does anyone have any experience with attaching magnets to a flak vest/other soft parts? I'm considering sewing magnets in through a sort of patch/hand sewn deal, but I'm not sure. I'm planning on either attaching my armor to the magnets or using Velcro.
Alrifght, I don't have any experience but I stayed in a Holiday Inn Express last night so I will take a shot at this.
I was at Harbor Freight Tools a few days ago and bought a set of ten rare earth magnets that are reasonably sized. They cost less than $5 for the tube. They hold together real nice. I was thinking the same thing, especially for pauldrons, knees and such.
Here is what I know from experience about magnets, in case you don't know. Magnets hold well against pulling forces. They don't do well at sliding forces. If you take my meaning. Think like putting magnets on a refrigerator. You may not find it easy to pull them strait off but they will slide around easliy. So you need to incorporate a male-female post and hole device with the magnets. Have the magnet on the fabric stand out, affix to leather or something stiff like that and have the second magnet inside a few layers of leather so the two magnets touch but cant slide sideways. You will have to place these very exactly, you won't have a lot of wiggle room. Also you will need multiple points, the larger the peice the more sets of magnets.
I plan to try this once I get back working on my suit. I've thought a lot about it.