mmurray

Recipes 

My local Radio Shack only has Ceramic Magnets. Everywhere I read everyone is using rare earth. Do they have to be rare earth Magnets?

Thanks

__________________
“God bless Homebrewing Beer. There are many things a man can do with his time. And this, is better than those things.”

Hoppy Home Brewers of South Mississippi - President
http://www.hoppyhomebrewers.org/
____________________________________________
Keg 1: Smoked Belgian Red Ale
Keg 2: Sriracha Pepper Ale
Keg 3: Murray's Amber Session Ale

Carboy 1: Empty
Carboy 2: Empty
Carboy 3: Empty

BierMachen

Recipes 

I had some old hard drives from a computer. I pulled two of them out of there.

NoNothing

Recipes 

+1

The magnets for the actuator head on hard drives are plenty strong enough. And bad hard drives are dime a dozen.

__________________
On Tap:
Primary: [Three Hearted] [Irish Red]

mmurray

Recipes 

Thanks for the input, but it didn't answer my question...

Suppose for a minute that I did not have an old hard drive... access to an old hard drive... or anyone who has any old hard drives.

Now... would a ceramic magnet work or do they have to be rare earth?

Thanks again.

__________________
“God bless Homebrewing Beer. There are many things a man can do with his time. And this, is better than those things.”

Hoppy Home Brewers of South Mississippi - President
http://www.hoppyhomebrewers.org/
____________________________________________
Keg 1: Smoked Belgian Red Ale
Keg 2: Sriracha Pepper Ale
Keg 3: Murray's Amber Session Ale

Carboy 1: Empty
Carboy 2: Empty
Carboy 3: Empty

Catt22

Recipes 

Ceramic magnets will work just fine so long as they are of sufficient strength. I use super strong rare earth magnets purchased on line, but you can get by with any fairly strong permanent magnet. Aligning, spacing and balancing the magnets properly is critical for these DIY stir plates. The puny stir bars are the easiest to work with. The larger bars (2"+ sizes) are much trickier to use, but they do a better job of stirring IMO.

mmurray

Recipes 

Ok, thank you... Now I suppose I just need to find out what the strength of the magnets are at Radio Shack

__________________
“God bless Homebrewing Beer. There are many things a man can do with his time. And this, is better than those things.”

Hoppy Home Brewers of South Mississippi - President
http://www.hoppyhomebrewers.org/
____________________________________________
Keg 1: Smoked Belgian Red Ale
Keg 2: Sriracha Pepper Ale
Keg 3: Murray's Amber Session Ale

Carboy 1: Empty
Carboy 2: Empty
Carboy 3: Empty

Henrythe9th

Recipes 

Go to a computer repair shop and ask them for a bad drive they will have some..
open it up and there you go tow nice and free thin rare earth magnets,,
just try not to break them taking them out,, get a couple of drives

NoNothing

Recipes 

I guess we did do a pretty ****ty job of 'answering' other than Catt22 (props)

I highly suggest going online and buying a nice strong magnet for the same price as the ceramic magnets at RS. The stronger the magnet (in my experience) the less precisely they must be centered for the stirbar to not fly off at speed. But keep in mind if its TOO strong, you could mess up the fan (maybe?) or make it hard for it to spin due to friction and possibly weight. Just my 2c

__________________
On Tap:
Primary: [Three Hearted] [Irish Red]

Catt22

Recipes 

+1 The rare earth magnets are not at all expensive to purchase online. Get a couple of your brewing buddies together and do a piggy back order to offset the shipping costs. I tried the hard drive magnet route. It was a hassle and the curved magnets were difficult to mount and balance. IMO, not worth the trouble. OTOH, lots of people have had success using them.

ndsgr

Recipes 

I tried the ceramic magnets prior to ripping open an old computer. They sucked, hence I ripped open an old computer. Hope that helps.

Another source is one of those "shake" flashlights. That is what I am using right now.