Top 10 Magnet Hacks
They were the coolest part of primary school science, and they’re still one of the neatest way to stick things together and stir up a little homespun magic. Check out our 10 favourite ways bloggers, Lifehacker readers, and other creative types use mother nature to make life better.
Photo by oskay.
10. Poster wall without holes
As with another of these 10 hacks, magnetic paint is the key ingredient here, but this time it’s a primer layered underneath the wall colour of your choice. With your metallic base spread around a wall, you can glue or tape magnets to your posters, LP covers, photographs, or whatever else you want to collage and arrange, the stick it up to the wall magnet-style without worrying about pin holes, adhesive damage, or anything else, really. It’s like a crayon wall for adults.
9. Clean aquariums and other hard-to-reach glass
Emptying all of an aquarium’s water out and finding temporary homes for all your fishy friends is a big hassle, but that tank still needs cleaning. Embed a magnet inside a sponge with a thin-bladed knife and a little thumb pushing, and you can use another strong magnet to guide it around your aquatic realm to pick up the grime off the walls without too much disturbance. Depending on your setup, you’ll still need to occasionally empty out your tank for water quality purposes, but far less frequently.
8. Doorstop Laptop Stand
Fair warning on this one: Not everybody likes the idea of putting magnets near their computer, especially when it comes to hard drives. Then again, Apple lets similarly low-powered magnets clasp onto their power cords, and most hard drives aren’t going to be affected by little disks just powerful enough to keep a couple of doorstops in place and upright in this doorstop laptop stand. As with all things magnetic, the laptop “feet” stay in place when you move around, but come off when you give them a halfway firm yank.
7. Magnetic bookmarks from fridge stickers
Your fridge never lacks for thin, flat, promotional magnets from stores, services, and perhaps crafty friends, but you really don’t need all those calendars, recipes, and save the date notices. Use a pair of scissors and some tape to cut them in half, hinge them, and turn them into magnetic bookmarks. Why magnetic? They stay put in your book and won’t slide out due to gravity or annoying book browsers.
6. DIY magnetic fridge pen
This tiny but essential hack, along with a similar, previously posted technique, seems unnecessary until you consider just how many pens you really lose every year to drawers, spaces under appliances, couches and other household black holes. When the pen sticks to the fridge or any other metal surface, you’re more likely to put it back, and it’s always there when you need it. Try to pocket it, and you’ll hopefully notice its heft and be guilted into returning it to its proper home.
5. Stick anywhere spice rack
Most cupboards fail at making your spices handily available because they’re horizontal surfaces. The basil is behind the cumin, the cumin’s hidden behind the allspice, and it takes an obsessive librarian to keep it all straight all the time. Using a few metal tins, a hot glue gun and some strong magnets, one seemingly defeated cook turned their stove into a spice holder, then later converted part of a kitchen wall for the task. Now the cabinet is for baking supplies only, and the spices, with a good label maker, are easily found.
4. Cheap speaker mobile phone shielding
Do your alarm clock or computer speakers spazz out a second or two before you get a call, or when your smartphone is checking messages? That’s because the cables leading to barely shielded speakers act like big antennas for the GSM traffic to and from your phone. The solution isn’t a bigger speaker—it’s ferrite beads, those cylinders of metal that make up the little nub on your USB cables. Cut one out of an unused cable or buy a few at a supply store, and tape the bead onto the speaker’s cable. Now your speakers don’t get your calls before you do. Note: Ferrite beads aren’t always magnetic—they’re really just hunks of iron that often have magnetic properties.
3. Magnetic whiteboard
How amazing is magnetic paint? Find a space on a wall where you want to pin your stuff, apply a few layers in the shape of your choice, paint over that with whiteboard paint, and use it for both magnets and quick doodles. For the artistically inclined, there’s also the incentive to creatively shape it, as with the pictured speech bubble creation.
2. Trip-safe power cord
MacBooks have a good number of thoughtful hardware features, including a magnetically-attached power cord that’s strong enough to stick, but won’t drag your laptop down if it’s yanked on. If you’ve got a free afternoon and the will to attach some reliable magnets to your ThinkPad or other laptop, you’ll get a nice little non-destructive hack that makes your power cord powerfully adhesive, yet easy to pull away.
1. Wall-mounted magnetic knife block
Instead of spending money and counter space on a big brick of wood, plastic, or whatever else, keep your knives elevated and accessible with a magnetic knife block. They sell these things at fancy kitchen stores for a hefty markup, but making your own is a simple affair, and you get to choose the wood colour and stain that best suits your kitchen. Obviously, you should keep it at a height that’s safe for noggins and kids, but you’ll come to love the second-nature convenience of grabbing a chopping tool off the wall.
There are lots of other ways polarised metals can come in handy—weblog Evil Mad Scientist, for example, has 17 more—and we’d love to hear about any you’ve come across or are using in your own secret lair/office. Drop a link or describe your favourites in the comments.
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Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
You should never have to completely empty out your aquarium unless you are moving it or taking it down or you have an extreme case of something weird. Normal maintenance is a 20% water change. Getting rid of all the water can have damaging effects on your tank.
gforster
Stick anywhere Spice Racks are the most awesome spice holders ever.
@Fabrictramp: Well, I taped a metal ruler to my sliding closet's door. Then, I just use magnets to keep my calender on it.
Charles Ip
Tip #5 -- using your stove as a spice holder. What a great way to make sure your spices aren't worth finding. Heat is the enemy of herbs and spices.
Fabrictramp
@saif32: The paint is not magnetic at all. The "magnetic paints" on the market just have a lot of iron in them, which allows a very strong magnet to stick to the wall. Not putting a thick enough coat of the paint on, having a textured wall, not having a strong enough magnet, and putting a lot of paint over it will all affect the holding power.
Fabrictramp
@saif32: When does it get to 100 degrees inside?
OMG! Pwnies!
@WhACKSTER: I can't speak from personally trying this method, but it sounds brilliant!
mahumphrey
I have yet to find an application of magnets that doesn't feel futuristic and awesome.
I use magnets to keep my remotes hanging on the wall, usually you just need to fix a magnet on to the place where you want the remote to go, and the batteries inside are enough to keep it there ;)
@team.bates: Perhaps a Faraday cage?
Regarding #4, I have a GSM problem that doesn't have any wires to it. I have to do interviews over the phone alot, but my phone interferes with my voice recorder and essentially ruins my copy of interviews. Is there a ferric bead-type solution that will prevent the recorder from channeling this interference?
team.bates
I actually bought tins like in #5 at ikea once, though I don't know if they still have it or if their range of products varies in different countries... still, those who don't feel like making them themselves might want to check it out.
Slart
About the magnetic wall, the magnetic paint will lose its magnetic capabilities after a 100 degree day, since it's a very thin layer of magnetic power.
Amirite?
@Phoshi: I have yet to find an application of magnets that doesn't cause worry about wiping data or credit cards as wallets and thumb drives get moved around the house "involuntarily" by little hands that don't know any better.
TheFu
@Fabrictramp: well i mean, apparently it works, because someone suggested it, and they wouldnt do that unless it did. plus, you're just holding paper so it wouldnt take much.
Tony Bombardo
@Slart: Found my set at the Container Store. Only drawback is that the garlic salt gets under the lid and makes it next to impossible to twist.
rlee
About the Magsafe? I saw a MacBook once that was being dragged away (on a cart) from the plug, and it went *THWUMP* onto the floor and broke the LCD screen. Don't trust them!
OMG! Penguins!
I have a large frame mounted to my wall on a piano hinge. It displays currency from places I've visited and it's glass front and back so you can see both sides. It's balanced really well so it is able to swing easily and I needed a way to keep it from swinging away from the wall. I took a tiny rare earth magnet, epoxied it to the wall under the lower swinging corner, and even though the whole thing weighs about 70 pounds, that one tiny magnet (maybe 1/4" across) holds it tight. My 5-year old calls it the Ooohh Ahhh picture cause that's what she says when we swing it back and forth :-) Magnets rock!!
Jason
@Fabrictramp: Hmm . . . I always thought British cooking was the enemy of herbs and spices. My bad. :-)
Jason
My shower door opened at the slightest touch, basically defeating its purpose. Two powerful bar magnets, one glued to the door, and the other to the door frame solved the problem brilliantly. It now takes a decent push to open the door, and since I mounted them at the bottom of the door, their not even noticeable.
JPS99
@wewillchange: That it has.
@team.bates: Try wrapping your voice recorder in aluminum foil and just poke a few holes where the microphone hole is. The aluminum is a conductor and should prevent the magnetic field emitted by your phone from interfering with the recorder's internal wiring, unless it happens to get through the small microphone hole (which is a much smaller chance).
I slipped a small & strong magnet under the end-cap of my walking stick. Now I can pick up washers and screws without bending over, and the whole thing goes where I go!
@.357: And the star has arrived.
@OMG! Penguins!: I don't really see the point in them anyway.
tylerf
@guardianfox: Thats a very good idea!
tylerf
@citizensmith: Aren't you meant to at first, leave the water at first before fish in the fish tank for a week or two before anyway, so changing the entire water would mean having to wait that time again before fish could go back in... 20% is about enough, and if you do it often then its not going to be unclean water.
tylerf
You can also buy magentic paper. You can print on it then cut it out and stick it to, say, your magnetic whiteboard.
BishopBlaze
if you have a pair of metal collar stays and some small magnets, you can make a your own pair of these..
[www.wurkinstiffs.com]
@gforster: Agreed. And this hack is pretty sad. Particularly as effective, well made, and cheap versions of it have existed for ages. OK, I guess they are pretty obscure, you'd be lucky to ever find one. Unless you walked into a pet shop.
citizensmith
@saif32: dont do the whiteboard project. see my post in the comment section for that project.
fiman16
I didn't know magnetic paint existed. Neat.
Some neat stuff here. I especially like the metallic primer for the poster magnets. A bonus to this is I would finally be able to get rid of my tinfoil hat.
lhed
@TheFu: afaik, flash memory will not be damaged by exposure to magnetic fields.
sn1per420
@guardianfox: Be careful when you go into the MRI room w/ a patient, House.
@saif32:
urwrong!
The other comment about magnetic paint being filled with iron filings is correct. For cheaper magnetic paint, but your iron filings separately (which are super cheap as an industrial waste product) and have them mixed into your paint.
Super magnetic wall?
Mix your iron filings with a mixture of wheat paste so there is a ton of iron in it. Paste that on. Wait till it's dry. Then paint over it.
Want that super magnetic wall to be smooth?
Use spray lacquer (so it's clear) and sand between finishes till it's as smooth as you want and then paint over that.
AwesomeJerkface
Don't buy magnetic paint. It's expensive and usually not that well "concentrated".
Instead, buy iron filings and have whoever is mixing your paint put that in with your coloring so it's mixed well.
AwesomeJerkface
I LOVE that you use Creative Commons images. I HATE that you don't attribute on the front page.
Any use of the image must be attributed.
@OMG! Penguins!: Yup. About a month ago I was in a coffee shop and woman was determined to run her cord across the aisle of foot traffic. I offered to swap seats with her so she could get the hazzard out of the way (I was right next to an unused outlet) but she explained that she had a magsafe plug.
I didn't try to argue.
Thirty minutes later someone runs by, catches her cord and it yanks her Macbook to the floor, causing traumatic damage. Broken glass, split open case. It was surprising how much damage a short fall onto stone could do.
The little magnetic cord attachment on my gf's MacBook (that I'm using while my lappy is in for repairs) is one of the most annoying features.
Sure, it's a little neat that if you're dumb enough to run your cord across a footpath it might keep someone from kicking it into the floor, but every damn time I reposition the stupid thing or move around on the couch or something, it pops loose. If you're stock-still, it stays in place. Anything else? Get ready to reattach the stupid thing.
Grungydan
Since putting high-powered magnets on all the water inlets in my house, there's been a noticeable difference in the amount of limescale buildup in my kitchen appliances & bathrooms.
test
bradltaylor
We use a small pointy magnet attached to our dog bowl to indicate if the dog has been fed. This saves a lot of confusion if you share feeding between 2 or more people
1) Write the following on the outside of the bowl "Dog is fed AM (*) PM" using a permanent marker.
2) Place the magnet on the (*). You can use a second magnet on the back of the bowl to hold it in place.
3) After feeding the dog, point the magnet to AM or PM.
"Dog is fed AM
or
"Dog is fed AM O> PM"
Pics: [blt-thingsiwanttodo.blogspot.com]
bradltaylor
Anybody want to bet how long it takes the dog to figure out that if it eats the magnet, it gets fed twice?
Counterglow
Please Lifehacker, whenever you have a post on magnets, please please please include a warning to keep them away from young kids. Maybe it may sound obvious, but a lot of people do not know how dangerous these things can be.
Kids have died from eating two magnets and those really strong little magnets are deadly. It's not an old wives tale: [www.chicagotribune.com]
This has been noted by other commenters and myself in a previous post on cool things to do with magnets but it needs to be there as a warning in the post as not everyone will diligently read through all the comments.
KittyKittyKitty
@Ookseer: Yep. What most people don't realise is it's not as safe as it's made out to be. It's designed so that it comes out with a sideways yank, but the wrong angle can bring the laptop down with it!
I've pulled mine across the room with the 'magsafe' power cord before
I like the magnetic spice rack and the bookmarks. Im going to have to make some.
@AwesomeJerkface: Iron filing exposed to humidity have a tendancy to discolor EVERYTHING!
What should the ratio of paint to filings be?
Ryan Cherry
@rlee: I got some like this on sale at Superstore (Canadian) for 74 cents each. They're handy.
Oh, one thing about the "magnetic" (aka iron) paint. It shields. So if you paint all your walls and wonder why your cellphone or wifi isn't working right...
I wonder...I should look into copper-silver paint...wireless security paint AIN'T cheap...man...
SigmundTheSeaMonster
It's iron-power paint, not magnetic paint. There are no magnetic properties to the paint other than if applied evenly, will allow magnets to stick.
My ceramic knives do not work in this application.
The first picture of the Magnetix is funny because I thought they were banned for kids swallowing the magnetic pieces! (dumb kids=human cows)
Now magnetix have a plastic Guard around the metal balls. Thanks to lawyers of parents of dumb kids and dumb kids everywhere, you pay more for the "Small parts Warning Label!"
SigmundTheSeaMonster
@bradltaylor: Test successful?
Duckspwn Fumoffu! Refuses to put OMG! in his name.
I use a small "super" magnet (about the size of a thumbnail) as a tool to catch swarf when i am drilling steel / iron etc...
madjack1987
I had a magnetic whiteboard (Nr.3) already, but doing Nr.6 the magnetic pen trick, only with the whiteboard markers instead of a bic pen (obviously) worked really well. Not to mention looking awesome!
As an added bonus people are in my experience less likely to steal a whiteboard marker than a regular pen, probably because they don't really write all that well on regular paper, which means they wont disappear on you. (well not as fast anyway)
Btw, the whiteboard paint works pretty well on a metallic fridge. If I don't have any scraps of paper to stick to it with magnets, I just write on the fridge door itself with a (magnetic!) whiteboard marker.
@TheFu: Heh all the stores and ATMs over here don't accept chipless cards, so I haven't used the actual magnetic stripe on my card in years, and like already mentioned USB drives (and regular hard drives for that matter) are completely unaffected by magnets.
Seriously, you can take one of those giant electromagnets used to lift cars at scrapyards and lift your HD with it, and it will do absolutely nothing to your data.
I wish someone would make a Mag-safe adapter for any laptop.
They could have different ones for different brands of laptops and plugs.
[i39.tinypic.com]
I have trouble with suction cups on windows, but two magnets, one outside and the other inside holding the hook does wonders (note: often you need a second person on the other side to initially put it in place--not good for high-rises)
Cornflower