DieterVonBrauhaus
Well-Known Member
Does a stir plate require only rare earth magnets? Can't I use fridge magnets and glue them to the fan?
you think Radio Shack has them?
NO extra HD's as they are all in my PC, I will try Radio Shack. Also I am using as a power source a HO scale model transformer works well with the fan!!
Radio Shack does not carry rare earth magnets, I checked 2 days ago. Lowes does not either.
emphasis addedRadio Shack said:This item is available at most stores.
Even with rare earth magnets from a HDD are barely strong enough.. The magnets on a fridge are way too heavy and way too weak.. I battled mine for about a year, and it drove me crazy.. Just got a Black MAXX and it does everything I want it to. Even as an avid DIYer, this is one thing I just couldn't get to work right.
joeybeer said:Even with rare earth magnets from a HDD are barely strong enough.. The magnets on a fridge are way too heavy and way too weak.. I battled mine for about a year, and it drove me crazy.. Just got a Black MAXX and it does everything I want it to. Even as an avid DIYer, this is one thing I just couldn't get to work right.
There are so many people using hard drive mags I am wondering how they are getting them to work? I am waiting for my parts to arrive and I will be putting mine together.
There are so many people using hard drive mags I am wondering how they are getting them to work? I am waiting for my parts to arrive and I will be putting mine together.
I just built two plates using HD magnets and 2 in bars. They worked good with water. Wort is a different animal.
I had a starter going for two days, and my wife called me at work today to tell me "your beer thing is making a loud funny noise".
Please turn it off honey... "I already did, how much longer does this have to be in the kitchen???"
I'll move it today honey.
Luckily the starter is done, but it threw the bar on the lowest speed.
I may end up buying one.
I just built two plates using HD magnets and 2 in bars. They worked good with water. Wort is a different animal.
I had a starter going for two days, and my wife called me at work today to tell me "your beer thing is making a loud funny noise".
Please turn it off honey... "I already did, how much longer does this have to be in the kitchen???"
I'll move it today honey.
Luckily the starter is done, but it threw the bar on the lowest speed.
I may end up buying one.
I have only made one starter, and this happened with my stir plate that I made with HD magnets. However, I put two carpenter pencils on top to raise the flask and everything worked fine. I did order some of the above recommended magnets and will use those for my next starter.
There are so many people using hard drive mags I am wondering how they are getting them to work? I am waiting for my parts to arrive and I will be putting mine together.
I finally took apart a failed hard drive and did some testing and at least with the one I took apart, can tell you why the hard drive magnet won't work well.
The hard drive magnets (there were two in the drive, opposite each other) were not rectangular magnets, they were made into a arc. The magnets seemed strong enough but because of the way they are made you can't center the N and S poles directly across from each other without throwing everything off balance. When mounted with the N and S poles directly across from each other, most of the magnet weight was to one side of center and this caused a serious vibration problem kind of like your cell phone buzzer but 10 times worse.
Then when I mounted the magnet so the weight was balanced the N and S poles wanted to pull the stir bar off center towards the N and S poles. The stir bar wasn't pulled far off center but it was enough to cause the stirbar to throw at any speed but the lowest setting.
Either of these issues will cause your stir plate to throw the stir bar. You stir bar has to spin centered above the motor with as little as possible to pull it off center.
It seems that hard drive magnets would work great if they were made into a straight bar. Has anyone taken a hard drive apart with magnets made this way? If so you should share the make & model number with the list.
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