Machining or Welding Magnets

Magnets especially Neodymium Magnet are very hard and brittle, so machining is difficult at best. The hardness of the material is RC46 on the Rockwell “C” scale, which is harder than commercially available drills and tooling, so these tools will heat up and become damaged if used on Knife material.

Diamond tooling, EDM (Electrostatic Discharge Machines), and abrasives are the preferred methods from shaping neodymium magnet material. Machining of Neodymium Magnets should only be done by experienced machining familiar with the risk and safety issues involved as if they are done by an inexperienced technician, they can and will shatter with force which can injurer operators and damage equipment.

The heat generated during machining often causes the magnet to go above Curie Temperature resulting in the magnet demagneising. This also poses a large fire risk as the dust caused by machining could ignite. The dry powder produced while machining is also very flammable and great care must be taken to avoid combustion of this material.

Neodymium magnets cannot be soldered or welded to by TIG or MIG welders as the magnetic field will likely cause the welder to blow out damaging the magnet. We only recommend laser welding in order to weld any magnet.