Cable and Magnet Bulletin Board

Here is a way to make a place to hang papers, pictures and other random stuff using just some steel cable, a few magnets and some basic hardware. This project takes about 20 minutes to put together and you can pick up most of what you need at the local hardware store. While the project doesnt require much building experience, you will need a cable cutter, needle nose pliers and a drill to put this thing together.

When your done you'll have a lightweight, semi-portable, semi-hip way to hang up all the extra papers lying around - or bacon adhesive bandages as the case may be.

This project is based upon something I saw in a museum gift shop which closely resembled this. But why pay money for what you can build yourself and customize to you own needs?

Step 1: Gather Materials

First you will need to gather your materials.

1. Steel cable - I picked up about 8 feet of 1/8" steel cable from the hardware store at about 18 cents a foot. You can use thicker steel cable - but unless your going to be suspending a whole lot of paper (more than a couple hundred pounds worth) the 1/8" braided cable is fine.

2. Magnets - I had some old magnets lying around that I use as grill connectors on speakers so I just used those. If you want to buy some nice magnets that would work well you can get some at http://www.kjmagnetics.com/. They offer a whole bunch of different types of neodymium magnets from 6 cents a piece up to 1 dollar a piece. Any disc magnet around a 1/16" to 1/8" thick will have plenty of holding power for a regular paper. If you plan on going through some heavier stock or want to hang some larger objects it would be best to get a bigger magnet - at around 1/4" they start getting really strong.

3. Cable clamps - These are available where the cable is sold in the hardware store and you should get the size that fits your cable. I got 1/8" clamps for 1/8" cable.

4. Screw Eyes - The screw eyes also come from the hardware store and are just your basic screw eyes for wood. 1/4" x 1.5" screw eyes are plenty strong if your hanging them in wood. If your walls are drywall or plaster you should pick up some plugs for the screw eyes and sink them in first so they have something to grab on to.

Comments

[inkstainedheart]

Great instructable, and I love that you have bacon bandaids in the picture!

[ewilhelm]

I made one of these in my office today! I just ran the steel cable around some pipe mounts already bolted to the concrete and put the turnbuckle near the ground. Small magnets hold single pieces of paper with ease.

[willyyam]

Tightening is more easily done with a small turnbuckle. These come in many forms, including very slick ones for tensioning cable. These take a cable in each end and holds that cable with grub screws, and then the central barrel turns to lengthen or shorten the buckle.

Neat concept, and well explained.

[noahw]

A turnbuckle would definitely make the cable a lot tighter than I was able to get it with my hands. Thanks for the suggestion - maybe I will stick one in line and take some pictures and make an update.

[vatosupreme]

Make sure you don't overtighten the turnbuckle. When the screws are in wood, sometimes you can tighten the cable up too much and the screws start to lien in and pull out of the wood. Also, for this application, you should be able to use a friend to get the cable tight enough. A turnbuckle will clutter the contemporary look you are trying for.

[tremor7]

Bulletin board 2.0 Great job!

[bongsanvictores]

Great idea- the only problem is that officemates might also want one for themselves and that means more frigate-rigging work. If could get hold of a three-strand cable- I think an eye splice would be neater, doing away with the clamps (another instructionable?)

[noahw]

What do you mean by an eye splice? Could you bundle three cables together and then run them out of the screw eye in different directions for each of your officemates? That would be a steel cable bulletin board tri-fecta!

[Quill]

An eye splice is a way of splicing a stranded rope or cable end back on itself to produce a loop. See, for instance,
http://animatedknots.com/splice/

[noahw]

That is really cool! I will try splicing the cable back upon itself - I wonder if the steel cable is too tight to manipulate though. I'll give it a shot and let you know how it goes.

[theRIAA]

coolio