Safe distance for magnets?

[Kaisha]

'lo folks.


I was wondering if anyone here is knowledgeable on magnets, since I'll be giftwrapping one for a friend soon enough for xmas.

Basically, I'll be mailing some earth magnets as a gift, but given that they're strong, I was wondering if anyone knows what a good size box would be for me to stick them in to prevent the magnets from potentially wrecking any nearby electronics the box may be stacked with/against under a tree. The magnets come packed together as a cube measuring about 1.5x1.5x1.5 inches.

Last thing I want to do is stick a label on the gift warning about keeping it away from sensitive equipment, as that kinda gives off what's inside.

[Eliseos]

You could try putting them in a small metal box, but that might also give away what's inside. Do you know how strong the magnetic field they give off is, in Tesla or Gauss?

[GentaiShinigami]

Awesome gift to give to someone! Never had the opportunity to play with any really strong magnets myself, but it's an interesting question so I'll give it a shot.

As far as I know there is nothing that could totally stop the magnetic field. I'm thinking the absolute best "fancy" way would be wood (to stop it from being plastered to the metal outer wall) covered/enclosed in a magnetic metal outer shell/cage that can "absorb" the magnetic waves. However this is just me guessing because I've never personally interacted with one, and don't know exactly how it acts/how strong it is. Alternatively I did some digging and found this much more economical and simpler way to package strong magnets for shipping, and keeping the levels of the magnetic fields outside the container to a minimum:

When shipping magnets, the field outside the shipping carton needs to be below a certain level. This is often achieved by:
1. wrapping the magnet(s) in foam
2. placing it in a plastic bag
3. placing the bag into a steel can with foam between the bag and the inside walls of the can
4. placing the can into a cardboard box with styrofoam packing surrounding the can to keep it in the middle of the box

Source: http://www.coolmagnetman.com/magcare.htm (very bottom of page).

[Kaisha]

Thanks for the info.

Finally got the order in, and thankfully the package the cube of magnets come in has enough open-space in it that I couldn't get anything to magnetically attract stuff to the package, so I should be good if I wrap the pack in some foam and call it a day.

On a side note, I'm now tempted to order some large-sized earth magnets, these things are fun. Would love to get some perpetually spinning-magnet action going on here, or slight levitation.

And wow @ the temperatures some of those magnets can generate. 180 celcius for a workable temperature? Jeez, would need to buy me something heat resistant to toy around with if I wanted some hardcore spinning/repulsion going on.


For the curious, what I ordered were some Buckyballs since they're reasonably cheap as far as novelty items go (and was an easy site to find, pretty sure I could find these things cheaper elsewhere, but time is running short to mail one as an xmas gift). Made myself a ball out of triangles using them the other day.

They're a lot weaker than I was expecting as far as magnetic power is concerned towards other objects, but perhaps that's due to its spherical nature (and individual size), vs. the flat-discs I've played with in the past that could crush your fingers if you weren't careful.
(not to mention were a total pain in the ass to separate without accidently having bits flake off)

[Kurp]

Those magnets look pretty cool. A good use for idle hands, but they seem expensive.

I'm not surprised that they aren't incredibly powerful, if they were it could make them more difficult to work with.

[GentaiShinigami]

Good to hear everything worked out ok for you. Those look really awesome, and I'm sure whoever receives them will have a blast. I'm gonna have to get me some once my wallet recovers from Christmas spending.

[Kaisha]

but they seem expensive.

They probably are a little more than they costed to make, but as far as concerned, if I found something like that in a retail store, it would have at least been $10 more.
(even been to a shop dedicated to novelty gifts/toys? They markup out the ass)

I'm gonna have to get me some once my wallet recovers from Christmas spending.

If you ever do, remember the voucher code "GetBucked", it'll save you 10%.
(nice of them to e-mail me that after I paid full price for them >.> )

And yeah, been having fun with these. Mainly been making triangles/hexagons out of the marbles and forming shapes with them. Managed to get a ball going, a heart, an emblem, currently trying to get a suit of armor, but the magnets are being finicky about me trying to open a couple holes for arms. Wish I bought two of them for myself, as I could use an extra 216 magnets to play with for larger objects.

[GentaiShinigami]

If you ever do, remember the voucher code "GetBucked", it'll save you 10%.
(nice of them to e-mail me that after I paid full price for them >.> )

Awesome thanks for the heads up! Too bad they waited to tell you till after you ordered to tell you about it. >_<