zmansmac
Gold Member
I don't do a lot of welding, mostly mods and projects for my tractor. But over the years I've come to accumulate a small collection of magnets for holding stock while welding. I have a couple of rectangular magnets that are very strong, so much so that I struggle more with them as I get older. So a couple of months ago I bought a nice Tweeco magnet for around $40 that has a handle to engage or release the magnetic force. It works well but it is not as strong as I thought it would be.
Last week I discovered a new H.F. magnetic base (used for holding dial indicators) that I bought years ago when I temporarily "misplaced" my original one. Then I realized this would make a good magnet for holding stock since there are 2 surfaces 90 degrees to each other and a knob to engage and release. Of course, it's only good for 90 degree positioning, but most of my work fall in that category.
Because of the intended use of this base it's not necessarily machined to a perfect 90 (like mine), but 5 minutes of filing corrected that. I don't remember what I paid back then but the current price (without a coupon) is $12.99. And it's much stronger than my Tweeco magnet. A real bargain, and could probably go in the thread about H.F. tools that don't suck.
Last week I discovered a new H.F. magnetic base (used for holding dial indicators) that I bought years ago when I temporarily "misplaced" my original one. Then I realized this would make a good magnet for holding stock since there are 2 surfaces 90 degrees to each other and a knob to engage and release. Of course, it's only good for 90 degree positioning, but most of my work fall in that category.
Because of the intended use of this base it's not necessarily machined to a perfect 90 (like mine), but 5 minutes of filing corrected that. I don't remember what I paid back then but the current price (without a coupon) is $12.99. And it's much stronger than my Tweeco magnet. A real bargain, and could probably go in the thread about H.F. tools that don't suck.
