I understand Rooster’s confusion, but I would have probably said “skewed” if I was talking about him.
Here’s my Red Green inspired repairs to the grandfather clock my wife inherited:
After some discussion of magnets, I have decided to experiment some more. Some of you may remember the magnetic glad hands produced by Old Iron Designs (that product was one reason I was reluctant to make my own). Great idea he had, I thought. The only complaint I ever heard was the polarity depended on how the rolling stock was oriented. Unfortunately, he discontinued them a year or two ago.
Instead of a round magnet, I am going to try a spherical magnet. They will get crimped in, but still loose enough to spin. I think I might be able to solve the polarity issue this way. Of course, I can’t predict how strong they will be, since they’re 1mm diameter. The rubber hose may be too stiff. Only way to find out is to try it.
So I modified my drawing, where you see the 1mm magnet as a blue sphere. The green around it represents a 1/16” recess, which I think will give it plenty of wiggle room.
Burl Rice said:
After some discussion of magnets, I have decided to experiment some more. Some of you may remember the magnetic glad hands produced by Old Iron Designs (that product was one reason I was reluctant to make my own). Great idea he had, I thought. The only complaint I ever heard was the polarity depended on how the rolling stock was oriented. Only way to find out is to try it.
I like the “try out” theory. Hoping for positive results not negative ones. Bipolarity is all the rage these days however magnetic spheres could be the answer. Working in the automotive repair industry I’m not so sure about the 3 securing tabs though especially if made from plastic.
Wishing you luck Burl and will follow along.
It will be made of brass, so they’ll get crimped later. Has to allow for a 1/16” drill bit as well, since the printed pattern will almost certainly have residue inside the pocket.
Burl,
very interesting idea, will be interested to see how it works out. can you tell us where you are sourcing the magnets?
Al P.
Looks like an interesting idea Burl
Al Pomeroy said:
Burl,
very interesting idea, will be interested to see how it works out. can you tell us where you are sourcing the magnets?
Al P.
Since I was the one that sent Burl a link, here it is…
1mm sphere magnets
https://supermagnetman.com/collections/neo-spheres
If anyone has ever played with the fidget magnets, you’ll find the magnets quite strong. I think those are in the 5-6mm range, but I think the 1mm should be plenty strong enough to couple and hold together.
Craig must have done more research with magnets than I have, because I wasn’t able to come up with anything that small on my own.
I got to thinking, if you have a feel for how strong a 5mm magnet is, can you make a guess about the strength of a 1mm magnet? It seems reasonable that the force would be proportional to the volume.
So, if V = 4/3 Pi r(sq),
the volume of a 1mm sphere would be 0.52 cu mm
the volume of a 5mm sphere would be 65.45 cu mm
That would make a 5mm sphere about 125 times the volume of a 1mm sphere. Of course, that’s assuming magnetic strength is a function of mass/volume. Could be a big difference, but I won’t know for sure till my order comes in.
I’ve played around a bit just cementing the side of a small neodymium magnet to the end of a length of 2mm vacuum tube
I originally bought the 2x1mm but they are too small to represent the end of the glad hand so I went with the 3x2. Obviously, they don’t look nearly as nice as Burl’s.
Great ideas here. Years ago I tried adding a spinning magnet into an Ozark Mountain Glad Hand. Didn’t get to far into it before other things came up.
Craig, when you say fidget magnets are you talking about fidget spinners or fidget magnets you build a shape with?
My solution to the polarity issue would cut the magnet’s size by having a metal plate or 2 added.
Visualize the magnets in the finger tips and the plate in the palm, as the hands come together, the magnets would be happy with the plates. All connections would require hand coupling to over come potential like pole rejections, as well as like pole attractions, as the magnets pass each other.
How you disguise this as Glad hands is the art.
Thanks for that link Dan. The tubing I have is 2mm OD x .5mm ID. The stuff you posted looks like it has thinner walls. I’ll be trying some of that.
Eric Warhol said:
Great ideas here. Years ago I tried adding a spinning magnet into an Ozark Mountain Glad Hand. Didn’t get to far into it before other things came up.
Craig, when you say fidget magnets are you talking about fidget spinners or fidget magnets you build a shape with?
The fidget magnets you build with a shape with. These guys (or in this case a gals hand off the web). They are about 5mm wide. Way too big for Burl’s application, but the smaller ones should work.
At first, I thought Craig was fresh in from his manicure.
Why does the brake line tubing have to be tubing? If the tubing is too stiff, then how about a piece of small black cord, like the kind used for embroidery?
David Maynard said:
Why does the brake line tubing have to be tubing? If the tubing is too stiff, then how about a piece of small black cord, like the kind used for embroidery?
Or even heat shrink? Heat Shrink is pretty flexible, but if bent too much, collapses.
Craig Townsend said:
David Maynard said:
Why does the brake line tubing have to be tubing? If the tubing is too stiff, then how about a piece of small black cord, like the kind used for embroidery?
Or even heat shrink? Heat Shrink is pretty flexible, but if bent too much, collapses.
It needs to be tubing so Burl’s fittings can slip inside.
For other designs, I suppose you could use cord or floss but $17.90 for 10 meters gets you a very prototypical looking hose. At first glance, the silicone vacuum hose is almost indistinguishable from heat shrink but it’s more flexible. A nice feature is that you can control the stiffness by inserting wire.
Well, my requirements are something cylindrical, with a .5mm-1mm ID and 2.0-2.5mm OD. Braided cord might work. And I might try that if the silicone tubing doesn’t work. I have a feeling it will though.
Burl Rice said:
At first, I thought Craig was fresh in from his manicure.
HAHAHAHAHA!!! (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)
