Hugh Piggott's blog

Harold Graley sent me this:

Warning…These magnets are Extremely Dangerous…. I was prying two Magnets apart when all of a suddon, the two magnets slammed together pinching my index finger between them… There was no one around to help me, so I pulled them off myself taking a piece of my finger 1 cm long x .5 cm wide. or in English 1/2 in x 1/8 inches with them… Please … Don’t do this alone… These Magnets are Extremely Dangerous… Thank you … HD Graley – USA

Later he expanded on what happened and sent me this sketch.

They were N42 Ni-Cu-Ni 2 in x 1 in x 1/2 in … It happened while trying to take one from the stack. I found that if you take a wooden wedge and drive in between them, then there is no problem…The wedge I used is the piece of wood that I cut from the root section of the propellers…. I will send you a drawing of the method I found safe and easy…

That’s a pretty slick system. I usually just rotate the magnets and then lever them off, taking great care to pull them well apart. I have found that lately since I emphasise the dangers I do not see injuries with handling the magnets in my classes but the risk is certainly there as the magnets tend to be surprising.