On Sun, 26 Sep 1999 10:35:47 -0400 Wagner Lipnharski writes: > If you really want to play with magnets, first save away all your > computer diskettes, then go to a electronic repair shop and buy for > cents some of the surplus (bad, replaced) Microwave oven MAGNETRON > valves, dismount the metallic case and you will find one or two very > (really) powerful circular magnet (axial polarization), These magnets are really powerful. Much better than the ones typically found in loudspeakers. Of course if you're like me you've played with the magents a little but are now wondering what's inside the rest of the magnetron. Here you must be careful that the ceramic seals of the magnetron (which you'd need to break to see inside) are not made of toxic BeO. I kind of doubt it would be used in a consumer device (except an early model when the magnetron was really expensive) but if you aren't sure it would be best to throw away the "heart" of the magnetron without dismantling it further. and prepare > to > have a lot of trouble to separate them if you put two together. They are made of rather brittle ceramic. Don't let them crash into each other or into ferrous metal surfaces as they probably will break. Even more powerful, though small, magnets can be found in hard disk drives which are new enough to use a voice coil instead of a step motor to move the head. The magnets are found inside the disk cover, suprisingly close to the disk, on the back end of the arm that holds the heads. ___________________________________________________________________ Get the Internet just the way you want it. Free software, free e-mail, and free Internet access for a month! Try Juno Web: http://dl.www.juno.com/dynoget/tagj.