"WHEN FASCISM COMES TO AMERICA IT WILL BE WRAPPED IN THE FLAG
AND CARRYING A CROSS." -SINCLAIR LEWIS

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Guy Loses Finger To Neodymium Magnets

I've posted about bodily implanted magnets, ferrofluids and even magnetic duct tape before but I had never heard of neodymium magnets until I read this story:

Dirk had an accident. It took 1 1/2 hours of surgery to remove the shattered bones and repair the damage. Medically speaking, he crushed his right index finger distal phalange. The magnets had a 50 cm (20 inch) separation when they decided to fly together.

He is lucky that he only lost a finger tip as opposed to his whole hand. The block Neo below is about 4" by 2" by 2" N45 with a pull force of around 700 lbs (320 kg). The disk is about 3" dia. by 2 1/2" thick N45 with a pull force of about 400 lbs (180 kg). That is his fingernail and some of his finger tip caught between the magnets.

You can view some of the more gruesome photos of his crushed digit at the link. While they didn't exactly destroy his entire finger I'm sure it was still painful as hell. These things are incredibly powerful. If any of you have a nemesis slapping some of these magnets onto the hood of their car would be a pretty cruel but funny joke. Just don't tell them where you got the idea; I love my ride.

[Update: Some follow up photos show that he bounced back just fine. Good for him.]

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well... those who sell POWERFULL NEODYMIUM MAGNETS specify clearly that these f..cking little things ARE dangerous and should be handle with great care...
I mean , those two magnets that crushed his finger are gigantic and obvious dangerous...
Too bad it happend and that it happend to him...
Learn from others mistakes!
:-)

Unknown said...

Hello,
Buy Magnets on a stick for picking up small steel things that fall out of reach in the workshop.The magnets are heavy duty and attractive.Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!

Unknown said...

Our magnet can widely use in motor, toy, sensors, Odometer and etc.

http://www.china-magnet.net/Neodymium_Magnet.html