Coating Hypothesis - levitation

edited April 2016 in Magnets
As a hypothesis, this should actually work quite well, I lack the materials to perform the experiment.

It involves the typical electroplating process, so that's all fine and dandy with no real changes there, except how you'd submerge the magnet in the solution.

Since we're dealing with magnets, it should be possible to keep the magnet levitated within the solution while it gets plated.  The hypothetical process behind this involves a conductive disk of material, most likely aluminium or copper spinning underneath the solution, such as the disk being attached at it's center on a drill.

To test this to see if it's potentially viable, you should be able to cut a soda or beer can in half and attach that to a drill and put the magnet in a baggie, turn on the drill and see if the magnet hovers over the can and test to make sure it's not air movement using a coin of similar mass.  If that works to keep the magnet levitated over the "Disk" (in this quick experiment, the beer can), then the disk should also viably work I'd think as well.

Anyone with the materials required for this experiment care to try it and post the results please?
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Comments

  • Question are you looking for the test to clarify if it could work or the actual coating? I could possibly rig up the test I just need to find a few supplies in my garage.
  • I'm looking to clarify that the magnet would indeed levitate over a piece of rapidly spinning or rotating conductive material.  So the question is, does the levitation of the magnet actually work as I think it would?  Mathematically it's rather sound, but still would rather know if it works in practice.
  • edited April 2016
    Ok I will look around and see if I can find the stuff I think I have. If I do succeed or fail with the test I'll let you know. My initial thought is you'd need to have it not be flat with a slight angle.

    That said if you have an old blender that you don't mind messing with that would be a really easy mod to it. I sadly do not but it's the basis for what I'm going to try and find in my garage.

    EDIT: I won't be able to do this till next week also I'm traveling for work for a few days
  • here's where you've got a gaping hole in your idea. That's not how electroplating works. First off, how are you connecting your magnet to the circuit? cause wherever it's touching, your coating is gonna be subpar, hence why this is normally done in 2 passes, 1 on either side. Also how are you holding that connection onto what you suppose is a floating magnet? Also, electroplating is directional. So regardless of levitation (which honestly is going to make the plating a nightmare anyway) you're always getting more material on one side than the other. Again, hence the 2 pass thing. Next time, before you start with "this will work well" maybe start with, "any idea how well this will work".

    That said, electroplating isn't the only way to plate something. There are methods to chemically coat something but that tends to be either silver or copper, neither of which will work as a magnet coating. Also, what metal did you plan on plating? because the only biocompatible one that can be plated is gold, and it's a shitty coating material which is why no one uses it. If you're talking about the base coat, that's not electroplated. And it couldn't be. The raw magnet would degrade very quickly in any plating solution. The base coat is plasma sputtered on in a vacuum to prevent degradation of the magnet.

    Levitating a magnet like that is just fine and dandy (although the effect is far less than you're expecting, you can find video of it on youtube), but it's not actually a useful tool in this instance. It'll just add more pieces to an already delicate setup. 

    You're far better off spray coating a magnet with a polymer and uv curing it.

  • @Chironex Thanks for the heads up.  I took the time and found Thunderf00t happens to have a video in regards to the "real" hoverboards and showed the experiment how I had it in mind.

    Also thanks for the added details.  I was just thinking while I was spending time in the restroom doing my business and thought of this and how it might possibly be used to aid with magnetic implants.

    I appreciate your input.  I'll leave the coating to the professionals that know what they're doing.
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