# Has Anyone Made A Magnetic Face Plate With Hard Drive Magnets



## Ed ke6bnl (Dec 2, 2016)

I picked up a few very strong hard drive magnets from ebay. I was wonder what your thoughts are of fastening them to a round al. plate and then fasting that to my face plate to do some light turnin work on the lathe of some thin piece like washers and things.


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## JimDawson (Dec 2, 2016)

Magnets don't hold very well in shear.  That's how you get them off of stuff.  They do hold well in tension.  It would seem to me that trying to hold something on a faceplate and cutting it would put the forces in shear.

I think the magnet would hold the part to the face late, but you would have to have something to keep the part from sliding off of the magnet.


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## Ed ke6bnl (Dec 2, 2016)

I think you are correct it what you say but, they do make mag chuck for the lathe and used regularly on my low level surface grinder. I quess it comes down to size and shape of the part and the cuts you make.


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## JimDawson (Dec 2, 2016)

Pretty much. Can't hurt to do some experiments, but keep your body parts out of the line of fire


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## Ed ke6bnl (Dec 2, 2016)

absolutely stay clear of flying object, will give it a try when I get some free time


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## hman (Dec 2, 2016)

The nice thing about hard drive magnets is that they have a pretty good surface area to thickness ratio ... but be careful to match them for thickness!  And of course, if you're holding something that the magnets attract, they'll love the swarf, too.  Cleanup might become an issue.  I'm not familiar with magnetic chucks for lathes.  Do they have an on/off function like the ones on surface grinders?


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## Ed ke6bnl (Dec 2, 2016)

that is true the mag chuck for a lathe has an on off and your are very correct every shaving will be stuck to the magnet


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## rrjohnso2000 (Dec 2, 2016)

For small items and light weight turning some double sided tape works well. The times that need a little more holding power I use 5 min epoxy. It will chip right off with a razor blade.


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