I've made one of those. I bought 60lb, 1" diameter magnets from I think k&J. The are flippin strong. I used two 1" Forstner bits -- one to start the hole, and then I filed the point off of the 2nd one to get a true flat surface and used that one to drill through the wood, leaving about a 32nd of face wood left. Does that make sense? Then epoxy the magnets in. The magnets are are quite dangerous to work with and a b!tch to get apart if two of them happen to snap together. Fun though.

This was my initial test piece of maple.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1411651570.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1411651587.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1411651600.jpg

F*king magnets, how do they work?

magic

Not your average "magic"...but PFM!

My college attending son and I made a similar project that catches the (beer) bottle caps that fall from under the bottle opener mounted at a higher location on a board. The strong magnets (we used several in a vertical row) gradually pull the cap closer to the board as it falls off the bottle and then the last magnet snags it so it is suspended against the board.

HowStuffWorks "How Magnets Work"