New magnetic knife rack from Mag-Blok magnets

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brianh

brianh

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My walnut Mag-Blok got wet and warped from sitting on a counter top. I tried to re-glue the top veneer back on to no avail so I yanked out the magnets. 5 rectangular magnets attached to a steel block. It's been sitting around for a while.

Also a while back I bought a hunk of neat looking cocobolo that I figured would be good for this and who knows what else, so I finally got around to the project. It is maybe a 3 foot board with nice sapwood in spots. Only room left in the kitchen is for a 12"-ish knife rack for longer knives like sujis. My main block is a longer one from JKI.

Meager tools to work with... Cheap a$$ table saw, miter, drill press. 1/2" router bit in the drill press worked fine to route a channel for the magnets leaving about 1/16" of material at the bottom.
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Then I just cut a couple strips from waste, sandwiched them in the back with titebond, and clamped until dry. Ran through the table saw to clean up the back, hand sanded the edges and corners, disc sanded everything else smooth.

I'm FAR from a woodworker and it's far from perfect, but it came out decently. Been oiling and buttering. It's smooth and works great. I still need to hang it which is a nightmare with my old plaster walls.

image.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpg
 
Do you have any shots of the magnets? Also, doesn't that mean it has only 5 or so stick points? I make my blocks with strips of rare earth magnets running their whole length but it gets pretty costly. I have wanted to make some as gifts but they end up being cost prohibitive to turn out as many as I would want to.
 
ash987 said:
Do you have any shots of the magnets? Also, doesn't that mean it has only 5 or so stick points? I make my blocks with strips of rare earth magnets running their whole length but it gets pretty costly. I have wanted to make some as gifts but they end up being cost prohibitive to turn out as many as I would want to.
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Which magnets do you use and from where?
 
Came out great Brian. Were they rare earth magnets? I'm looking for a few like this.
 
Bill13 said:
Which magnets do you use and from where?
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I used one inch circular N52 magnets from banggood for my most recent one. Came out to about 23 dollars after shipping for 30 of them. That's the cheapest source I have found. It takes 3 weeks to get them, which is also pretty annoying.

I route down until I leave about 0.100 inches of wood behind the magnets. The knives stick snugly at this depth. I really like the wood cap look behind them like Brian did up there. I get lazy though and since they stay flat on the wall, I pour black casting resin in to fill after gluing the magnets down.
 
No idea on the type of magnets! Whatever came out of the mag blok. There were 5 of them edge to edge. So yes, you will get slight rotation of the knives depending on size. Carbon nakiri hits it like a freight train where a stainless petty might rotate if tapped. Just like my strip from JKI. the wider board makes them rotate a hair less I think.

Thanks for the anchor tips! Do they really work? I find anything I thread in the plaster just makes it crumble like a dry cookie.
 
I have used them many times with no issues. Just put them in with a cordless drill and a #3 phillips bit to keep the wobble down. Let the fastener do the drilling with light pressure. Some of the white coat will crack a bit but usually its less than a 1/4 inch.
 
Bill13 said:
So it sounds as if to prevent rotation you could install two magnets vertically at each knife "location". Maybe two of the 1/2 inch?
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We used the 1" in a 2x23 pattern (polarity in a checkerboard pattern allows the sides to touch). It provides constant magnetism i.e. no dead spots, although you can kind of notice the 1 inch on center with smaller blades like parers. I haven't had problems with rotation although knives near the edge kind of like to attract the handle if mounted at an angle and full tang. If I were to do it all again, I'd maybe use two separate parallel strips with perhaps an inch or so in between them.
 
tjangula said:
We used the 1" in a 2x23 pattern (polarity in a checkerboard pattern allows the sides to touch). It provides constant magnetism i.e. no dead spots, although you can kind of notice the 1 inch on center with smaller blades like parers. I haven't had problems with rotation although knives near the edge kind of like to attract the handle if mounted at an angle and full tang. If I were to do it all again, I'd maybe use two separate parallel strips with perhaps an inch or so in between them.
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Ahh, now that sounds like the way to go! Even though my knives stick snugly, they do rotate around the magnets. I'll use your method next time I make one
 
The rotation isn't that big of a deal. If i were buying magnets, I'd probably stagger and double up. But for reused magnets, I'm not complaining!
 
tjangula said:
We used the 1" in a 2x23 pattern (polarity in a checkerboard pattern allows the sides to touch). It provides constant magnetism i.e. no dead spots, although you can kind of notice the 1 inch on center with smaller blades like parers. I haven't had problems with rotation although knives near the edge kind of like to attract the handle if mounted at an angle and full tang. If I were to do it all again, I'd maybe use two separate parallel strips with perhaps an inch or so in between them.
Click to expand...

The 1 in magnets are supposed to have 30 pds of pull, I guess the thickness of the wood separating them from the knives reduces that quite a bit. I'm beginning to seriously consider doing this on my own. I already have the wood, it's been sitting around for years.
 
brianh said:
Hung! It and the sign are currently hiding some spackeled holes. Kitchen needs a pant job.

Sorry the pic is sideways.

View attachment 30719
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The finished product looks really nice!

Bill13 said:
The 1 in magnets are supposed to have 30 pds of pull, I guess the thickness of the wood separating them from the knives reduces that quite a bit. I'm beginning to seriously consider doing this on my own. I already have the wood, it's been sitting around for years.
Click to expand...
The pull would apply if you mounted parallel to the floor and perpendicular to gravity, i.e. they can be slide apart (it actually the only way to separate the stack of the magnets when you get them). I tested with about 3/16" of wood between, backed by a 2x23 strip of galvanized steel ducting (makes it easy to prefab the magnetic strip). You could definitely get by with thinner wood (therefore smaller magnets) if you wanted to risk cutting thru. I have a Staub magnetic trivet and you can almost sort of see the magnets not level with the surface and didn't want that with this project.
 
Nice work!

Just wanted to toss out this idea for blind mounting (no visible screws) for those whose wives are as OCD as my spouse about visible hardware. If you're already ordering magnets from Lee Valley, it might be worth tossing a couple of these in the basket to experiment with. There a lot of blind install options, but taper connectors are the first ones that come to mind. I love me some Lee Valley; ever since I bought my first Veritas tool from them, I've actually felt good about sending them money :)

http://www.leevalley.com/en/garden/page.aspx?p=40351&cat=4,104,53213,41306,41319&ap=1

 
Good tip. I was getting lazy and don't mind the hardware. Also, my wife probably wouldn't even have noticed the rack if I hadnt shown her. For her, the kitchen is basically where the fridge and microwave are kept.
 
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