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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 24th, 2023

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  • Magnet fishing.

    I bought a kit that included a reasonably sized 360° magnet, rope, grappling hook and protective cover for about £120 thinking that it would be good enough to keep me satisfied for a while.

    After my first trip out and having to carry a load of scrap metal about a mile back to the car, I bought a cart for £80 so I could cart it all back instead. After having to use my car to pull my magnet out of the harbour on Saturday I’ve bought a cheap winch and a tow rope to anchor it to things for £25 for when it gets stuck somewhere I can’t use my car.

    And of course I wanted a bigger magnet almost immediately, but I’ve managed to hold off on that so far. Saying that it’s fairly likely I will get an upgrade from Bondi magnets when the site launches as long as the price is competitive with Magnetar (I suspect it’s a partnership and the magnets will be identical, but we’ll see)




  • The one I have has a 600kg pull force, but I would like a stronger one. Obviously you have to be able to pull whatever gets attached to it off, which sometimes needs a good yank. It’s not particularly heavy, maybe 1kg. Usually I just stick it in a bucket attached to the rope, but I keep it in the polystyrene and box it came in when it’s at home or if I’m travelling far. The only danger having it in the car is it sticking to it, but that’s easily avoided. Takes a good yank to get it off if it does get stuck to a piece of steel as large as a car body though.

    Electronics are never really a concern, the only thing the magnet is likely to come close to is my phone but I try to remember to not have it in my pockets while magnet fishing, and that’s really because I don’t want to drop it in the water. Fixed magnets have to move over a conductor to induce a current, and it would be quite small I think. The electomagnet in that breaking bad episode is very large, probably with a pull force magnitudes higher than a fishing magnet, and I can’t speak for the shows accuracy (I don’t actually remember what they used it for now).