Ideas for magnetizing a wall?
 

I want to magnetize an 8'x8' wall in my studio. I've primed it with 5 coats of Rustoleum magnetic primer, which isn't satisfactory. The magnets barely stick to it--even the rare earth magnets. I'm not opposed to mounting steel strips--maybe 1 every foot--horizontally, the length of the wall. They're expensive. I'm looking to you nerds for a cost effective solution. Needs to look graphic and slick. I don't want to use cork and push pins. Help an idiot out for Christ sakes.:p

Steel roofing shingles? Galvanized steel corregated panels?

Either could be made to look funky.

So you really need a wall that magnets will stick to....not a wall that is magnetic?

Double post for some reason

Maybe put up a sheet of galvanized steel of something like this:

http://www.onlinemetals.com/merchant.cfm?pid=13526&step=4&id=1004&top_cat=849

If you did it right maybe it would look modern or artsy:confused:

what do you want to hang on it? Spacing? Does the entire 8x8 area need to be metallic?

Buy 4x8 sheets galvanized from plumbing/heating supply house. Not expensive. The stuff they use to bend ductwork.

Or get it cut into strips and glue the strips on where you need to place magnets.

Not necessarily. It's for photo layouts mainly. I could do a grid of smaller steel plates or something. I'll look in to the 4x8 galvanized sheets too.

hey that has possibilities--thanks!

I don't know if you can visualize this but I don't have any pics. When I opened my first solo office, I rented a space that was once the showroom for Viking Range. It was in an old building with 16' ceilings remodeled to look like a NY loft...track lighting, exposed HVAC duct work, old unpainted brick walls, etc. My reception area looked like an art gallery with a huge tall, monolithic, white painted 16' tall wall. I need some type of dramatic art work but was broke and it wasn't in the budget.

I went to a local metal fabrication place that made various industrial metal products. I asked to look in their scrap/recycle piles for something interesting to create "found" sculpture art. They used a computerized plasma cutter to cut metal sheets for various components. I found a few sheets of relatively thin flat metal that they had cut 18" circles out of that were used to weld in the bottom of some type of tank. Although it was 10' x 6' it was relaticely light since the compuer plotted the cuts for maximum material use. I took it back to my office and mounted ot to the wall willvarious other metal scraps (contrasting aluminum and stainless) behind the circle cutouts.

It was very modern/industrial looking and people thought it was a high priced sculpture. When I left the office a lady came by and offered to buy it from me to use as sculpture for the side of her pool house. I just gave it to her. It had cost me nada. Last I heard my art was still on display some 10 years later.

Take a magnet with you...I don't think true stainless is magnetic.

You can buy thin coated (just about any color)steel sheet from any metals supply house/service center. Just call one in your local pages, they sell to the public.

You're in Chicago(ish) right? Call Central Steel & Wire 1-800-621-8510 and tell them what you want. They'll cut it to size and deliver.

Ferromagnetic is the word you were looking for. ;)

George

thanks man

Velcro man, Velcro...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1241676111.jpg

It would be a whole lot cooler to magnetize the wall and use random metallic objects to hold ***** up. A piston here, crank bearing there. That's the ticket.;)

The dark mag paint is pretty good, we used it in the past, but it does limit the strength of the magnets that you can use and hence the weight you can pin up.
We use enamelled steel panels on our walls here in the studio with pretty hefty magnets to hold up display boards and drawings.

The enamel protects the steel panle and does not scratch so they look good for years. Bare galvanised steel will show damage after a couple of years.