Reclaimed Wood Magnetic Knife Rack

I have been wanting to order high powered neodymium magnets for sometime now.. well my friend recommended k&j magnetics and i purchased 100 of their 5/16" D55 with 5 pounds of 'pull force'.. They are basically about the size of an eraser on a pencil.. to give you an idea how strong they are.. about 3/4 of the people i have given them to could separate two magnets, and a 1/4 could not.

I decided to make a magnetic knife rack and put it on the side the side of the fridge.. which would otherwise be dead space. I reused damaged the doug fir floor boards, and some door casing that were pulled out when we started the project.

Material and Required Tools:

5/16" D55 Neodymium Magnets
Wood scraps, reclaimed floor boards
Antique/distressed hardware

Table Saw
Planer
Drill Press/Power Drill
5/16" Drill Bit
Painter's Tape
Wood Glue

More projects like this @ http://www.jarboeinitiative.com

Step 1: Select, Cut, and Glue

Gather assorted wood scraps or reclaimed floor boards that have similar dimensions in length, width, and especially thickness. Organize the boards in a way that mixes colors, woods, and is aesthetically appealing. You will need to decide on a thickness that you will use for all boards, the lowest common denominator will always be your baseline for thickness.

-Check each board for nails and other non-wood material, and remove, this will prevent the planer blades from being damaged.
-Set your depth and begin to run the boards through a planer, remember to take light passes usually no thicker than 1/32"
-Next you will need to run each board through your table saw taking off just enough of each side to create a clean and square edge
-Once you have squared all your edges, dry fit the boards up next to eachother and see if there are any gaps or breaks in contact, if so flip the board over on the saw and give it another pass to square the edge up
-Now you can apply wood glue to each board edge that will be making contact, ensure that there is total coverage for each contact point. Excess glue can be removed, too little may make for a broken seam. 
-Set up your clamps on an even surface and place the boards in the clamps, allow 4-6 hours to dry if in a low-humidity, room temperature environment. 

Comments

[wilheln]

This is cool. Where did you get the magnets from? You need som more knives :)

[thefool]

Went to K&J to price out magnets for doing this. 75 magnets at $0.95 a piece is pretty stinking expensive for a reclaimed wood knife rack...

[nward-bopp]

This was my first go with the magnets.. the closer you get to the surface of the wood the more powerful the force is.. i think i could redo the project knowing what i know now and do it with just 20 magnets.

[Barrettkg]

I would have figured the magnets would pull out onto the fridge once mounted. Are they kept in place by friction alone or did you do something else?

[nward-bopp]

The magnets i tapped in are very snug, i had to use quite a bit of force to install them.. So they are held in by the pressure of of the wood alone. To ensure they will not move, you can always back fill the magnets with epoxy.

[PaganRaven]

Just wondering if one could use an unsharpened pencil (eraser end down) to gently tap the magnets in? This is a great 'ible and yep, the wheel's are turning for me! Thanks bopp!

[nward-bopp]

Raven, yep you could use an unsharpened pencil to tap it in.. good
idea!

[nward-bopp]

good point ebend12, i actually did chip off a small piece of one magnet when hammering it into place. thanks, ill add that right now.

[ebend12]

you should add that since those magnets are made out of ceramics, they can be very brittle and should be hammered with care or some sort of absorbent martial between the hammer.