I love when people re-purpose items rather than just throwing them in the garbage. Tom Schaefer did exactly that with an old computer hard drive, by removing the magnet and screwing it into the wall for quick access to his handgun:
Tom’s blog – HERE
If I was planning on removing the gun on a regular basis i’d definitely put a piece of plastic ( cut out of a milk jug? ) or something over top of the magnet before I screwed it down, so it wouldn’t scratch the gun.
There are a couple of commercial options available when it comes to gun magnets:
But I’d still make my own, considering FREE beats $20 – $30 any day.
In the gun community there seems to be opposing viewpoints on whether or not the gun will become magnetized and possibly induce failure. I have no personal experience on the topic, but I don’t think it would be out of the realm of possibility for some parts to become magnetized and collect bits of lead and other metallic dust we are used to cleaning out of our dirty pistols. The idea of that doesn’t really thrill me, but I’d have to try it out for myself to see if it actually is an issue.
Comments
17 responses to “Handgun Mount From Old Computer Hard Drive Magnet”
I don’t quite recall where I read this, but some models of firearms will discharge when they are sufficiently magnetized.
Quick google search yielded this: http://www.ajronline.org/cgi/content/full/178/5/1092
I don’t think this is the smartest way to store a firearm.
The link in the comment above describes a gun that went into a magnetic resonance imager. It was pulled toward the magnet (which is about a gazillion times stronger than a hard drive magnet) and discharged when the trigger was snagged.
I personally have had credit cards demagnetized from simply standing in the same room as such a magnet. They are really strong.
There is, in the shooting community, a disturbing tendency for extremely unlikely hypothetical scenarios to become accepted lore. To say that shooters can be a superstitious lot is an understatement. Some of the best shooters I know, who in every other aspect of their lives are rational, intelligent and critical thinkers, will pick up on insanely unlikely scenarios or anomalous events and spend undue money and time trying to mitigate the risk of the near impossible.
Anyone who has ever tried to make a survival needle compass can tell you that just getting a tiny bit of iron magnetized is harder than it sounds. That a 5lb magnet would “magnetize” a 2lb block of steel without an obscene amount of rubbing is extremely unlikely. This has the whiff of gun crowd paranoia.
Bullets are made out of non-magnetic materials (except for the ones with iron cases). No trouble with collecting bits of lead. On the other hand, if your gun sticks to the magnet (which is the point!) it obviously has magnetic parts. The gun won’t magnetize enough to halt or hinder an explosion, so it should fire. The biggest question is what the trigger mechanism is made of. That works with smaller forces.
The slide and barrel, any springs, hammer, that kind of stuff will be steel, and therefore magnetic. Even with a polymer frame. Except for the fairly rare steel case, nothing in the bullets has any magnetic property. Lead particles will not be attracted. You wouldn’t be firing with the magnet attached anyway, so the field wouldn’t affect the operation. Any magnetism induced in the steel will be very weak indeed, not enough to overcome or interfere with any mechanical operation. In other words, there’s no scientific nor mechanical reason to think this won’t be fine.
“There is, in the shooting community, a disturbing tendency for extremely unlikely hypothetical scenarios to become accepted lore. To say that shooters can be a superstitious lot is an understatement.”
032125 speaks truth.
This is not going to “magnetize” the gun. Even if it did “magnetize” it, it wouldn’t “go off”. Lead and powder residue are non-ferrous and will not be attracted to the gun even if it were magically “magnetized”. Night Wolf is not devouring Moon Maiden; it’s just an eclipse, people. ;)
Wait, but how will this work with my all-porcelain Glock 7 that fires 700 rounds without a reload and is invisible to metal detectors in airports?
The magnet may remove some of the shielding on the carbon nano tube nuclear fusion reactor used to energize the cloaking device. That some times can create a singularity which tears holes in the time space continuum. Other then that you should be O.K.
hahaha nice
Whoa whoa whoa, how do you have one of those? It costs more than what you make in a month!
ah the illusive Glock 7! You’ll have to use a magnet made from unobtanium to hold that gun to the wall. :P
neat-o another use for hard drive guts.
magnetic steel parts can attract iron grit. That’s why when I’m doing something like repacking ball bearings, I don’t like to use magnetic tools to pick the bearings out of the races.
If you want to demagnetize a hunk of steel you just need to pass it close to a changing magnetic field. Got a soldering gun, a power drill (plastic case) or maybe one of those stick blenders? Anything like that should work fine. I mostly use this trick to demagnetize screwdrivers.
The metal piece on the back of those magnets is called “mu metal”. It’s about 75% nickel and 25% copper and has the property of shielding lines of magnetic force. You can stick this magnet to the fridge, pull hard to get it off (very strong), and then flip it over and see that it does not stick in the slightest.
The magnets themselves are a bit brittle and if something is smacked hard against it, pieces could chip off. That’s why the magnets themselves are thinly chrome plated. You would not want little bits of magnetic dust inside your hard drive. The idea to coat or wrap the magnet in plastic is a good one.
I made a holster from one of those. It has a short nylon bolt to locate the barrel, and the magnet picks up the cylinder on my Rossi revolver. Open carry of the gun with no visible means of support. I may have written it up on my blog at some point, but I don’t remember exactly when.
Here it is:
http://billllsidlemind.blogspot.com/2010/09/magnetic-holsters.html
Wow that’s a really interesting idea Billll. The draw time with that rig would be quick!
On an automatic, I’d be afraid the magnetism would have an adverse effect on the firing pin, safety catch, spring detents, and all related parts and pieces. These little magnets can magnetize tiny ferrous items very easily and I wouldn’t want my life depending on a weapon that may have magnetized guts!
On the other hand, a little magnetization would have kept me from loosing a hell of a lot of them little parts in the past!