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Comment by salgernon | Hacker News Reader

The latch on our clothes dryer broke; the door would no longer snug up and maintain the seal or necessary pressure for the safety switch. I now have a 2x2x1" rare earth magnet holding the door shut against the dryer frame. Its strong enough to keep the door snug, but I can still open the dryer door with a good tug.

I'm not sure why I had a 2x2x1" neodymium magnet laying around, but I'm glad I did.

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> I'm not sure why I had a 2x2x1" neodymium magnet laying around, but I'm glad I did.

The same reason why there's beer in the fridge, condoms in the night stand and a guitar pick in your pocket: just in case.

You live a far more exciting life than me. Although mine might be more surreal.

It is interesting that with the neodymium magnets being rare earth materials and apparent limits being placed on their mining/import/export etc., the price of them has sky-rocketed. There was a time when all the bass cabinets for bass players were getting smaller and smaller and lighter and lighter thanks to these magnets because it meant you could have a smaller speaker driver (hence less weight) but now they're having to resort to the heavier speakers again.

A shame really! I never did buy any light cabinets but always wish I had! At least Class D amplifiers are doing the rounds and so massive wattage amplifiers are now tiny and lightweight.

Ha. I did exactly the same thing with a dryer years ago but with a neodymium magnet from a hard drive head actuator.

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