Hi all,
I’m working on a name puzzle project and looking for advice from anyone who’s embedded flat neodymium magnets into 3mm wood using a laser.
My goal is to place 8mm x 2mm magnets into the puzzle board so that each letter (also magnetized) can attach to a backer board with matching magnets—helping the letters stay in place more securely.
I’m using an OMTech MF 2028 (100w) and 3mm board. My current idea is to engrave shallow pockets at lower power so the laser doesn’t cut all the way through. Then I’d remove the remaining material and press-fit or glue the magnets in place. I’m considering making the hole diameter just slightly smaller than the magnet for a snug fit.
Important detail: I need the magnets to sit flush with the surface of the wood as a finished result—no protrusion or recess—so the puzzle pieces rest evenly and look clean.
Before I waste more wood testing variations, I thought I’d ask:
• Has anyone done this successfully?
• Any tips on power/speed settings for engraving clean, shallow pockets?
• Do you recommend a friction fit or adhesive?
• Any tricks for aligning polarity or avoiding interference between magnets?
In the image below, the letters are reversed so the magnet hole (circled in blue) can be engraved on the back side. I’ve been thinking of engraving all the wood away, but that may leave only a chared pocket for the magnet. Also considering cross hatch option withing the circle and then using a very thin chisel to remove the wood.
I’d love to hear what’s worked (or not worked) for others. Thanks in advance for your insights!
This is how I do it ;-), I use it occasionally for locks on my boxes and similar projects.
You need to find a piece of leftover material and test your engraving. I use crosshatch for that and sometimes several passes. Finally I scrape out the burning material and pressfit the magnet into the hole, a drop of superglue to secure it all, done.
When I insert the magnet I have 2 magnets on top of each other in my fingers, otherwise it can happen that they are mounted with the wrong polarization.
That might work, but depends critically on properties of the wood you can’t control: density / uniformity / texture.
The laser beam lacks a depth stop, so you have poor control over the total depth; leaving a 1 mm layer of wood at the bottom of a 2 mm hole will be difficult. Doing it once is possible, but having a couple dozen holes come out right seems unlikely.
You definitely want to avoid manual intervention on each letter, because that way lies madness.
A small steel washer / slug in each letter would likely provide sufficient grip for magnets in the backer board, plus the advantage of not having all the letters glom together in an unmanageable clump when they’re off the board.
The washer fits in a shallow pocket with better allowance for depth errors. Put a dot of epoxy in the hole, drop the washer on top, add another dot to seal it in place, and it’ll look fine.
Neodymium magnets yank themselves out of a friction fit wood socket when the weather changes, so make epoxy your friend.
This is also a very good idea. I’ve already tried doing the friction fitting and was able to have success but that was on MDF board which is pretty consistent with its density. When I make this out of plywood I may get different results that aren’t as favorable. I like the idea of a washer with epoxy and so I will try that as well.
I greatly appreciate the knowledge and wisdom the shared in this forum. It saves a lot of time and headaches when we can share our ideas together.
