Stir Bar material?

Can the Stir Bar for the Stir Plate be Stainless Steel square stock or Stainless Steel Round bar?

I have access to both or should I buy a manufactured Stir Bar?

Stainless is only weakly magnetic, I'm not sure it would work. The PTFE coated steel is probably a better bet.

IIRC, most stir bars are Teflon coated Iron.

Stainless tends to lean on to the non-ferrous camps but, there are some alloys that have enough iron to be magnetic.

GilaMinumBeer said:

IIRC, most stir bars are Teflon coated Iron.

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I'm pretty sure that stir bars are teflon coated magnets.

Yup, teflon coated magnets.

If they are teflon coated magnets, why doesn't mine stick to my fridge? or stick to a steel screw? They are ferrous bar's with a teflon coating from what I can gather. Also, if it were magnetic, why do both poles of my HD magnets attract the bar?

Stirbars may or may not be magnetized, but they need to be a material that is highly magnetic. Few forms of stainless steel meet this requirement. Plus, do you have the ability to plastic coat the bar? I've had stirbars launch themselves in flasks and I suspect a bare metal bar would have shattered the glass.

Maybe there are both magnetic and non-magnetic, but this is taken directly from the McMaster where I got mine:

Magnetic Stir Bars & Gas Burners

Magnetic Stir Bars
Made with an Alnico 5 magnet encapsulated in a seamless PTFE shell, these stir bars are noncontaminating and resist corrosion, chemicals, heat, and cold. FDA compliant for food contact.
Octagonal bars with spinning ring spin well in small, flat-shaped containers because they have a larger surface area for greater turbulence.
Color-coded octagonal bars with spinning ring are easy to see in contrasting colored liquid. They spin well in small, flat-shaped containers. Please specify color: red, yellow, or blue.
Round bars with removable spinning ring can be used ringless to stir up contents at the bottom of larger containers. They have excellent centering and smooth-running characteristics.

lustreking said:

I'm pretty sure that stir bars are teflon coated magnets.

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Ugggh. Must I describe everything in detail to you fools?

The word Magnet does not describe the material definitively. It does suggest that the material is Ferrous but, to say "It's a magnet" doesn't say if it is based on Iron, Cobalt, Nickel, Lodestone, or Rare Earth Mineral. All it really suggests is that it has ben magnetized.

Some steel alloys having a high Iron content, or having any of the other Ferrous materials in it are Ferrous. However, most stainless steels do not have high enough concentrations to be ferrous.

The most common form of magnet is a ceramic which is comprised of Iron powders blended with "other stuff" as a binder.

You may consider yourself schooled and carry on.:cross: