coating magnets?

melypr1985 · May 3, 2015

So this may be a stupid question, but I wont know until I ask it. I bought some magnets online that were already coated in a plastic-type material (the name o the material escapes me at the moment) anyway, my buddy told me not to take any chances and to recoat it with pvc glue. Reason being, it's a sealant and would seal up the magnet. He did half of them for me and it worked great. I superglued two of them to my frag rack and the other two are outside of the tank.

Well, I tried to do the other 4 magnets and as it turns out, if you mess up, the pvc glue will weaken the factory coating on the magnets and you basically end up with an uncoated mess of a magnet.

Now to my question.. is it possible to melt pvc or acrylic in a small pot or bowl and dip a small magnet in that? It would then be sealed away from the saltwater and have a hard "candy coating" lol that wont be easy to scrape off. Right? Has anyone ever done this? I'm sure that yall have better ways to accomplish my goal. I'd love to hear about them! If my way sounds like it will work just fine and not kill me (fumes), my fish, or be a PITA then please let me know that too!

Thanks in advance!

mmnich · May 4, 2015

I'd probably make a wax mold and embed them in epoxy.

mfinn · May 4, 2015

I don't think melting pvc or acrylic is a good idea.
Sounds like a fire is about to happen at your place.

There are rubber coated neodymium magnets that would work.

redfishbluefish · May 4, 2015

Do not try to melt PVC. A lot of the formulations have their melt point very close to their flash point. If PVC ignites, it gives off HCl gas, that once it hits moisture (in your eyes, mouth and lungs), will burn you very bad. I use to extrude sheet vinyl, and I can't tell you how many fires we had at the die end of the extruder....and that's with a built in fire suppression system at the die end.

Why not try Liquid Plastic....that stuff they sell to typically coat tool handles......HERE it is at HD