Magnetic Latches

[mr moto]

A question came up in On the Workbench about using magnets to hold doors tightly closed. I've never done it for doors but I've done hoods and trunks. Here's a '64 Plymouth moonshine runner that I did a couple of years ago.

That little silver-gray rectangle that you can see sticking up just above the license plate is a rare earth magnet. It works great and the trunk closes with a satisfying "click" sound. What you can't see is that the trunk is also being held open by magnets. There is one superglued to one of the hinges and it mates to another magnet glued under the body when the trunk lid is raised so it doesn't need to be propped open. The magnets I used are 1/8"x1/8"x1/16" rare earth magnets from a place called Amazing Magnets. These things are STRONG!

http://www.amazingmagnets.com/

This is fun to play with and you can probably think of more uses for them.

[Jairus]

Excellent tip! Especially the use of a magnet to keep the hood open... Great idea!!!

I have played with magnets holding the drivers/passenger door in the closed position but found that you cannot bury them in or behind plastic and expect any strength. Of course I never used "rare earth", just ceramic.

Very good, maybe you could show us some close-up's of the one holding the trunk OPEN sometime.

[Harry P.]

That's a great tip! So simple, yet effective.

I'm going to give it a try.

[Harry P.]

And oh yeah...nice model, by the way!

[MrObsessive]

I like this tip! Excellent model too Manuel!

I used magnets years ago on a '66 Nova to keep the doors closed------but the magnets seemed to lose their "hold" once they were painted over.

I agree with Jairus.............if you can, you gotta show a pic with the magnets holding the trunk open. I may try this trick on my '55 Ford!

[mr moto]

These magnets won't be slowed down by a few layers of paint!

I'll try to get a picture of the magnets holding the trunk but they might be too well hidden and my camera doesn't do very good close-ups anyway.

[Peter Lombardo]

Great little trick there, I see many uses for the magnets. Nice job.

[mr moto]

This pic didn't come out too bad. You can see the magnets side by side at the left hinge. The mag on the left is attached to the body. The one on the right is attached to the hinge.

BTW, on this model the hood is only held shut by magnets but has to be propped open. Hoods are harder to do than trunks. Because the hinges have to pass thru narrow slots in the firewall as the hood opens I couldn't find room to attach a magnet to the hinge.

[MrObsessive]

Thanks for the pic Manuel!

BTW, your under trunk stamping looks very good! That's a detail that can be a pain to replicate at times .

[935k3]

The magnets used for Slotcars would probably work well they are very poweful Neodymium. Here is link for some that are available. Scroll down the page a little way to start seeing them.

Magnets

[bigphoto]

Thanks for the info it looks like magnets it is!!

[jbwelda]

yes i was just going to add that ive been using those magnets on slot cars for the past few years and there are some incredibly strong, small magnets available. like mr moto says, ive just seen some very tiny, maybe 1/8 diameter by about 1/16 or less deep circular magnets that would be perfect for this application. they are strong enough to go through a finger like the photo above, but they are about 1/10th the size.

im going to have to remember this tip! seems like it would be useful for a lot of things including keeping a removable body fixed down to its chassis.

Edited December 18, 2007 by jbwelda

[Casey]