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Hey folks, I have a question. I'm currently working on a renegade knight, and part of the commission is to magnetize an arm joint to swap weapons. My question is: how do I reinforce the stability of the connection while still making it look good? I've included a picture of the join in question. Thanks!

MOAR MAGNITS!!

Too late perhaps but you could have used two smaller magnets next to each other instead of one big disc. That would enforce a direction.

If I'm understanding the problem correctly (Im guessing the arm svivels/rotates causing the hand to point in the direction of it's crotch.)

Those smaller magnets could then be deeper rod shaped to make up for lost total size.

This would lock it in one direction but it's perhaps preferable to having it swing inwards all the time.

Use ring magnets rather than disc magnets. You can then embed a rod through the middle. I find that flight stands work quite well as they are already tapered making it easier to slot them in the hole.

Say, not to be snarky, but how did you convince you're the right person for this commission if you have no experiences tackling such issue?

Pins, glued at one end. Keeping the pieces aligned with a pin gives you a much stronger hold with the magnets.

It looks like you cut off some pieces of the joint? There's normally a little outcropping with a flanged tip on the shoulder that the arm would wrap around. I just cut the flanged bit off, and drilled the magnet to set it into the nub that was left, and then put the other magnet set into the arm itself. This means that the magnets are still the only contact point, but the joint is stabilized from having the shoulder socket set into the arm a little bit.

edit - It looks like you're using bigger magnets than me, I used 1/8" ones, so maybe what I did wouldn't have worked for you.

Thanks for the input, folks! I dont have access to ring magnets, at the moment, nor had I ever considered them. I'll definitely remember that one. I might be able to come up with a hybrid of these ideas using the pin down the middle and a couple of disc magnets for alignment. I'll check back in with pics once I've fixed it.

 skchsan wrote:
Say, not to be snarky, but how did you convince you're the right person for this commission if you have no experiences tackling such issue?

Not meaning to be snarky either, but are you sure you're in the right forum? What is this for, if not to learn from others with experience? Are you competing against me for work? Do you actually have any constructive feedback? If so, you have a very strange way of breaking the ice.

I think I fixed the magnet problem...