Make some dancing robots using magnets!
Instead of just playing around with the magnets I bought on Ebay, I came up with something really cool. If you place a small washer on flat surface and move the magnet in a circle under the washer, it will abruptly change the direction of rotation.
As soon as I saw this, I simply had to create some new invention. As a result, these robot dancers appeared - the idea is not quite simple to execute, but the end result is just wonderful! Robots really look like dancing men, and what's good is that the mechanism that sets them in motion is not visible at all.
I chose the book as the dance floor for the robots because I wanted the book as the stand. You can take wooden box or cardboard box in which the motor will be hidden. But for me the book seemed the best option.
This is how the robots look “in action”:
And here's how they're made...
Step 1: Gathering Parts
materials
- hardcover book
- geared motor 3V, 15 rpm
- white LED switch
- 2 holders for LEDs
- old fuse
- copper tube - copper wire (thin)
- wire
- 2 magnets
- battery holder
- lever switch
- old electrical parts: resistors, transistors, potentiometers - everything that is. From all this we solder our robots.
- 2 pucks, as thin and shiny as possible.
Tools:
- hot glue
- soldering iron and solder
- pliers
- construction knife
Step 2: Making the Robot Legs
What parts the robot should consist of is up to you. Look at what is in the house from which it could be soldered - old electrical components, spare parts from the radio, everything that is not needed from this can be used in this project.
To begin, gather together all the parts that you think will be suitable for building a robot. Experiment with these details to find the best.
I had an old amp that I found in one of the neighbors' trash, and it had everything you need for robots.
Steps:
1. Collect spare parts in one place
2. For the legs I used a pair of transistors which I soldered to the switch as shown in the photo above.
3. After that, I bent the transistors outward a bit to give it a more leg-like shape.
Step 3: Attaching the arms and torso
Steps:
1. I took an old potentiometer as a torso. I took out the innards and used the body as the torso.
2. I attached a couple of resistors to the “torso” as arms. I had to tinker with soldering the arms to the body, but I still got my way. For better soldering, heat the case with a soldering iron and add a ball of solder to it before you try to connect the resistor. This should help.
3. I soldered an old diode on the front because I wanted retro robots. I just soldered the diode contacts to the body and cut off the excess.
Step 4: Adding the rest of the details.
Steps:
1. Then I made the heads for the robots. I thought for a long time what to take as a head, and in the end I chose an old phototransistor (it seems that this is it!).
2. I cut off the wires and attached the phototransistor to the torso with hot glue.
3. Then I glued the legs and torso in the same way.
4. Finally, I soldered a small washer to the legs. This is the most important part, as the puck is what will make our robots dancers!
Note A: The washers I used were very thin and well polished. This is really important, use as thin washers as possible. Thicker washers, which I also tried, gave the worst effect, did not work as they should.
5. I resoldered the legs to give the robot the effect of a moving man, you can see these changes in the photos from this step.
Step 5: Preparing the Book - Making the First Cut
The next step is to find the right book for embedding the battery, motor and magnets. Here is the most important point is the thickness of the book. It should be enough to fit all these details inside. I have a lot of books, so finding the right one was not difficult (the most difficult thing is just cutting out a blank from the book for all the spare parts!)
Steps:
1. First, draw a square in the center of the book. This is where we will place the motor and magnets later.
2. Start cutting the pages piece by piece and stop when you reach a depth of about 10mm.
3. In the center of the cut out square, measure another 15x15 mm square. Use a craft knife and cut through this smaller square all the way to the back cover.
Step 6: Stuffing the Book - Inserting the Battery
Steps:
1. Mark a place for batteries.
2. Cut a notch in the pages so that the batteries fit completely inside.
3. Cut a small "channel" in the book to connect to the motor, as shown in the photo above. This channel will be the wires from the battery to the motor.
4. It's time to connect the battery. You will need 3 wires. I used a computer cable, tied 3 wires together as shown in the photo. One wire connected to
- switch
- motor
- diode
Step 7: Stuffing the Book - Adding a Light and Switch
Now we need to add an on/off switch and a light. Actually, lighting is not a required component, so it's up to you whether to do it or not.
Steps:
1. Bend the copper tube as shown in the figure.
2. Pull the wire through it, making sure that there is a spare wire at both ends.
3. At the flat end of the tube, I fixed the holder for the diode. This is necessary to attach the tube to the book.
4. On the other end, I also fixed the holder for the diode, but in reverse. I also attached a fuse to the tip of the holder, after cutting off one metal tip. I simply inserted the fuse glass tube into the diode holder.
5. Then you need to attach the diode to the end copper tube, close it all with a diode holder with a fuse at the end.
7. Again make two channels in the book for wires, as shown in the photo.
Step 8: Stuffing the book - building in the motor
Man first met with a magnet in antiquity. However, very quickly, this natural stone ceased to satisfy the needs of people. It was then that the technology for manufacturing magnets was developed. Of course, a lot of time has passed since then. The technology has changed significantly, and now it is possible to make a magnet at home. You do not need to have special skills and knowledge for this. Enough to have everything at hand necessary materials and tools. So, the manufacture of the magnet is as follows.
Soft magnetic materials
All materials capable of magnetization can be divided into soft magnetic and hard magnetic. There is a significant difference between them. Thus, soft magnetic materials retain their magnetic properties for a short time.
You can conduct an experiment: run iron bars over a strong magnet several times. As a result, the material will acquire properties to attract other metal objects. However, the manufacture of those with these abilities is impossible in this case.
Hard magnetic materials
Such materials are obtained by magnetizing an ordinary piece of iron. In this case, the properties remain much longer. However, they completely disappear when the object hits a sufficiently hard surface. Also destroyed if the material is heated to 60 degrees.
What you need
Finally
Making permanent magnets at home is a fairly simple process. However, care must be taken when using certain schemes.
Neodymium is considered the most powerful of the permanent magnets. You can make it at home, but this requires a blank from a rare earth metal - neodymium. In addition, an alloy of boron and iron is used. Such a workpiece is magnetized in a magnetic field. It is worth noting that such a product has tremendous power and loses only 1 percent of its properties within a hundred years.
There are several ways to make a magnet at home. The first and second methods are suitable for simple home experiments and for showing children. The third and fourth methods are somewhat more complicated and require care and caution.
Do-it-yourself manufacturing options for simple magnets
Method 1To create a magnet, you will need the most simple materials available at hand:
- Copper wire.
- DC source.
- The metal blank is the future magnet.
The simplest electromagnet made of wire, batteries and a nail
We take a metal blank and wrap it with copper wire. A total of 300 turns should be obtained. We attach the ends of the wire to a battery or accumulator. As a result, the metal workpiece is magnetized. How strong its field will be depends on the power of the current coming from the power supply.
Method 2
First you need to make an inductor coil. The future magnet is placed inside it, so a workpiece of compact dimensions is used. The procedure is exactly the same, except for the fact that the number of turns of wire should not be 300, but 600. This method is good if you need to make a magnet with increased power.
Copper wire on a ferrite magnet
Method 3
It implies the use of mains electricity. The method is quite complicated and dangerous, so the manipulations must be verified and careful. A fuse is added to the standard set of fixtures, without which it will not be possible to create a magnet. It is he who is connected to the inductor coil, inside of which a metal workpiece is located. The fuse is connected to the network. As a result, it burns out, but at the same time it manages to charge the object inside the coil to high exponential ones.
Be careful! Such experiments pose a danger to life and often lead to a short circuit in the mains! Choosing similar way manufacture of magnetic elements, take the necessary precautions and prepare a fire extinguisher that will quickly extinguish a possible fire.
A special magnetometer will help evaluate the result of the work - it will show how strong the resulting product is.
How to make the most powerful magnet yourself
The most powerful magnets in the world are made from the rare earth metal neodymium. Iron, neodymium and boron are powdered, mixed, molded and sintered in microwave ovens. Then the blanks are magnetized and applied protective covering zinc or nickel. It is very difficult to repeat this process at home. But there is another way.Method 4
The first step towards realizing the goal is to find broken hard drives from the computer. If there is no broken hard drive in the household, you can try to find non-working devices on Avito, Darudara or other ad sites.
Magnetic head in an open hard drive
Disks have a magnetic head used to control the writing and reading of data. The second step is to completely disassemble HDD and get access to this head. On it are curved plates made of an alloy of neodymium-iron-boron. They can be glued to steel elements, but are often held in place by their own magnetic force. The largest neodymium magnets are found in the oldest hard drives.
Of course, the easiest way is to buy a neodymium magnet desired shape and strength. On the other hand, if you have several non-working hard drives in stock, then it would be extremely imprudent to simply throw them away.
The World of Magnets online store offers you to buy neodymium magnets at the most attractive prices. Choose from the presented catalog suitable products and place an order. Purchase finished products with the necessary parameters - it is always easier, faster and more profitable than trying to make neodymium magnets yourself.
For many people, the magnet is still a mystery, although people got acquainted with this metal and the phenomenon in principle a very long time ago. Even then, a whole system for the manufacture of various magnets was developed. Today, this is far from uncommon, and even powerful magnets can be made at home.
Creating a magnet from improvised means
Of course, for many, this will even seem like something supernatural and perhaps even a shock, but even now, sitting at home, most people can make a magnet with their own hands. Below are four ways that describe how to make a powerful magnet at home.
Method number 1
The first and probably therefore the easiest way: to implement it, you just need to take any object that can be magnetized (the object must be metal) and draw it several times along the permanent magnet, and this should only be done in one direction. But, unfortunately, such a magnet will be short-lived and will lose its magnetic properties very quickly.
Method number 2
This method of magnetization is performed using a battery or accumulator for 5 or 12 volts. Most often it is used to magnetize screwdrivers and is performed as follows:
Is taken copper wire a certain length, which will be enough to wrap the screwdriver shaft 280 - 350 times. Best suited wire from transformers, or one that is intended for their production.
The object is isolated, in this case, with the help of electrical tape, the entire screwdriver shaft is wrapped.
The winding itself is performed and it is connected to the battery. One end is positive, the other is negative. The winding should be carried out turn to turn, evenly. The insulation must also be tight.
As a result of these manipulations, it will be much more pleasant to work with a screwdriver. With this operation, you can turn any old unnecessary screwdrivers into a really handy tool.
Method number 3
This option describes how to make a powerful magnet quite in a simple way. In fact, it has already been fully described above, but this particular method implies a different material. In this case, ordinary metal will be used, or rather a small piece of it, preferably a cubic shape and a more powerful coil. Now the number of turns must be increased by 2-3 times in order for the magnetization to be successful.
Method number 4
This method is very dangerous and is strictly forbidden to be performed by people who are not professionals in the field of electrics. It is carried out strictly in compliance with safety regulations, the main thing to remember is that only you and no one else are responsible for life and health.
He talks about how to make a strong magnet at home, while spending a small amount money. In this case, an even more powerful coil wound exclusively from copper will be used, as well as a fuse for a 220 volt network.
The fuse is needed so that the coil can be turned off in time. Immediately after connecting to the network, it will burn out, but at the same time, it will have time to go through the process of magnetization in such a period of time. The current strength in this case will be maximum for the network and the magnet will be powerful enough.
Powerful do-it-yourself electromagnet
First, you need to understand what it is. An electromagnet is a whole device that, when a certain current is applied to it, works like an ordinary magnet. Immediately after cessation, it loses these properties. How to make a powerful magnet from an ordinary coil and iron was described above. So, if you use a magnetic circuit instead of iron, then you will get the same electromagnet.
In order to figure out how to make a strong magnet at home that will work from the mains, you just need to remember a little information from the school physics course and understand that with an increase in the coil, as well as the magnetic circuit, the power of the magnet will increase. But this will require more current to unlock the full potential of the magnet.
But it is neodymium that remains the most powerful, they have all the most desirable properties and, with their strength, have small size and weight. How to make neodymium magnets with my own hands and whether it is possible at all and will be discussed further.
Making a neodymium magnet
Because of complex composition and a special production technique, the question of how to make a neodymium magnet with your own hands at home disappears by itself. But many are still interested in how to make neodymium magnets, because it would seem that if you can make an ordinary magnet, then it is also quite possible to make a neodymium one.
But everything is not as simple as it seems in reality. Serious companies are engaged in the production of such magnets; they use special technologies for very powerful magnetization of the material. And this is in addition to the fact that an alloy that is quite difficult to extract and manufacture is used. Therefore, this question can be clearly answered - no. If someone manages to do this, then he can easily open his own production, since necessary equipment he will already have.
Application of the created magnets
Application for industrial and economic purposes
Used in various electrical appliances. Especially common in devices equipped with speakers. Any dynamic head includes a magnet, ferrite or neodymium, in rare cases others are used. Magnets are also used furniture production, toys. In production, when filtering bulk materials.
Application at home
Fridge magnets are one of the most common uses for magnets. Also, some use them to stop meters, in order to reduce the fee by public utilities, but doing so is strictly prohibited, and inappropriate.
Conclusion
Based on this article, you can understand how to make a powerful magnet at home, without spending any special effort and material resources on it. But you should not experiment with a powerful network for people who do not understand electricity and generally have no idea how it works, because it is serious and very dangerous for human life.
In this article I want to tell you how you can make a cute fridge magnet with a photo. And not only to make, but also to profitably sell.
My site is originally dedicated to sublimation printing. But this does not mean at all that you can earn money only by selling mugs, plates, puzzles and other sublimation products. There are a lot of ideas! This includes thermal transfer and the manufacture of watches with a photo portrait and the printing of various calendars and much, much more.
The first article about magnets.
What attracts me most about making magnets from vinyl is simplicity (no equipment is needed) and a chic markup in price. Judge for yourself - a magnet measuring 65 x 90 mm costs me less than 5 rubles. I sell it in kindergartens for 120 rubles!
Magnets are different - plastic, metal, sunset. We will make a magnet based on magnetic vinyl. It looks like this:
In a nutshell - this is the most common photograph pasted on magnetic vinyl.
Choose any photo frame and insert a photo of the child. You can draw a photo frame yourself or download it from the Internet. Don't forget about copyright. Not all authors allow you to earn on their frames and templates.
To make a magnet, we need the simplest tools:
This is a small piece of glass, a stationery knife and a metal ruler. And it's all? - you ask! Yes, this is enough to make good money. You don't even need to have your own printer. You can always order photo printing on the side. And your magnets from this will become more expensive not much at all. Later we will count everything.
A few words about magnetic vinyl. It is sold in rolls, usually 30 meters. Such a roll is not only quite expensive, but also very heavy. And this increases the cost of delivery for those who order vinyl by mail or through a transport company. Those who have the Zenon company nearby are more fortunate - they will sell at least half a meter of magnetic vinyl there. Agree, it is very convenient.
Magnetic vinyl is available in different thicknesses. I recommend purchasing vinyl no thinner than 0.7 mm for making magnets. Thinner vinyl magnets look cheap and not solid.
Also, magnetic vinyl comes with an adhesive layer and without an adhesive layer. With adhesive layer protective film and with equal thickness is a little more expensive.
You just have to choose a link:
Magnetic vinyl with adhesive + regular photo on paper
Magnetic vinyl without adhesive layer + photo on self-adhesive photo paper.
I will use the second option. I have 0.75mm glueless and Privision inkjet vinyl on hand.
So, let's start making our magnets.
I think finding a cute photo frame for you will not be great work. Let's assume that you already have it. Adjust the photo frame to the size you need - I have 65 x 90 mm. With this size, 9 magnets are placed on an A4 sheet. Of course, you can choose absolutely any size.
You also took pictures of the children. It remains to insert the photos into the frame. This can easily be done with or .
By the way, a large section will soon appear on the site about how to photograph children in kindergartens and schools and how to process photos. Don't forget not to miss the announcement.
Photos are inserted, now they need to be placed on the sheet and printed. You can use Photoshop for this, but I like CorelDraw. I import one photo frame at a time and place it on A4 sheet. If more than one magnet is ordered, I duplicate the required number of times.
All photo frames are placed, self-adhesive photo paper is inserted into the printer. Sending a printable! We print with regular water-based inks.
Now we will stick photo paper on magnetic vinyl. I pre-cut it into A4 sheets. More precisely, they turn out to be slightly smaller - 20.5 x 29 cm. The width of the roll of magnetic vinyl is 61.5 cm. I cut it equally into three parts. And I specially reduce the length a little, with my sizes of magnets this is quite enough. You also try to calculate everything so that there is less waste.
For photo paper to lay flat on vinyl without bubbles or creases, just watch how I do it and repeat.
First, turn the sheet face down and fold back the protective paper about 15 mm along the short edge of the self-adhesive.
Now we turn the sheet over and, holding the edge with the folded paper (not letting it stick), place the sheet evenly on the magnetic vinyl.
With the sheet positioned as desired, carefully glue the edge of the sheet to the vinyl and iron well with a dry, soft cloth.
Now our sheet is securely attached to the magnetic vinyl and will not move anywhere. Left hand place under the sheet, grab the edge of the protective paper and begin to gently pull to the side, exposing the adhesive layer, and right hand using a rag, in an up and down translational motion, smooth the sheet to the vinyl.
So we smooth it to the end.
Set the resulting sandwich aside for 15 - 20 minutes so that the adhesive layer grabs well. Now the magnets can be cut. A reciprocating cutter is ideal for this purpose, but you can do just fine without it.
A metal ruler and a clerical knife are what you need. In order for the knife to cut rather than tear the paper on the vinyl, keep the angle of the knife as close to the surface as possible.
Update the knife blade by breaking off the dull part. I usually do this after cutting the next A4 sheet.
Here are the first nine magnets ready.
I put each magnet in a separate bag. I have them 75 x 120 mm. This bag costs a penny, and parents really like the individual packaging.
That's the whole process. As you can see, nothing complicated. Now let's do some math.
I bought magnetic vinyl without glue 0.75 mm thick at 310 rubles per linear meter (width 0.61 cm), which is 504 rubles per square meter or 30.3 rubles per A4 sheet (round up to 31 rubles).
I bought a self-adhesive for 100 rubles for 20 A4 sheets. So one sheet costs 5 rubles.
31 + 5 = 36 rubles.
36 rubles: 9 magnets = 4 rubles apiece!
Let me remind you that I sell them for 120 rubles. I know that some people sell similar magnets for 150 rubles.
Now a few words about quality. Water-based inks have a serious drawback - they fade rather quickly. Especially compatible inks. If your customers' refrigerator is located by the window, then the magnet on its door may fade in a year. In this case, I would advise you to print the photos in a photo lab and glue them onto vinyl with an adhesive layer. In this scenario, the cost of your magnet will increase by 2 - 3 rubles, but it will not fade over many years.
Alternatively, the magnet can be covered with a thin cold laminate (laminating film). This complicates the process a little, but the magnet looks just great!
You can also purchase an inexpensive corner cutter and trim the corners of your magnets nicely.
In a word, I gave you an idea. How you put it into practice is entirely up to you. Now you know how to make a photo magnet. Take my word for it, such magnets are in constant demand in kindergartens and schools!
