sci.electronics.design,sci.electronics.components, rec.radio.amateur.homebrew,
"Greysky" wrote:

ever since I was a child, magnets have held a fascination for me. I've been
collecting them ever since. It used to be that you could always scrounge
loudspeakers for Alnico magnets. Then when the newer ceramic magnets began
to be incorporated into loudspeakers, it became a challenge to remove them
from their enclosures without breaking them. Now, I have to admit, I am
having a ball collecting the new 'super magnets' - like the ones inside hard
drives. There are also cool cylindrical magnets that you can get from inside
the heads of VHS machines. My question is does anyone know of other sources
either for Neodymium 'duper magnets', or strong ceramic magnets that I may
be missing out on?

Like other posters, I've gotten some good ones out of some 5"
full-heght 30MB hard drives, and the ceramic donut magnets inside
microwave ovens. There are also some small, moderately strong
(apparently a step below Neodymium) magnets in many small
earphones/headphones (the kind for Walkman type portable stereos with
the 1/8" plug), that I've bought surplus for a dollar each. But some
of these have a little ceramic ring/donut magnet that's about next to
useless.

Magnets like these come closest to being perpetual motion
machines we have yet to make, and I'd hate to have some just wind up into
the trash because I didn't know they were there :-)

There's this fun link that was posted a few months ago.

http://www.houseofscience.com/ouch/ouch.html

Thanks.!