Where can I buy mass quantities of magnet?

Question

Magnets are easy to find as small bits that you tinker with, but where do you find them in great quantities. I'm talking attract something from across the room, if it repelled would-be-room-apart, feel the tug from across the house magnet size. I mean big. I may not even be looking for big. In fact-no. Not big. Strong. Super strong.

Answer 1

In the company that I work for, we use big magnets. These magnets are neodymium-iron-boron and are some of the strongest available, having an energy product of 45 mega gauss-oersteds. Some of our larger ones cost over $10000 each. We use a 5 ton crane and a couple thousand pounds of counterweight to control the pieces during assembly.

They are big, honkin' strong magnets, OK?

If I held a steel object at a distance of 5 ft from one of these magnets, I doubt that I would feel the magnet's presence at all. Unfortunately, magnets do not work in the real world like they do in the cartoons.

Magnets also become dangerous when they are big. Not only do things get attracted to a magnet, magnets get attracted to things. I have had a magnet "jump" from a shelf and pinch my hand because I got too close with another magnet. We have had people get trapped between pieces of an assembly, necessitating crowbars to free them. Big magnets are not toys. Powerful magnets are also very fragile. Samarium-cobalt and neodymium-iron-boron magnets are more fragile than glass. Any impact from an object that is suddenly attracted to a magnet can fracture the magnet.

I hate to disappoint you in your quest for a magnet that can attract things from across the room. Even the superconducting ones don't do that. But I do remember that when I was young I wanted exactly the same type of magnet that you are looking for. Just as a twist of fate, I got to work with magnets when I grew up. They just don't act the way I used to think that they would.

PS - email me for further info if you wish

Answer 2

You probably wouldnt be allowed to considering a car driving by could be potentially deadly. To create an electro magnet of those proportions would require about as much energy as your entire block consumes at any given moment.