I found this key holder in the container store. It had their usual 400% markup, but I bought it anyway because i thought it was a really clever design and i wanted to support whoever thought of it. Hopefully that person works for the container store. Anyway, its fine for what it is, a smallish rare earth magnet hidden behind a wood veneer. Unfortunately, I’m one of those people who has more keys than the janitor, so it was always a struggle to get them to stick. Plus, it was way out of scale on the wall where we hung it. So, I decided to improve upon this contraption.


A few months ago I was consolidating some stuff and came across 2 old harddrives from my old G4. I harvested the magnets and recycled the metal parts. The coating was chipping off of them so I dunked them in plastidip to keep them whole and prevent my little one from accidentally munching on broken rare earth pieces, but I hadn’t found a use for the magnets yet.

I was lucky enough to happen upon this old risk game from 1975 in mint condition at a local thrift store. it was only $4 and it is one of the nicer styles of risk board.

You guessed it. I got a frame for the board and glued the magnets to the back and …

Only 1 issue I hadn’t anticipated. The placement of the keys change the weight distribution of the board so it would teeter and totter. I just got one of those 3M Command hook and loop connectors to keep it anchored and now its awesome.