How to Make a Magnet Board
I’ve gotten a couple queries about the system I was using to hold things in place during the casket assembly project. I thought I’d address it here by showing you how to build one. The basic “system” is a magnet board that looks like this:
There are a couple commercial magnet boards available, most notably the one that is sold by Micro Mark. Many have found what I have, however, that these boards have raised edges that are supposed to be 90-degrees to the surface but are not. This makes them less than useless in my opinion.
I make my own and over the years, my magnet boards have undergone an evolution. I started out with one large board, with the thought that bigger was better. But I rarely use my big board. Instead I now have several smaller ones as even when I’m doing a bunch of simultaneous assemblies and need lots of surface, having several separate surfaces is advantageous. Thus, the magnet boards I use are all 6″ x 9″. These dimensions aren’t critical and mostly a result of the size of the metal that is readily available as I don’t have any fancy ways of cutting metal.
Another thing that’s changed is that I came to realize that affixing a raised border on a magnet board is limiting, though at times you really want one. What is limiting is that if you affix a border, its height and location are, well… fixed. I’ve found it much better to attach “walls” when and where I need them. For a long time I had “walls” that had magnets inset into them and this worked but it wasn’t ideal and I had to imbed magnets into blocks of wood.
What I came to realize was that sometimes simple is best, and the addition of a couple blocks, to raise the board above the work table allowed me to start using clamps to hold the walls in place, any walls, anywhere on the board and in any configuration. It also made it easier to create a working system.
So let’s build one. It’s easy.
This is the stuff you need to build one.
1 – 6″ x 9″ galvanized steel
1 – 6″ x 9″ x 1/4″ baltic birch plywood
2 – blocks of wood about 1 1/4″ tall
Wood glue, 5-minute epoxy, and Top-Cote metal protectant.
You can buy sheets of galvanized steel at hardware stores, generally 6×12 or 6×24 are available so you have to use a hacksaw to cut it but only a single cut will do the job. This is less of a problem than it might sound but once you’ve done it, sand the cut edge to take the sharp edge off the piece you’re going to use. Similarly, you can get baltic birch plywood at places like Home Depot. Here in Canada it’s often referred to as Russian plywood but it’s just a very good-quality plywood. You can use pretty much anything you want and I’m sure MDF would work as well.
Making the board is simple. Deposit big blobs (this is a technical term) of each of the two epoxy parts in the middle of the board.
Use any old stick to mix it well and then spread it out over the whole surface. The important thing here is to spread it such that you have a thin, even coat. Thinner is better than thick and I use a Formica sample card (you can pick them up anywhere Formica is sold) to do the spreading. Lots of folks use old credit cards for such things.
Place the steel plate on the wood and, presuming you have a nice thin coat of epoxy, it’ll stay put on its own. You might want to put a weight on it but that may not be necessary. While the epoxy dries I use alcohol to clean up my Formica spreader and to wipe off any epoxy that squeezes out from under the metal plate. The alcohol readily solubilizes epoxy.
Once the epoxy is dry, flip your board upside down and use any old glue to glue the blocks in place. No precision required here except that you obviously want the feet to be the same height. You also want them small enough that you have an inch or so all the way around the perimeter of the board so that you can clamp things to the board edge when the board is in use.
Spray a coat of Top Cote on the metal. Let it set for a minute or two and then wipe off any excess. This will prevent the board from rusting. Magnets are available from any number of places so I’ll leave you on your own for those.
Once you have a board like this you’ll wonder why everyone doesn’t have one and why the commercial boards are designed as poorly as they are. Here are a couple examples of why having those feet is such a good idea.
There are times when you want a very low wall and others when you’d like to have a high wall. Sometimes you want a corner that’s not 90-degrees. Having a raised board, you can use any old clamps and materials to create any wall you want/need. Notice that when I was doing assemble of the casket I used a couple Corian blocks I use my shop. 
Magnet boards are used a lot in the assembly of miniatures. You might as well have one that makes life easy. I think you’ll find that this one does. Let me know if you have any questions
Cheers — Larry
Full Chisel Blog
Logan Cabinet Shoppe
Renaissance Woodworker
Tom Fidgen's Made By Hand
Village Carpenter
Wood Whisperer
Fine Woodworking Magazine
Popular Woodworking Magazine
Wood’n Bits
Comments