Steel Clad construction tip.

[el_draco (Rom)]

Problem:

How do you hang a steel sheet, get it straight and mark a horizontal line for tek screws and then maintain the alignment whilst getting enough screws in to make it secure.... when there's only one person on site?

Solution:

- Get 6 X 50mm X 25mm rare earth magnets.
- Cover them with gaffer or duct tape making a 100mm plus tab of tape on one end. Use them to anchor the panel in place against "top hat" or purlin.

Result:
- The magnets attach with a loud snap and the tape eliminates scratching of the panels. six magnets will hold a 2.4m hanging panel, allowing precise alignment with a little nudging possible.
- The extra tab of tape is used to tug the magnets away from the panel very easily.

Warning:
Don't let the magnets come into contact and MOST IMPORTANTLY, don't get finger tips between two magnets, lest the skin gets pulverised. (also bloody hard to get the magnets apart!!)

[Kunama]

Also keep your wallet with keycards, your car remote fobs, your mobile phones, cameras etc away from them...... oh, and your fingers....

[LewisM]

Originally Posted by Kunama

oh, and your fingers....

Yeah, ask me how I know.

Fire Truck it hurts.

[el_draco (Rom)]

I must admit I've danced a few times but the tape tab is brilliant for getting them off the panel. Saved me an awful lot of frustration putting up 40 panels. Ended up taking just over a day....

[Boozlefoot]

If it was me, I'd just leave the sheets hanging on the magnets and not bother tekking them in!

[mental4astro (Alexander)]

Yep, the old welder's trick of using magnets to hold together components Great idea of the gaffa tape to cover them with the tag! I've been using a sock, but the gaffa tape is more robust.

Yes, these LARGE rare earth magnets need to be used with a great deal of care. If you are not familiar with these, they literally are like something out of a James Bond movie with how powerful they are, and for being so small, deceptively so. NOT something to let kids play with as they will have no way of controlling them, and these large magnets can literally break bones in fingers if allowed to slam onto steel or even worse another magnet. And they don't let go...

I have a couple of these large magnets, and I don't let my kids play with them. Hell, they scare me these things.

On the plus side, their hold strength is so great, I use smaller ones as part of the detachable mechanism of the secondary mirror in my 12" scope. The secondary takes some effort to remove once it's in place.