rare earth magnet...

My dad used to go get mercury by the jarful to play with when he was a kid. Just went to the local refinery, I guess they use it for oil refining somehow maybe. He seems fine, though admittedly, he never drank the stuff.

Pi R Squared said:

I would think these would also be a hazard when shipping, :thinking: unless they ship in a stainless steel box but that would be expensive. I hope they ship them in a large box with the magnet carefully packed in the middle of the box.

Alan

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The large magnets are usually packed with Styrofoam and thin iron plates around it , even then the 6" x 2" cause things like cutlery knifes to get pulled towards it at close range .

KapHn8d said:

pee ess. I also wish mercury wasn't as toxic. That stuff is just cool.

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Look into Gallium, just as much fun, if not more, but nontoxic.

Pi R Squared said:

I wish I had balls like that.



I would think these would also be a hazard when shipping, :thinking: unless they ship in a stainless steel box but that would be expensive. I hope they ship them in a large box with the magnet carefully packed in the middle of the box.

Alan

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I bought them when I was making lots of extra money working as a contractor in Afghanistan, spent about 1000 dollars on them and when I tried to mail them home they said magnets aren't allowed! No problem mailing them in on their planes, but they won't let you send them out. I found a way to get them home anyway, I plead the 5th how.

Im tempted to get a bunch of them now and a long spool of copper wire and make a generator.

I bought a 2x2x1 N52 for work. (opening some locks)

I can't have it closer than arms length due to my pacemaker because it will literally pull the wires through the veins and kill me.

I found that out after I bought it and did some reading. It will pull a dinner knife off the table through my wires hand from several inches away.

VERY cool magnets, but can be very dangerous. I now keep mine in a corner of the car so I don't accidentally come near it at home. - makes my worry that I bought it in the first place, I should have known better with the pacemaker.

icecruncher said:

I can't have it closer than arms length due to my pacemaker because it will literally pull the wires through the veins and kill me.

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Are you sure that's the reason?? I wouldn't think iron or steel is an ideal material to make electrical wire out of.

Early pacemakers used to have a magnet and coil arrangement in them that would allow a user to place a special receiver externally over the pacemaker to transmit performance data over the phone to the user's doctor. My grandfather had such a pacemaker. I don't know much about the construction details (whether it was a simple induction coil and the magnet was external in the receiver, or if it was internal, or if it is just a hall effect sensor internally, etc) but I remember he had to avoid strong magnetic fields as well.

Pi R Squared said:

I would think these would also be a hazard when shipping, :thinking: unless they ship in a stainless steel box but that would be expensive. I hope they ship them in a large box with the magnet carefully packed in the middle of the box.

Alan

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This is how big magnets are shipped. The company he bought it from uses bigger boxes now but with the same technique.

Sigurthr said:

Early pacemakers used to have a magnet and coil arrangement in them that would allow a user to place a special receiver externally over the pacemaker to transmit performance data over the phone to the user's doctor. My grandfather had such a pacemaker. I don't know much about the construction details (whether it was a simple induction coil and the magnet was external in the receiver, or if it was internal, or if it is just a hall effect sensor internally, etc) but I remember he had to avoid strong magnetic fields as well.

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Still the same in the new ones from medtronic

The wires that run from the pacemaker into the heart are the main issue.

I have one of the analog phone devices that sends signals from my pacemaker to the doctor and it includes a medium strength magnet that interrupts the signal if placed directly over the pacemaker - for checking operation.

No issues with anything like microwaves or other waves. Just strong Magnetic waves, like an MRI.

I'm early 50's and this year it will be my 3rd one they have to put in after the battery dies. Got first in early 30's

It kind of stinks, I love to fool around with magnets. Now I have to be more careful.

N52's are very cool, especially the bigger ones.

LtKernelPanic said:

This is how big magnets are shipped. The company he bought it from uses bigger boxes now but with the same technique.

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Same way I got mine, I was surprised how big a box they used for a little 2x2x1 magnet.

@icecruncher any chance at requesting a RTG (radiothermal generator) Pacemaker this time? They generally last 20 years afaik. Plus then you can say you're walking around with plutonium keeping you alive!