[pianotech] Close Encounters - gray goo

[Ron Nossaman]

I bought some little Neodymium magnets a while back (bigger than I 
wanted, but priced right) with the intention of embedding them in the 
corners of a couple of small wooden boxes that don't otherwise have 
catches. Hinges, yes, but no catches.

So I drilled out the corners to the appropriate depth, and went looking 
for a suitable glue. I was pretty sure I had some J-B KWIK left, and 
against all odds, I found it right where it should have been. A good 
omen, for sure. Mixed up what I needed, and started installing magnets. 
This is where it got interesting. J-B is filled with ferric something or 
other, be it powdered steel, iron, hematite, or moon core dust, which 
means it ought to be attracted to a magnet. Yep, sure enough, the stuff 
crawled up out of the holes and chased me around the shop every time I 
got one of those fierce little round suckers anywhere near it. Made for 
quite the floor show, but I eventually won, and it worked really nicely 
in the end. I figure even if the J-B didn't stick to the magnet, it 
would stick to the wood and the magnet would attract the surrounding 
filler enough to keep it there. Belt and suspenders, so to speak. The 
visual of that stuff boiling up over the edge of the magnet and 
engulfing it will "stick" with me for a long time, so it was worth doing 
for that alone.

I think we ought to try something new on a regular basis just to see 
what entertainment potential we're missing.

Ron N