I've been looking for some sheet metal for my game. Been looking to make the board magnetic, so I'm looking for a place that'll sell 8"x8" sheet metal for cheap. At stores around here, a 12x8 piece of sheet metal is less than a buck, but to get it custom cut online it comes out to two or three bucks. Anyone know where I could get just like 10 pieces of sheet metal 8"x8" in size?
If not, what's a good way to cut it down myself?
Be sure to ask if they'll cut if for you at the hardware store. Most hardware stores will cut wood and glass for you, perhaps they'll cut metal for you as well. It's a lot safer and it will probably look better as well.
Hi Oldscratch,
I used to work at a local company that printed and farbicated all kinds of metal advertising. Anything from nostalgia replicas to beer and liqour signs you see in bars and liquor stores.
We mainly worked with aluminum and steel. If I still worked there it would have been easy to shear up some scrap steel into 8"x8" squares. The stuff was very thin, i forget the dimension, but suffice to say it was extremely sharp edged. Cutting your fingers as if with razor blades if you weren't careful.
We occasionally made signs for customers that were used as magnetic diplays. But more to the point, you might want to check your local area for places that might fabricate with steel sheets. If you stop by and talk to someone in person, and tell them you working on a home project, they might be willing to cut you up a few pieces of scrap. It's not that difficult with the proper machine, and shouldn't take more than a few minutes if they have the scrap material.
Another thought, might be to check the net for places that seel pre-made magnetic boards.
I still have a friend who works there that i talk to every week or so. If you want i can ask him if he could bring me the 10 pieces of 8x8 steel. IF he can, it shouldnt cost a thing ( as it would be scrap destined for a recycle bin) and i could get it to you for the shipping, assuming thats not too much. The worst he could say is no, or they don't have any scrap.
Damage
I'm a little confused... are the 8x8 pieces of sheet metal for 10 different boards, or are they the pieces for one big magnet board?
If the latter, consider making the big board out of metal and the pieces out of magnets. Should be easier to deal with, shouldn't it?
You might also consider Magnetic Sheeting ...
-Bryk
Have you considered this ?
Peel & Stick Magnet: $11.99
Perfect for crafts! Each package contains 4 sheets of 8” x 10” .030 mil magnet with a peel off liner. Underneath the liner is a sticky adhesive surface that can stick to postcards, photos, children's artwork, just about anything. Create your own line of refrigerator magnets! The magnetic sheeting is easy to cut with ordinary scissors.
I'm thinking you could mount your graphic with 3M Super 77 to the magnetic side, and use the peel and stick side to mount to your board foundation. If you are using magnetic pieces, I think the combination of the 2 magnetic forces will be aggressive enough to do the job. Plus - No sharp edges :lol:
That's all I can think of off the top of my head.
Good luck,
GM
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Would something like this work?
I forgot all about the magnetic sheets. We use to use that stuff at the Sign co. i worked at for mounting embossing dies in presses.
We used to get it on rolls like at that magnetsource link above. It works really well, But i would suggest if you use that, you might want to get the thinnest pieces if they are going to be adhered to a board.
Although those packs designed for inkjet printers might be your best bet, as you could print your board design right onto them.
Good luck!
If this is something you are planning on publishing in any great amount, I would think you are going to have to look into some of the places that produce magentic board products and get a quote. I would think if you want to get hundereds, or thousands made, it would still probably be cheaper to go through a place that prints on sheet metal. My thinking is, that sheets of steel would be cheaper that magnetic sheeting, but both could be printed on.
I was assuming you only wanted to make the 10, as in some sort of prototype or something just for a few people. Am I correct in assuming, you want 10 8x8 sheets per game? Or is 1 8x8 sheet the whole game board?
From what I remember the rolls of magnetic sheeting were pretty expensive. Hundereds of dollars depending on size, thickness, etc.
Balsa wood and magnetic paint doesn't sound very good, at least to me, but what do I know.
...12 bucks for 4 sheets...
The link I gave above (here: http://www.magnetking.com/) has Inkjet-printable sheets in packs of 10 for $12.95. Maybe that's more in cost-range?
-Bryk
Hmmm... I missed that one while checking the links. That's not bad, I could probably find a use for printing out some magnets myself. :idea:
I suspect that such magnets wouldn't work in a laser printer since it relies on an electrostatic charge to hold the toner in place and the magnetism would probably destroy the charge.
Note, however, that Xyron sells an adhesive magnetic roll that lets you turn anything into a magnet quite easily. I bought a roll of it some time ago and it's quite cool.
-- Matthew
I know that this is an old post but I thought that if anyone was still interested that this might be useful. Krylon and some other paint companies procude magnetic paint that you might be able to use instead of magnetic strips or sheets. However I don't know how thick of material you could use on top of the paint but that might be another option and you could have your board as big or as small as you would like.
Tom
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If you are just prototyping this, you might want to just consider getting a couple of big strips of sheet steel and then hacksawing or shearing it yourself. I would guess you could get away with a very light gauge, so it would be pretty easy to cut. Remember the edges are deadly sharp so wear gloves and consider taping the edges of the pieces for safer handling.