Steel building board

[Rotten]

I am looking for a piece of steel to use as a magnetic building board. Does anyone know where to obtain one in the Long island N.Y. area?

[Dwayne]

Umm, not a bad idea but I think the thicknes and size you'll need will be 1-Very heavy and 2-very expensive.

[Rob Killick]

Hi ,

Just remember ...

Steel weighs 550 lbs. per cubic foot.
You'd need something at least 1/2" thick to keep it from sagging .
Just a thought

[Bill Gruby]

Hi ,

Just remember ...

Steel weighs 550 lbs. per cubic foot.
You'd need something at least 1/2" thick to keep it from sagging .
Just a thought

  If my math is correct here that would give you a building board 12 inches wide and 12 feet long 1 inch thick. Pretty heafty building board.

  Try your local scrap yards, they should have what you need. Here in Connecticut 1/2 inch thick 8 inches wide goes for about $3.00 per foot. I got some the other day to scab a main beam when removing part of a bearing wall.

  "Billy G"   

[proparc]

You are probably barking up the wrong tree. You would have to try old machine shops that are closing in order to get steel surface plates,(that is what you want). Most shops went to stone decades ago. Steel is relatively unstable for shop purposes because it has stresses in it that release over time. 

Your other option is even less desirable. You can have a piece of AR plate (abrasion resistant plate) ground for you but, I am sure you will opt out once you hear the price. You would want to ask for a "one side grind with a five side clean up". It takes a special stand to hold the plate so as not to induce any unnecessary stresses in the steel. Over time, more than likely, it will "go out" anyway.

[Bob Reeves]

Were building balsa wood airplanes not space ships, if supported properly run of the mill 1/4 inch steel plate will be withen tighter tolerances than most can build to. Just look in the phone book under steel and find a shop that will cut it to the size you need.

[Louis Rankin]

Just get the Great Planes steel building board system and mount it on a flat building surface.

http://www.greatplanes.com/accys/gpmr7000.html

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXK328&P=ML

If that is too expensive for you, then go to Lowes or Home Depot and buy some steel sheet metal (the kind that AC ducting is made from).  Mount that to your flat building surface and mark your own grids.  Magnets can be had everywhere, find the type you need and fabricate your own uprights and holders.

[dennis lipsett]

In the late 60's I got a magna jig which is still being used. It's not solid steel but thin steel plate with a solid center. Now 40 years later it is still flat and I still use it occassionally. In the intervening years though I like the rod type jigs as it is so much easier to assemble a wing, I.E. bottom sheeting without having to remove and rejig the wing. However that magna jis is really great if you want to build a wing with dihedral as you can set it for whatever you want as it folds in the middle.
Dennis

[Rob Killick]

Hi ,

Thank goodness for women !
My Girlfreind mentioned to me that you could use flexible magnetic sheet (for crafting , etc.) . You could adhere it down on a piece of glass and there you go .
Then you could use small steel blocks , instead of magnets ...

You'd never lose pins ot your knife blades ! LOL

Again , just a thought .

[PatRobinson]

Hi Guys,

I want to highly reccomend you visit   www.airfieldmodels.com  because he has the best and most extensive information I have seen on magnetic building boards.  He has plans and directions for creating wing and fuselage fixtures, including a very clever and  useful vertical press. He lists a discount source for the magnets he reccomends you use. His readers sent in photos and details of their magnet board systems they created. Lots of good info.

If I were you, I would get 1/8" thick steel because that is all you need for good magnet adhesion. You would get a piece of bi-fold door 15-18" wide and then size the width of the steel to fit your door width by 65" long.
I would paint the steel to prevent rust and if you paint it white it will be easy to draw reference lines on it with a thin marker.

Shim the steel on the door until it is dead-flat just like a glass top table , and attach it to the door.  keeping the size and thickness to a minimum keeps the weight down.
 
I would then buy the magnets that are reccomended by "airfieldmodels" and then attach them to the wing and fuselage jigs sold by "Central hobbies" listed on the opening page of this forum and attach the magnets to the jig pieces which would be a quicker way to get you up and running with a system than building all those individual jig pieces.

This doesn't get you a local source for you piece of steel but I hope will be of some help to you.

                                                            Pat Robinson

[john e. holliday]

I still have one of the first of the Magna Jigs that were sold.  Melvin bought for me at an RC show that was held in KC years ago.  I used it several times and as Paul says there were not enough magnets.   They did not have all the plastic stuff when Melvin bought mine for me.  DOC Holliday

[Rotten]

My system is complete. It is the one from airfield hobbies like Pat mentioned. I used a piece of 16 gauge steel 18x48 inches mounted to a piece of 3/4 inch MDF and is painted white. It is really nice but it weighs a ton. 200 magnets better be enough!

[dennis lipsett]

I still have one of the first of the Magna Jigs that were sold.  Melvin bought for me at an RC show that was held in KC years ago.  I used it several times and as Paul says there were not enough magnets.   They did not have all the plastic stuff when Melvin bought mine for me.  DOC Holliday

Doc, They sold additional magnet sets for about $10.00 for 20 of them. If you have yours yet then you know that they were actually pretty good magnets and were solid enough to provide some support to the structure that you were building. I probably have 70 magnets with my board.
Dennis

[john e. holliday]

Yeah, I am thinking of getting more magnets.  Printed off all the stuff about making the verticals and the hold downs.  Have fun, DOC Holliday

PS:Really different models he has made thru the years.  The lattice work delta really caught my eye.  jeh

[Paul Smith]

But I can get things lined up well enough with no new money.

Just household objects and imagination.