Of magnets and chest plates...

Has anyone tried to use a combination of velcro & super magnets for closing the gauntlets & attaching the armor? Lee Valley has these incredibly strong magnets that are really small & the holding power is at least equal to a snap. I might give this a shot instead of the nut & bolt method or snaps because it will let me fine tune the position of the armor. A little bit of velcro for added insurance where it will not cause the armor to stick out & I think I'll be in business.

Great idea! When I worked at Disney World we used to use those on our nametags. Never even thought about using it for armor, but it should work - you really have to pull to get those magnets apart!

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Mark

Who online would sell magnets like that?? Anyone know a website? And are they just called super magnets?? Does anyone have and idea of how many pounds or kilograms of hold you would need to keep aluminum armor on?????
dan

OPPI - Lee Valley sells them online, and they're called "rare earth" magnets.

Here's their page: http://www.leevalley.com/hardware/pa...D=&ccurrency=2

They also have an article about them with LOTS of information. They are VERY strong. Definitely strong enough for attaching armor!

http://www.leevalley.com/hardware/pa...077&category=3,42363&ccurrency=2&SID=

This is the same idea I just had for my armor, which I am making of two layers of very thin steel. I'll post some pictures of my armor as soon as I'm finished with it sometime this week. I'm just going to sew some of the magnets into the clothes under where the armor goes. As for where to get them, you can find several sizes of rare earth magnets at your local Radio Shack.

Hey folks,
I had a band concert the other night and being outside the wind was a problem. Traditionally we use clothespin-like things to hold our music on the stand, but that night my stand-partner had industrial magnets. They were about the size of a nickel but boy they were strong! It was difficult removing them from the stand to get pages turned in time they stuck so well.

I immediately thought that they might work splendidly for the chest plates. They're very strong, small, and will not permanently damage the vest.

My questions are these:

-Has anyone tried this?

-How would I best go about attaching the small magnets to the back of my sintra chest plates?

Thanks folks,
Phil

There was another thread started around here talking about rare earth magnets available from Lee Valley & using them for this exact same purpose. I think it would work great & I might do this myself. I don't really like the idea of punching holes in my leather vest & I'm not too impressed with the look of armor velcroed on. I think if you glued a small steel washer to your armor at all contact points & placed the magnets on the inside of your vest, it would work. Once you got everything placed right, you could sew little pockets to keep the magnets in place permanently. Then putting your armor on & off or swapping out with upgrades would be cinch.

Yeah, that's exactly my thinking. Once they're on there, they won't really need to come off. I'm glad that it sounds feasible. Next week I'll be asking my partner where he got those magnets, they're very nice.

More as it develops,
Phil

Check with Lee Valley tools. I bought a couple of the rare earth magnets for a CD player cover plate & those suckers are strong. They are keeping a false panel on (glued on the backside of 1/4" plastic) & have never fallen off going over bumps or railroad tracks. They come in a bunch of sizes too.

Well I did it folks. Found some nice magnets at Lowe's (home depot). I sanded the backs of them and two-part epoxied them to the armor. I spaced three out on each main plate. When I was done I only had three magnets left. So I attached the plates and they've been on my mannequin all night and day now, each plate supported by only 1 of 3 contact points and they're holding very well through the vest. Once the other magnets are on there I'm very confident that it will be every bit as secure as velcro or snaps.

I don't have any of it in front of me now, but tonight I'll post the actual names and companies of everything.

I'm very pleased that I didn't have to sew, and even more pleased that I didn't have to punch holes in that ****-expensive vest

Phil

How did you make the magnets stick to the leather vest?

Actually my vest is nylon I think, I'm doing Boba. But it doesn't much matter because the magnets are not attached to the vest. There are magnets attached to the backs of the armor plates. I lay those on the vest, and place another magnet INSIDE the vest to hold the plate. The hold is so strong that it's not slipping down or anything, and the magnetism simply holds the inner magnets.

I am concerned about the inner magnets becoming dislodged by either a break in contact due to a plate being pulled out, or also by being rubbed against the center zipper on the jumpsuit. I'm confident that it won't be a big deal, but if it becomes one I will hot glue small patches of cloth around those inner magnets to hold them in place.

Phil

I'd be curious to see how well they hold once you're wearing it and moving around/action posing/etc. Let us know how it goes!

you say curious, I say apprehensive

I'm hoping I won't have to rig anything more to keep the inside magnets attached, but we'll see. I'll certainly update when I know.

Phil

i bought some magnets at Jo-ann's they are 2000 guass (whatever that means) i am going to use them on my armor they seem very strong and the price was right

TR3171

Hey folks,
The glue I used is a two-part tube thing called 'plastic fusion' and is made by the good people at the Super Glue Corporation. The magnets come in a few different sizes and quantities and are called something like 'rare earth magnets' or somesuch. I found both at home depot.

Hope this helps,
Phil

Just curious on the need of saving your vest? Are you going to wear it to dinner or something? I have yet to attach my armor but it just struck me as strange that so many were concerned about snaps or velcro. I know snaps work the magnets are questionable. Is there any reason to go with magnets over snaps other than to save the vest?

No reason that I can think of. My vest just cost me quite a bit and I didn't want to risk putting holes in the wrong place or having them rip or any number of other possible accidental damages.

Aside from that, I think snaps and magnets are very comparable in strength, cost, and in how far they may protrude your plates.

Hope that helps,
Phil

alright, as you can see in my 'first pics of my suit, not entirely finished' thread I have tried a rough draft of my suit on. I used the rare earth magnets, three on each plate.

Well I have to say that I'm not as impressed as I thought I would be. They held alright, but every time I even started to cross an arm over my chest the connection would pop and the inner magnet would slip out, usually ending up on my leather pouches or attached to a lower inner magnet.

So I haven't given up on them yet, but I will definitely be hot-gluing small patches of fabric around the inner magnets. This will prevent their being lost again, but I don't think it will keep the contact any better. So ultimately I still run the risk of losing a chest plate if I move too much.

More as it develops,
Any suggestions for making that connection better are more than welcome,

Phil

**UPDATE**

Hey folks,
still determined to use magnets and not carve up my vest I went ahead and made small 2" sq patches of cloth (from a cheap shirt) and I hot glued them around the magnets that were inside the vest. They had been rubbing against the pockets and main seam of my jumpsuit and were falling off. Well with the new 'patches' holding the magnets in place, even if the contact is broken they hold their position. And the contact is rarely broken for more than a brief moment, so the armor pops right back exactly where it should be immediately. I must say that it seems to work great and I will be attending comic-con with this method, so talk about trial by fire...

My only dissatisfaction is that the bottoms of the breast plates are protruding and frankly they're making my gut look big. Sure it's a little big, but not that bad! I think I may attach magnet points at the bottom and see if that won't do it, otherwise possibly a snap or two.

Thanks for reading, I'll definitely post a review after comic-con...

Phil

IT WORKS! ITTTTTTT WOOOORKS! For once in my life I finally built something that wooooorks! lol... sorry

Yup, the patches inside the vest gave the inner magnets the stability they needed and I had NO problems with them coming off. I mean NOT ONCE did it become a problem. The only time a magnetic connection was broken was when I sat down on the shuttle and one of the belly plate connections was lost. But the other two held and it quickly plopped into place when I stood up.

I hope this helps,
Phil

Excellent! Glad it worked out for you Phil!

Sooo, did you have a fun time at comic-con?

Are the magnets still holding up? How far does the armor stick out from the vest?

Not far at all. Certainly no further than velcro would.

You can view my comic-con pics at:
http://www.ezshots.com/members/mereel/

in the 'comic-con' album.

Phil

I finally got around to getting the magnets on my chest plates (velcro was just not cutting it, the plates were sticking out too far & the collar plate & bottom of the chest plates tended to come away from the vest. I bought 3/8" rare earth magnets from Lee Valley that each have a holding strength of 9lbs & mounted these flush into a second set of inner armor.



I glued steel washers to the back of the outer armor & the vest gets sandwiched in between.


I just didn't have the heart to punch holes in my leather vest for the nut & bolt method to make the plates sit flush. So far it has worked fantastic! No more problems with armor coming away from the vest at the corners of the problem areas & the plates do not shift around at all.



I had the vest on for about two hours last night just doing my thing around the house & nothing moved. I think for added security I am going to add a strip of velcro to the inner armor just for peace of mind.

Looks great BKBT! Glad to see more people using magnets

Phil

If your using chest lights for boba fett the mags might erase the programing on the sequenced shack lights. Just a word of caution.

True, I can't speak to that as I don't have a chest light in my current suit.

Phil

Any opinions on how far the magnet should be kept from the chest lights?

what kind of magnets do you use...if you use them...to attach your armor, and how much do they cost?

thanks

I've been using the neomyodium (sp) magnents for my current project. I found them at hobby lobby (they call them super magnents) in the craft section. They cost me 2.99 for a pack of 10. I figure by the time it's all said and done I'll use about 120 of them or so.

Doug

120!!!! wow. What all are you using them on?

I used only 9 for my chest plates. I have some at home in the package and I'll snap a pic tonight, can't remember who makes them.

Phil

well, I used 9 on each chest plate (inside and outside) so we're up to 36 already, 4 total on the little diamond piece between them so that's 40. 10 total on the collar plate puts it at 50.
I'm going to use 8 total on each shoulder I think so that's 66.
20 total for the ab plate (I think that's about what I'll need to use) brings us to 86.
then the kicker...I think I've counted out 18 spots on the backplate for them to go so that's another 36 total which makes 122

I might be going a little overboard huh?


oh, on a side note...when you just lie these things down be careful. any closer than about 5 inches apart and they will hurl themselves together and break. I learned that the hard way

anybody know of any health risks of being that close to that many magnets?? There is iron in your blood you know...

Its like walking around with an MRI machince strapped to your torso.

I am doing the magnets too from lee valley. Tried with the smaller ones (1/2")and got alot of sag. so i am saving my pennies for the 1" ones. that and a little vecro in the center should do it. I have 4 on each chest, 3 on the collar, 3 on each shoulder, and 3 on the ab plate, and thats with aluminum armor. with these numbers the armor held well with the 1/2" but i want it a little stronger. I will use the same amount oif magnets only of the 1" size and i will be set

dan

1" magnents? oh goodness no, use the rare earth magnents. I tried regular magnents first and the didn't work worth a darn. Those rare earth ones are awesome. The ones I have are only like .25" diameter and you really only need 1 to hold the weight of the plate onto the vest. I am using so many of them because I want to vinyl to be close to the plates around the edges.

Doug

I am using rare earth magnets, but with the weight of aluminum plates they still sag so i am going to the 1" magnets which should be fairly tight

dan