Gather materials needed to make or repair refrigerator magnets

Materials:

Items and decorations to turn into magnets: Gather up your broken or weak fridge magnets to repair, rock and minerals, souvenirs and other decorations to make into fridge magnets.

Adhesive: Prepare enough adhesive to attach all magnets to decorations. We used Gorilla Glue 5 minute epoxy in this article. Make sure the adhesive will bond to the materials and nickel finish on magnet. See our Gluing Magnets article for help choosing a glue. One type of glue may not work well on all surface types so be sure to check the above article and read product labels.

Our adhesive magnets and adhesive backings are also a great way to save the time and hassle of gluing magnets, but are not great on all surfaces and may not be the best choice for surfaces like the rocks and minerals we made below and some plastics.

Anti-slip pads: Prepare traction pads to help prevent slipping down the fridge. For heavier decorations like some of the rocks we did, our magnet adhesive traction pads help to increase friction and prevent sliding down the fridge surface.

The traction pads add a gap between the magnet and fridge so are best suited for decorations that will only hold thin and light objects, or just hold the decoration itself.

Magnets: While you could use any magnets, neodymium are best because of their compact size, low prices and because they don't lose their magnetization over time like ceramic and flexible fridge magnets. We are going to use disc magnets in this DIY in order to keep the decorations as close to the fridge surface as possible to lower leverage.

If the decoration is thin and a strong magnet is used, it may be too hard to remove or the magnet may stick to the fridge and the decoration break off. Make sure the magnets are strong enough to hold up the decoration and your photos or shopping list, but not so strong you cannot remove it or the glue bond breaks. Our Rocks and Minerals article may be useful in choosing a good strength of disc magnet for your fridge.

Our family lost a loved magnet from a past vacation when it got bumped and fell to the floor, cracking in half. If the magnets were neodymium, it would probably still be on the fridge in one piece!

2. Steps to create or restore fridge magnets

1. Choose location to attach magnets

Make flush with surface

Make sure the angle is flush with both the object or decoration and will be flush with the fridge surface before and after gluing. Any angle may create leverage or a gap between the magnet and fridge.

Reduce leverage

Make sure leverage is minimized to prevent magnet from falling off fridge.

Placing multiple magnets helps to reduce leverage, but if you are only able to attach one, try to make sure it is in the center of gravity. Check out our Leverage & Friction When Using Magnets article to learn more.

You can see that the location of the magnet below is not ideal because the head will be pushing against the fridge and will be trying to knock the magnet off. The green arrows in the picture show suggestions of a better way to position some magnets to prevent this issue.