What are good quality off-brand Geomag Pro alternatives?

What are good quality off-brand Geomag Pro alternatives?

Postby lanasmith » Sun Dec 06, 2020 7:13 pm

Hi. I'm new to this forum, and see that the forum for showing off designs is quite active, so hopefully people browse this forum once in awhile. I have 305 magnetic bars in total (the 27mm bars). I have CMS Magnetics and Geomag brands. I bought some Veatree magnetic bars to add to the collection; the bars are light and the magnets are quite weak, and intricate designs crumble like a house of cards.

What are relatively cheap methods for adding to my Geomag Pro collection (either off-brand that is high quality, or OK priced Geomag Pro bars)? I'd like to get 400 or 500 more magnetic bars, to make some cool designs I've come up with, but eBay tends to sell Geomag Pro boxes for $100+, which I can't afford.
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Re: What are good quality off-brand Geomag Pro alternatives?

Postby Eric » Sun Dec 06, 2020 8:55 pm

Hello Lana,
Welcome to the forum.

In my opinion you have no choice. If you want to make complex constructions, you need rods with strong magnets. In my experience, apart from the Geomags and possibly their cousins the supermags, there isn't much else. I have had Magnetix, Magmax, Bybot, Xmag and others in my hands and none were suitable. I advise you to focus on a single brand. Otherwise, your constructions will lack homogeneity and you will quickly be frustrated.

The solution I found is to buy Geomags on the second-hand market. You have to watch regularly (every day) and not hesitate to buy lots that contain other brands, then resell them afterwards to amortize the purchase. I look for Incomplete boxes with missing rods and spheres that are sold for less. Or even more often bulk without box. I also spent a lot of time cleaning up what I received. Some were dusty, greasy, smelling of tobacco, ... You can even recover very very dirty white rods with a little elbow grease (EDIT : now I use white vinegar (healthier than window cleaning spray) and a cloth).

You have to be patient, persevering and set a maximum price that should not be exceeded. You must not rush. Personally, I do not exceed an average price of € 20 for 100 rods including postage (in fact now rather € 15 for 100 rods). But the second-hand market for geomag is rather active in France. It takes a few months. There are times when you can't find anything for several weeks and others when you can do 5 good deals in the week. I bought very little on ebay because it was not interesting. I have done most of my purchases on Vinted and leboncoin which are person-to-person sites. Alas there is no miracle, it takes time and effort.

I wish you good luck in your quest ;-)
Last edited by Eric on Mon Jan 11, 2021 7:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: What are good quality off-brand Geomag Pro alternatives?

Postby Eric » Tue Dec 08, 2020 1:46 pm

An experiment I made today.
Here is the best I managed to do with what I had.
It doesn't claim to be absolute truth. For my part I did everything to be as objective as possible, with what I had on hand.
Sometimes the last sphere barely held, but I always reproduced the best result with 2 different rods of the same brand. Sometimes some rods from the same brand did not achieve the best result.

Once again, I do not pretend to reproduce the results of an independent laboratory with a very rigorous test protocol. It's just done quickly (but seriously ;-)) in 10 min

Also note, and this is very important, that the power of the magnet alone is not everything. Also counts the weight of the rod, the precision of the finish, the quality of the materials used (there are some that are really crappy, even strong ones), the diameter of the magnet (magnetix for example requires larger balls, therefore heavier) and the security with which the magnet is crimped at the end of the rod so that it cannot come off (danger of ingestion).

For all these aspects, and in my own opinion, Geomag first then supermag (Plastwood was the first manufacturer of Geomag), and imagix are above the others that I have been able to handle in terms of overall quality.

20201208_123819.jpg
Geomag

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Supermag

20201208_124428.jpg
Imagix
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Re: What are good quality off-brand Geomag Pro alternatives?

Postby Eric » Tue Dec 08, 2020 1:51 pm

20201208_125231.jpg
Xmag

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Magnetix

20201208_125331.jpg
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Re: What are good quality off-brand Geomag Pro alternatives?

Postby Eric » Tue Dec 08, 2020 1:52 pm

20201208_125437.jpg
Magmax
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