Magnets on foam armor, thoughts?

[CJ Bradley64]

Question for those of us who build with EVA foam. Has anyone ever tried to attach magnets to their armor and weapons so they can mount the weapons and take them off with ease? I was thinking of attaching some small ones to my thigh pieces so I could hook up my M6G easily but I was worried about the possibility of the foam tearing while trying to detach the sidearm. Anyone have any experience with this?

 

[locostorm]

Question for those of us who build with EVA foam. Has anyone ever tried to attach magnets to their armor and weapons so they can mount the weapons and take them off with ease? I was thinking of attaching some small ones to my thigh pieces so I could hook up my M6G easily but I was worried about the possibility of the foam tearing while trying to detach the sidearm. Anyone have any experience with this?

I am also wondering about this cause I am thinking of doing the same thing. I'm going to have to watch this to see if it will work. Only difference is I want to put some in my back too to hold my ar.

 

[Lt Shiny Sides]

It's a common practice. Search and ye shall find.

 

[Jme]

Question for those of us who build with EVA foam. Has anyone ever tried to attach magnets to their armor and weapons so they can mount the weapons and take them off with ease? I was thinking of attaching some small ones to my thigh pieces so I could hook up my M6G easily but I was worried about the possibility of the foam tearing while trying to detach the sidearm. Anyone have any experience with this?

I was having some trouble attaching magnets to my armour (turns out I needed to sand off the outer coating of the magnets) and Peterthinker sent me this very helpful link:

youtube video

[url]https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2E405th%2Ecom%2Fshowpost%2Ephp%3Fp%3D745249&share_tid=44801&share_fid=6554&share_type=t&share_pid=745249

"I don't know what's weirder, that you're fighting a stuffed animal, or that you seem to be losing" - Suzie

 

[Turborider]

Ive glued a small piece of black cloth above the magnets on my leg to improve the stability. the magnet on the counterpiece (Magnum) is below a decorative foami. i can recommend this

 

[locostorm]

I was having some trouble attaching magnets to my armour (turns out I needed to sand off the outer coating of the magnets) and Peterthinker sent me this very helpful link:

youtube video

[url]https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2E405th%2Ecom%2Fshowpost%2Ephp%3Fp%3D745249&share_tid=44801&share_fid=6554&share_type=t&share_pid=745249

"I don't know what's weirder, that you're fighting a stuffed animal, or that you seem to be losing" - Suzie

Thanks. Also I got the Calvin and hobbes quote.

 

[FlyinPhil]

I put rare earth magnets in my right thigh armor with a thin decorative foam piece over top, and corresponding magnets in my foam magnum. They hold it there well, but any shear force(bumping it at an angle) will send it flying. From my experience, it's great for photoshoots, but I wouldn't trust it at a convention.

I know others have had good luck with magnets as well, and I feel that had the magnets been closer together (not with a total of 4mm of craft foam in between) they would have held up better.

 

[CJ Bradley64]

I'm going to do some shopping for some small earth magnets and attach two of them to the M6G and two to some foam with E6000 or some other strong adhesive and see how it performs. I will post results.

 

[Dirtdives2424]

Just make sure the magnets you get aren't too strong. No matter what you do to attach and reinforce, if the magnets are too strong...they will tear out. It would also help if you had a tether line to make sure you don't loose your weapon at a con. I've hear that this happens a lot. Get bumped and keep moving. Next thing you know.....you reach for your weapon and it's gone........

 

[Reclaimara]

Instead on the outside, I would install the magnets on the inside - get stronger magnets, but then they will be invisible as well.

 

[peterthethinker]

http://www.instructables.com/id/Evaluate-magnetic-field-variation-with-distance/

I strongly suggest you just mount the magnets to a backing plate and Inset the plate with magnets exposed .

every micron counts !

 

[Tms]

I had flat but strong neo magnets they do hold the magnum on the thigh but it keeps falling off constantly from every slight bumb. I had my jetpack originally attached with them and they were strong enough to tear the other one from its gluing.
I'd say buy fat and strong ones and imbed them into the armor and the gun. That way the magnets won't rip off the glue and it's strong enough to stay on your leg when it constantly bumbs into someone in sea of people.

 

[CJ Bradley64]

Got the magnets done. works like a charm but it's a bit noticeable on the sidearm. I will post pictures soon.

 

[HolyMatrihomie]

If you are having trouble with your magnets you might want to make a small detail spot on your armor, like a bumped out piece, to place over the magnets. It doesn't have to be super thick if you are worried about the strength of the magnet. But that way you wont have to worry about the magnet being visible.

http://www.miniinthebox.com/20-pack...hLQ8X8mw8HhmmtYRKDsUNLRyk6hHdrbKhPRoCPWTw_wcB

using a magnet like these disc ones would help too because they are so thin. Good luck with everything!

 

[CPO mendez]

I did this with both my Iron Man Mk 6 suit and war machine suit. I did a lot of experimenting with your standard neodynium magnets to figure out what they were and weren't suited for. the main things i used them for was the knee joint of iron man, and holding the chestplate and backplate onto the internal torso brace, like so:






I used duct tape and hot glue to keep the magnets in the cutouts i made for them. when it comes to EVA foam, putting hot glue down and duct tape over it created the absolute STRONGEST bond possible, stronger than the foam itself honestly. That's CPO Mendez's secret recipe.





To figure out how to position the neodynium magnets on the outer pieces so that they lined up EXACTLY with the brace inside the chest, i traced the magnet on the brace where i wanted it, after positioning the brace inside the chest and back piece, and then used a small nail to poke holes through the brace and into the back/chest pieces on the other side:







Overall, the neodynium magnets were great at holding the pieces together, however they really just couldn't hold together completely with the shifting forces of my body (things like turning, moving around, bending over, even just the movements of walking) and honestly nothing really beats nylon straps and buckles. i ended up having to add them to the bottom front of the brace, since the LED "arc reactor" needed to line up with the hole in the chestpiece:



Now for the knee joints: they actually had a really good unintended effect. Like i said before, the magnets will disengage with enough force. however, with the knee joint of the Mk. 6, it allowed me to bend down and take a knee (which, if you've ever cosplayed and done pictures, you should know is INSANELY useful for the little kids that want pictures) however, given the nature of foam, its hard to get it into the perfect position for a rotating knee joint like that, so the plastic on the bottom of the thigh piece that held the other magnet had a tendency to shred the little circular foam piece on the calf:








And here's what the thigh part of the joint looks like (the blue is from a character mashup paintjob i did, same suit though)



And the damage i mentioned:


Hope this helps! i did a few more things with magnets, so if you have any more questions i'll be happy to answer.

 

[CJ Bradley64]

very Cool! Thank you for sharing! looks like we might have found the same magnets if not just similar ones