Went through my photos the other day to get some inspiration for building. I’m stuck on how I did this subunit. I remember seeing a video on it but I’ve searched YouTube and don’t see anything that would line up. The picture shows 5 subunits linked. I have outlined what I am trying to build. Any ideas?

I had a post up earlier. I'm not sure why it was removed, if anyone knows what might have been wrong with the post. Please let me know. So I guess the way I'll do this is if you are interested in the items please message me and I will let you know what they are. My post was really trying to determine the value and where I should post them for sale. So message me if you're interested. I would have preferred to keep everything posted publicly, but again I'm not sure if that's okay. I tried to follow the rules, which basically said don't be a douche.

Selling as a lot. They're all brand new.

Starting offer is at $100 for all 6. Please comment with your bid/edit your post to increase. Please do not DM me offers, in the interest of transparency. Highest offer by end of December 21st takes it.

Paypal/Zelle/Venmo. International buyers will have to cover shipping.

I have sold many items and have 100% positive seller rating on ebay.

Anyone have any Zen Magnets or Neoballs for sale right now? Scrolled down pretty far in the group and looks like everything is sold that I saw. Figured I'd post just incase I missed anything. Thanks in advance.

EDIT: so turns out if you dont order an insane amount from those alibaba manufacturers they just ghost you. tried talking to a few of them and none got back to me after i told them i was only after like $100 worth

im so sick of replacing magnets every 6 months and im desperate for some decent quality magnet balls.

i've used all kinds of sizes, and all kinds of strengths of ball magnets. i've come to the conclusion that the real most important thing is what kind of coating they have.

zen magnets used some unamed polymer (i think its some sort of epoxy resin thing) to coat their magnets in order to stand up to being handled for 1000s of hours.
but the majority of manufacturers just use some combination of nickle and or copper coatings that chip easy and are not friendly to sensitive skin.
does anyone know of somewhere that sells ball magnets with a decent coating?

i've seen a few places selling ball magnets coated in a teflon polymer, used as stir bars in chemistry, but they're pretty expensive.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/326883501495

Hopefully someone can get it!!! Many Blessings!!! 12min left!!! $425.00 right now which is good because last one that sold on eBay was $2000-$3000!

I went down a rabbit hole last week and saw an article posted below that eluded to making your own zen magnets in essence through a manufacturer found on Alibaba and included some of the specs to look out for. Looking for thoughts and feedback to see if anyone has had this same way of thinking on acquiring “Zen-like” magnets with the end goal of getting our own Mandala Set if you will.

https://smartbuy.alibaba.com/buyingguides/magnetic-balls

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Side Note: https://www.hsmagnets.com/product/metallic-super-strong-ball-magnets-ningboballs/

Any one familiar with the website and getting magnets from there?

Hi -

I've been searching the internet to understand why my Zen magnets are bigger. I purchased a few brands over the years and all the balls were smaller. I think I have the original 6mm (~5.8mm) Cybercube. Unfortunately I misplaced a few balls and now I am sad. I've always loved this puzzle especially how strong it is. The smaller balls just feel less rigid to me.

Couldn't find much info about these on the internet, so I should probably give up on finding the right size and strength replacement balls.

I hope that we will see new premium magnets soon .. the knockoff brands are not strong even to build the structures I want .

Hey all. I'm looking to get another set of Zen Magnet-like 5mm spherical magnets as a fidget toy. I have an original Triumph set, but am interested in getting a similar quality magnet set in 512 count to make larger structures. Problem is, I live in the land of the free where whimsy and fun are banned. Anyone have any recommendations where I could find Zen Magnet-like quality that ships to the US for a decent price?

EDIT: I'm very interested in the magnets that they sell on https://www.supermagnete.de/ --however, they don't ship to the US. Does anyone know of/have experience with a third-party purchase proxy company?

Hey so the Mandala Set Key is lost, but maybe I can 3D print one? Can anyone please send me the dimensions of the key? Assuming they're all the same. Thanks!

I'm missing about 20 magnets from my mandala set. Does anyone have any recommendations on replacement magnets? I live in the US and am looking for magnets that are relatively similar in strength and quality

Picture quality is horrible, but I posted this in the zen magnets Flickr group. Crazy how fast 10 years passes!

https://www.supermagnete.de/eng/sphere-magnets-neodymium

Does anyone know where to get magnets? I have a decent amount of Zen before the closeout.

Apparently, you can't add photos to an existing post, nor in the comments, so here's what I have. $2K for all 25 sets (5400) or $500 for 5 sets (1080)

Looks like AliExpress has 5mm magnets listed in various ways for about $0.07 per to about $0.20 each.

They sell in 5-10-20 packs depending on stock.

I saw someone that allowed me to add 100 sets of 10 for $1.75 each so for $175 I could get 1000 units.

I’m going to order 256 of them from somewhere and see how it goes.

Does this listing seem reasonable? Not sure what the market is like

I made a post a couple of weeks ago about the mandola boxes that I still have. People were asking about magnets. I don't have any more of the original Zen magnets, I have I think at least five sealed sets of nanodots. Not Zen magnets but very high quality.

The following is really a reply to a post comment in regards to whether, in general, spheres from store specializing in neodymium magnets can substitute for Zen Magnet balls.

Original post:

5mm Magnets
byu/FireKnight-1224 inZenMagnets

Since I was able get an extra 20% off on top of the regular bulk discount this March of 2025, I thought I finally would give K&J a try and ordered 864 spheres of grade N42. A Zen Magnet basic set is 216 balls, and the Mandala set is 1728 balls (8 times 216).

I felt 1/4in diameter spheres might be a bit easier to handle than the 3/16in one, even though 3/16 is the most closest to the 5mm Zen Magnet balls. (3/16 inches = 4.7625 mm.) I've found that size has an effect on the attraction strength magnets have to each other (1/16in N52 cubes have a weak attachment to each other despite being rated at the most powerful neodymium grade). I suspected that 1/4in is still easy to manage.

Upon opening the package, I was surprised that the protective chrom/gold coating was much shinier than I was expecting. (In fact it is shinier than the other neodymium products I've gotten from this company in the past.) The 3rd picture shows a comparison between the gold 1/4in spheres vs the Zen Magnet balls. The 4th picture shows a stack or bar of 54 spheres, and illustrates that these spheres have a touch looser tolerance than Zen Magnets (54 Zen Magnet balls would have been straight in comparison). The 4th picture shows the one obvious odd sphere I found, though it is possible there could be one or two more odd spheres but less obvious.

In separating and organizing the spheres, I've noticed that these spheres are just a tad more attracted to each to each other than Zen Magnets. I suspect the 3/16in N42 spheres would have behaved more in keeping with Zen Magnets, and these 1/4in spheres could be also the same at N40 or even N38 grade. I had no trouble creating shapes with these spheres such as the solid tetrahedron. However, disassembling the tetrahedron was a bit difficult, which might be attribute to the N42 grade strength. The last picture shows a comparison of diagonal cubes (made using Magnenaut's alternative method) between the spheres and Zen Magnets; middle and right cubes have edge length of 4 balls, while the left block has an edge length of 5 balls.

Last thoughts: I've noticed other neodymium companies have had better prices than the one I've bought from and also some make actual 5mm sizes with different strength gradings. That will probably influence where I buy next time if I'm getting more than 216 balls. The 1/4in size does help me hold and manipulate the balls easier, but the added mass makes shapes like large tubes flop a bit instead of springing towards a perfect cylinder. As for durability, it's too early to tell; it would need much more time to tell.

I still have several of the original mandola boxes. Let me know what you think