Magnetic Lego bricks

Lego bricks as inventive refrigerator magnets

Author: Werner Just, Germany

Online since: 17/10/2011, Number of visits: 524131

Add magnets to Lego bricks

Lego bricks have round cavities underneath, which are perfect for placing magnets in them. Magnetised Lego bricks are not only suitable as bulletin board magnets; they have many other advantages. More about that later.

Note from the supermagnete team: Magnets are not toys! If you let your children play with the magnetised Lego bricks, please explain to them the dangers of magnets and make sure the magnets won't come off the legos. Swallowing several magnets can be fatal!

Material needed for Lego magnets:

1 piece of parchment paper
1 coffee/tea cup
Adhesive, e.g. UHU MAX REPAIR
1 toothpick
Various Lego bricks
1 spoon or something else magnetic that you can use to put pressure on
Disc magnets S-05-02-N52N

Preparation

Spread out the parchment paper and use a cup to keep it in place. The parchment paper should protect the table from adhesive drops and prevent the completed bricks from sticking.

Put the Lego bricks on the parchment paper and prepare the adhesive.

Glue in the magnets

Then use the toothpick to put a little adhesive into the Lego and place the magnet in the cavity by attaching it to the spoon and pressing the magnet into the Lego brick (see pictures below).

Note from the supermagnete team:

Since the magnets are practically the same size as the cavities in the Lego, you could leave the adhesive out. You can skip the next but one step then.

When the magnet is in place: Carefully pull the spoon away sideways.

Of course, you can put the magnet in place with your finger, but it's much easier with the spoon.

Let them dry

Place the "magnetised" Lego brick on the parchment paper with the magnet facing down, so the adhesive can run down on the magnet from the inside. Wait at least overnight for the adhesive to harden.

And the Lego magnets are done!

Show time!

A Lego brick with a 5 x 2 mm magnet holds 5 DIN-A4 sheets (80g/m² paper) securely on the fridge. A single magnet per Lego is usually sufficient. If not, there are two possibilities:

Put several magnets on the Legos. Make sure you pay attention to the direction of magnetisation!
Use disc magnets with the same diameter (5 mm), but different thickness: 5 x 3 mm, 5 x 4 mm or even 5 x 5 mm.

Presenting new creations

As soon as my kids saw their Legos on the refrigerator, they came up with new applications. They especially like that they now have a different way of presenting their creations.