"Magnetic sheet thickness for movement tray" Topic

Hi all, I'm planning on making some movement trays for my 1/72 figures so that I can play them in larger battle games as well, and wanted some help with figuring out how thick of magnetic sheet I should buy.

My figures are based on steel washers, from 19mm-36mm in size so some can be a bit heavy, so I want to make sure the sheet will be strong enough to hold them and also not flop around. I've been looking all around in stores locally but haven't been able to find anyone who stocks these sorts of sheets, so unfortunately I haven't been able to test and see what works well. What would you recommend?

I've seen some saying that they use around 0.8mm-1mm thick, but I'm just worried it can be a bit weak to hold the larger washers. I can order some online all the way up to 2mm thick, but that would make the total height quite tall as the washers themselves are 1-2mm thick. Would 1mm magnetic sheet be enough, or is it better to go to 1.5mm or 2mm? Thanks

I assume you are using just plain sheet magnet, and not putting the magnet on, for example, thin wood or cardboard?

I use 60mil sheet magnet from MagnetKing.com Very strong. And I buy the vinyl backed variety as it "slides" more easily so in many cases you can push the tray rather than try and pick it up.

I use these trays with 15 and 25mm metal troops and have not had a problem.

That's right, I was planning on just using it on its own. Do you mean 0.6mm? 60mm would be very thick indeed :) Or is it 0.06", as shown on that site? (~1.5mm) That's a good idea about the vinyl backing, I'll see if I can find anything like that.

This is an example of what I was looking at ordering.
link

For my 10mm figures, I can turn the boxes over and the figures don't move around with the thickness of magentic sheeting I purchase by the roll from a local sign shop.

For 28mm metal figures, I have found no magnetic sheeting that can stand tilting the box more than 45 degrees. The sheeting stops them from bouncing into each other during normal handling, but it is not good enough to throw the boxes around or turn them upside down.

I'm in the US so we talk inches. Looking at it, it is about 1.7mm thick?

I spray paint mine green and then do sand and flock around the edges if needed. Here is a picture of some army type ones in use:

If you leave extra space you have a place to put unit labels, markers, etc. Here are some close up photos:

link

I also make them for skirmish games like this:

+1 Extra Crispy

1 US mil = 1 UK thou

Nothing to do with mm !

@Dagwood
Never heard either so that would explain the confusion! I've only ever heard mil to be short for millimeter.

It's not the thickness that matters but how strong the magnetic field is.

@MajorB
Every sheet that I've looked at, at least online, has said that the strength varies depending on thickness. If you look at the one I posted it has a table. Is that standardized or something you just have to experiment with to find what is strong enough?

The thickness governs the maximum amount of magnetic material that can be embedded in the vinyl substrate so, as a general rule, thickness does relate to strength.

Apart from products like steel paper, all of the flexible magnetic sheeting I have come across has a substrate of vinyl but a small number also have an extra coating such as whiteboard or a matt finish.

All magnetic bonds can be broken by a sudden shock so it isn't advisable to drop the box. I'd be surprised if the 0.8mm sheet failed to hold a 28mm figure on a 30mm washer against being inverted – unless they are very heavy figures or top heavy. I have many based on 25mm circles and they hold at any angle.

If you have trouble with sliding then put a thin sheet of the old fashioned copy paper (40-50gsm) over the sheet in the box and the figures on top of that. The extra friction will stop sliding.

It still amazes me that the US stubbornly sticks to an outdated measurement system, it's bad enough here in the UK with the few remnants we have left. No wonder our kids can't learn it easily when stupid adults won't change to a better system.

Thanks Extra Crispy for the link to MagnetKing. I've been needing to resupply as I'm need to catch up on my miniature storage and have been putting it off.

Order made and link booked marked. This is why one comes to TMP.

I do the same as Crispy. My bases are cut from 60mil magnetic sheet. 60mil holds the figures well (metal or plastic). Ah get mine from an outfit on ebay.

Just an update, I brought some of the washers I use for my bases to the one place I was able to find sheets for sale. The thickest they had was 1mm, and it wasn't strong enough to hold the washers very well (the figures are all plastic so their weight is negligible).

I will try ordering some 1.5mm and see if it's enough, failing that I guess 2mm it is. Thanks for all the responses

Wow, that is a surprise. Either the magnetic sheet is of a VERY poor quality or you have some unusual sort of washer. The washers are more likely to be the problem because the illustrations on the site you linked to are very similar to the stuff I use and also sell.

I have known small galvanised washers to react weakly to a magnet but not larger ones. Hardened steel washers can behave the same too but they are quite expensive.

To hold well the sheet needs to be flat so that the maximum contact is made with the washer. Your idea of just using a flexible sheet with no backing may also be the problem. I'd try backing the sheet with card and trying again to see if it works better.

The sheet I looked at wasn't exactly like what I posted, it was more like this. link I pressed it flat against the surface, but it may not have been totally flat. I didn't end up buying any though so I can't test it at home.

These are the washers I'm using (not exactly the same size, but basically). link I have a couple rare earth magnets and they seem to stick to those just fine.

OK, I managed to get a translation from Google from those 2 sites and I'm even more confused.

Both seem to be what I'd expect them to be. The only small warning sign is the types of use given for the sheet that you gave as an example – they suggest a fairly low strength but that may be misleading as Google translate won't deal well with any technical terms or the subtleties of Polish.

I don't have much left to suggest I'm afraid. Even the weakest magnetic sheet I have had would easily hold those washers if the sheet was stuck to a flat surface – that was stuff designed to be used to make fridge magnets (about 20-25% of the strength I sell) and was 0.5mm thick.

The usual description for the strength I use is 'vehicle grade' – meaning that it can be reliably used to hold a sign onto the metal body of a vehicle. Usually 0.8-1mm thick.

Tony of TTT