Introduction: Lego Refrigerator Magnets
A few years ago a friend bought me a set of three Lego bricks with magnets in them from when she went to Legoland. You can buy a different set online at the Lego store. I received a set of Magz as a gift and I noticed that the small magnets in the bar component of the toy looked like the right size to fit in the cylinder in the bottom of Lego bricks.
Any mention of this project must provide a link to www.zieak.com with credit to Ryan McFarland.
You need:
Lego bricks
A basic set of Magz or rare earth neodymium magnets (5 mm diameter x 3 or 6 mm long)
A pair of diagonal pliers or a pocket knife or utility knife
Superglue (optional - the right size magnets will stay without it)
Step 1: Harvest the Magnets
It is quite easy to remove the magnets from the Magz. Just a squeeze with the cutters and then tapping the metal onto the magnet will remove them. Please note that this is a little wasteful - if you need to buy Magz or magnets for this project just buy the magnets. They should be fairly easy to find online. They must be 5mm diameter and you can stack two 3mm magnets (the size the Mags come with) or buy 6mm magnets for the best strength. I was given the Magz and used them for a little while before deciding that I would have more fun with the magnets. I used the steel balls on top of the soil in a potted plant to keep the cats from digging the dirt up. The plastic pieces were thrown out.
Step 2: Put the Magnets in the Lego Brick
You don't need to glue the magnets into the Lego brick. I did on a few and found that the magnets stay just fine without it. A little drop inside the round cylinder part of the Lego brick will guarantee they will stay in though. Once again, stacking two makes them nice and strong. By putting the magnet inside the cylinder the Lego can still be attached to other bricks (either ones with magnets or those without).
Step 3: Build Your Collection
I like the look of the classic bricks but any Lego piece that has the cylinder can be converted to a magnetic building block this way. Naturally the thin plate pieces would need a very thin magnet which would probably not hold very well unless you had many of them.
This project may seem familiar to some. I wrote up these magnetic Legos (Lego? What is the official plural of Lego?) on my personal website in January and Make Blog picked it up.
19 Comments
13 years ago on Step 3
LEGO is the proper name of the company that makes the bricks. The "pieces" are called bricks! You should refer to them as LEGO Bricks and not LEGOS!
Reply 5 years ago
Actually.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaH1k4oxoyc
Reply 11 years ago on Step 3
Legos is easier to remember.
11 years ago on Introduction
what about geomag?
14 years ago on Introduction
Because you asked, Lego is always singular as it is a brand name, and is always capitalized. When referring to the plural, the "correct" term would be "Lego bricks". Kind of silly I know, but Lego and their fans are kind of fanatic about it... Cheers. Fun project.
14 years ago on Introduction
i made a lego magnets, but it required cutting up the insides. but, i have a lot of old magnetics and legos, and this seems soooo much easier. nice work!
14 years ago on Introduction
I recently went to a Star wars expo.. thing at the Powerhouse in sydney and these magnetic bricks were used to make a MagLev sumulation of a land speeder. This might be a fun project
15 years ago on Step 3
hey i think im going to make a second version off this cause i tryed put tengamo magnetic pices insted of these but they kind of make cracks in the holes
15 years ago on Introduction
Magnetix would work too, same thing
16 years ago on Introduction
This would be awesome if you could put the magnets inside of one of the "flats" of legos.... The full size, not skinny.... then you could build a 3d fridge sculpture out of it. Good recycling of old toys!
Reply 15 years ago on Introduction
I bet you could. You could magnetize several bricks and make sure the bricks you put on that side of the sculpture have the magnets in them so it will stick. My buddies use small rare earth magnets on their wargaming miniatures' weapons so they can swap them out easily.
15 years ago on Introduction
You might be able to buy those magnets from lee valley too if you don't want to bust up your magz http://www.leevalley.com/hardware/page.aspx?c=1&p=40076&cat=3,42363,42348&ap=1
Reply 15 years ago on Introduction
this is a much better place to buy neo magnets http://www.kjmagnetics.com/categories.asp?PARTNER=Google&gclid=CIWrjuzPz4wCFRoDhgodKzjnqg
15 years ago on Introduction
Good Luck on the Contest! Your idea has a lot of good-ness, legos are very, very cool.
15 years ago on Introduction
Good job Zieak! Good luck!
15 years ago on Introduction
Legos are the shit. I love em.
15 years ago on Introduction
Wow.. I didn't know that :) Thanks -- I'm sure someday that will be useful for me :D
15 years ago on Introduction
I did a similar trick using highly magnetic pieces out of dead hard drives. They have those rare earth qualities in that they are SUPER magnetic. I used a tube of liquid weld to attach them to all sorts of things (including a couple Legos). It worked pretty well. ;-)
16 years ago on Introduction
I love lego! :D