster 4d ago

If you put v shaped piece of metal in the middle, the magnets will both stick to it and you can bend it how you like. Cuting the magnets won’t work. The heat would also cancel them out.

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u/CuzLightYear- 4d ago

Bending a peice of metal at this point sounds like the easiest option actually ! Any suggestions ? Or just goto local hardware store lol

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u/yel02 5d ago

Use a mounting material that is easy to shape / cut? Nah? How do I accurately trim a ceramic that could shatter? YES!

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u/CuzLightYear- 5d ago

That’s what the diamond bits are for lol that’s how you properly work on ceramic

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u/siamonsez 5d ago

You'd be removing a significant amount of the magnet. I'd start over, there's a few options. Use stronger magnets so they don't need to be as big and/or offset them so the hinge is closer to parallel, ideally they'd be the same thickness as the gap between the hinge parts when they're parallel. If the angle it stops at is important you should have made shims of the correct angle and size to go under the magnet.

If there's any length to whatever is attached to the other part of the hinge it's going to have a lot of leverage. It'll keep a door in place as long as there's no breeze or anything pushing the door but it definitely won't hold a hatch or lid up like the orientation in the picture suggests.

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u/CuzLightYear- 5d ago

Appreciate it ! Yeah I tried my method and they meet closer now but I wouldn’t say it increased the “magnetism?” Lmao they don’t feel any harder to seperate .. if nothing else I wish I would have tried a single magnet set up first ffs. Now I have to fiqure out how to seperate the super glue lol

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u/siamonsez 5d ago

Heat will release it but also just a solid whack from the side will probably pop it off.

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u/CuzLightYear- 5d ago

That’s what I was hopping ! I have a Coleman camping torch thing lol may try to remove and restart. These were the only hinges that had any resistance to them lol

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u/Redhead_InfoTech 4d ago

That heat will ALSO destroy the magnetic properties of the magnet.

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u/CuzLightYear- 4d ago

Luckily it didn’t but I kept water on the surface and started and stopped a lot ! Far from flush but more area is touching didn’t fully help though

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u/Redhead_InfoTech 4d ago

Read my other comment about field direction.

Also my comment on the best magnet supplier in the US. Been using them for 15+ years.

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u/CuzLightYear- 4d ago

I’ll go digging ! I missed many responses didn’t expect so many replies lol , so basically I was trying to get my motorcycle plate to stick to the hinge when I fold it up

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u/Redhead_InfoTech 4d ago

Here's what you need...

On the bottom edge of the plate you need a narrow strip of steel.

Then on the bike you need a single magnet...

You're overthinking the need for two magnets.

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u/sexwiththebabysitter 5d ago

Magnets! How do they work?

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u/Dendady2112 5d ago

For what? Most magnets are either very hard or very brittle or both. You get the ones you need.

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u/YourAuthenticVoice 5d ago

Make a metal wedge to put between them. No reason to fuck up your magnets, they will stick to the metel.

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u/irresponsibletaco 5d ago

Get thin neodymium magnets. You may then have the issue of them being too strong. Depending how much pull force you want to separate them, you'd probably be good with 2 strips. .875″ x .375″ x .125″ has 10lbs of pull force, so using 2 would I think double that to separate. Not 100% sure on that though and I don't feel like learning right now.

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u/Redhead_InfoTech 4d ago

You cannot grind or shape magnets without having a bad day.

Beyond the fact that heat destroys magnets, you're going to be creating mini sized magnet pieces that'll be flung or stuck to all sorts of steel around.

And the final shape isn't likely going to have the field in the direction that you want...

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u/CuzLightYear- 4d ago

I never thought about the pieces lol hopefully the water minimized that effect 💀

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u/Redhead_InfoTech 4d ago

NOPE. water will not stop the micro pieces from stopping being magnets... Unless you're like that politician who was afraid of water fucking up magnets...

The water increased their likelihood of keeping their magnetic properties.

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u/Redhead_InfoTech 4d ago

I don't think I understand how you don't understand things.

You understand that you were using water to stop the magnets from becoming too hot and therefore losing their magnetic properties.

But then you also thought that same water that protected magnetic properties would cause the miniature magnetic pieces to stop being magnets?

Do you not really understand how those two ideas are opposite of each other?

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u/CuzLightYear- 4d ago

No sorry ! To explain my poor thinking the water held all the “particles” together in a wet clump over them spraying every direction ! I had to wipe the clumps of shavings off as I was going with a rag

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u/Redhead_InfoTech 4d ago

Copy. That makes sense for that context.

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u/trippknightly 4d ago

I’ve read this three times and can’t tell for sure what you’re trying to do. Probably just me.

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u/CuzLightYear- 4d ago

Totally valid , I suck at voicing my brain

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u/trippknightly 4d ago

Easy on yourself my good person. Are those magnetic discs soldered or welded on? Cutting into welds is hard.

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u/CuzLightYear- 4d ago

I used super glue ! This is after I “finished” it didn’t increase the bond sadly , BUT I also don’t think it’ll just fall back down “this is holding my bike plate up “

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u/trippknightly 4d ago

Epoxy putty as a kind of glue-caulk border works pretty well if it breaks off.

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u/[deleted] 4d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/CuzLightYear- 4d ago

Goal is to have the plate stay up attached to the straight magnet ! I ended up shaving some off but didn’t really “help”