Steven Shamlian Creator of Things

Buried in Minutiae


2010 December

Armenian Fridge Magnets

After being unable to find reasonably priced, properly distributed Armenian refrigerator magnets, I decided to make my own. First, I wrote a program to scrape an Armenian-language newspaper's web site in order to calculate letter distributions, since I could not find a distribution chart. Once a distribution had been calculated, I decided to build 100 letters total. I laid out 100 1.5" tall letters in a 12" x 12" sheet to cut out on a laser cutter twice -- once with press-fit holes for magnets, and one without, to glue on top. Total cost: $10 for the magnets from Amazon and $10.25 for the acrylic from Mcmaster-Carr. Add an extra $5 for the glue, and the total cost is $25, which, while expensive, is much less than a similar number of magnets would cost at an Armenian specialty store. The only real drawback is that they're all the same color, and that they took the better part of six hours to assemble.

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