Ideal Thin Axially Charged Pickup Magnet

[John Carlsen]

Thanks for the tips Rick. I didn't even think about the community college idea. That would really help as I live in an apartment. I've also heard about these 3d printers, but I've also heard about kits to build your own??? What kind of investment is something like this? It would be awesome for humbucker bobbins and pickup covers I'm sure!

[Rick Turner]

Gee, maybe I should delete all my posts, too, then this thread would really get surreal.

What a chickenshit way to have a discussion...

[Busterdawg]

Gee, maybe I should delete all my posts, too, then this thread would really get surreal.

Please don't. Your advice has been incredibly valuable to me and will also be to others. Most will figure out the thread of the discussion, the deletions notwithstanding.

[Busterdawg]

Gee, maybe I should delete all my posts, too, then this thread would really get surreal.

What a chickenshit way to have a discussion...

It's similar to not liking the way the game is going so you take your ball and go home.

[peskywinnets]

It's similar to not liking the way the game is going so you take your ball and go home.

Personally, I can completely understand why he did it.

Not every thread on here needs someone barging in adopting a "now listen to me, we had to make them this way prior to electricity - you should too?" stance....FFS only wanted to know if others wanted to buy some magnets!

....& still the abuse is continues even after big_teee (who is clearly not impressed with the outcome of what - was after all was - his thread) has chosen to abstain & remove his input.

It doesn't make for a good community.

[Busterdawg]

Personally, I can completely understand why he did it.

Not every thread on here needs someone barging in adopting a "now listen to me, we had to make them this way prior to electricity - you should too?" stance....FFS only wanted to know if others wanted to buy some magnets!

....& still the abuse is continues even after big_teee (who is clearly not impressed with the outcome of what - was after all was - his thread) has chosen to abstain & remove his input.

It doesn't make for a good community.

Point taken.

I had just never seen someone here delete one side of a conversation before and it jarred me a bit.

I guess I was caught up in the advice and insights into the craft of pickup making that Turner was imparting rather then taking into account the hurt feelings he might have caused. Insensitive on my part and I'm sorry about that.

[SteikBacon]

Rick, could you post a picture of your diamond saw. There are lots of different types so I would like to know what to look for.
And how does these work to cut smaller parts and alnico?

[copperheadroads]

I have a Diamond saw ,its a wet tile saw
Wheres the best source for a block of ceramic magnet

An alternative...

When I first started to make the first generation of Alembic pickups...after going through all my Radio Shack magnet experiments...I got a diamond saw, bought unmagnetized raw ceramic magnet blocks, and cut my own magnets and then charged them. Frankly, it wasn't that big of a deal, and it gave me incredible flexibility over magnet shape and dimensions.

Now I get my ceramic magnets custom made by Bunting. I order 100 at a time. It's a few hundred bucks.

[Rick Turner]

Try any of the companies that make ceramic magnets; they all start off with big blocks of the stuff if it's not one of the lower grades of cast or sintered material. 40 years ago, I got my stuff from a local company, but now I'd try Bunting Magnetics. It should be cut before charging.

[David King]

I'd get a cheap 6" tile saw at HD or HF and put a thin kerf diamond blade on it like one of these:
Santa Fe Jewelers Supply - DIAMOND SAWBLADES - PROSLICER
Charging a ceramic magnet takes a serious impulse charger. I'm not sure where you'd need to go for one of those.

[copperheadroads]

Sorry to resurrect this thread but!!!!
IM getting some blocks of uncharged C8
so after i cut these magnets to smaller pickup sized magnets ,can i fully charge them with 2 strong neo magnets ?
A magnetizer is not in my plans right now

[David King]

Thats a really good question and open to debate here. There's a local company that builds big magnet chargers but they start at $5k. May be you can send out the cut magnets and get them charged somewhere. I don't know if C8 is polarized in the casting process the way "oriented AlNiCo" is. If it is then you'll need to cut to dimensions accordingly.

[shane1b4u]

Terry, I just laid out to you all the options I know of for getting exactly the magnets you seem to want. How is that keeping you out of my market? You are not competition for me in any way whatsoever. And if you were, I'd share any and all relevant information with you, just like I have with several pro pickup makers (yeah, they wind 'em, too) who post here.

Read what I wrote without your own "I only want to wind" prejudices. You hide behind this "I'm just a poor amateur" persona, and what I see is someone who just doesn't want to do the work to get the parts he thinks he needs for a particular project. I know plenty of retired hobbiest amateur stuff makers who will go the final mile to achieve what they want to do. You won't even think about getting off your butt to do this. You want what you want delivered in the mail, ordered from the comfort of your easy chair. Sometimes you've got to get up and away from the computer monitor to get what you want. Sometimes you've got to get creative and figure out how to make things you can't buy at Ace Hardware.

If you want custom sized ceramic magnets, then you can cut them yourself or suck it up and buy a few hundred bucks worth from companies like Bunting.

If you want really thin Alnico magnets, then you may be in danger of not understanding the aspect ratio for long term stability.

If you want to design a magnetic circuit that may involve some polepiece material, then neo-dim magnets may work...and you may have to learn how to cut, mill, drill steel.

How is any of this information keeping you as the competition away from doing this? Unless you think I'm deliberately lying to you...

To me this is like when the Association of Stringed Instrument Artisans published a sketchbook by Barry Price on all the steps of building one of my Model 1 guitars. It was a beautiful book that went out to all the members. A person asked me this: "Rick, you're giving all your secrets away. Aren't you afraid people will be able to figure out how to make your guitars themselves?" To which I answered, "The thing they'll figure out is how hard it is."

So David(s) or Mike or Joe or Jason or I or anybody here can tell you how to do something. Don't think that the truth is an attempt to keep you from doing it. There is a massive amount of information available here from people who are willing to share. If you choose not to take advantage of that, it's on you.

You honestly would not believe some of the things I have pulled off on a simple drill press, the best thing being changing the bearings and chuck to be able to mill small parts with it! ;^)