Life In 19x19

My latest iteration is made from a nice cut of pine and uses magnets to securely hold the halves together. I like the feel and sound result better than the harder maple and the magnets work great. The grain on this cut of pine is nice as well. I am not sure how well the pine will withstand transportation, temp, and humidity changes. I will update after some time with the results.

For all info on making it see the previous post here. All the main parts are the same. I decided to go with the slightly larger dimensions of line spacing 23 mm in one dimension and 25 mm in the other used on Chinese boards. Beyond that the magnets are from magnets4less.com. The cost for magnets is about $24 total ($16 is shipping cost, oof).
3x RARE EARTH MAGNETS 3/8 IN X 1 IN NEODYMIUM CYLINDER N42
3x NEODYMIUM MAGNETS N48 3/8 IN X 1/2 IN RARE EARTH ROD

The magnet holes were drilled with a 10 mm bit and glued in with Gorilla Glue. This took some babysitting as Gorilla Glue expands and you need to press down on the magnets and wipe away excess glue every few minutes until it sets which takes roughly 30 minutes.

board
halves

Nice work. I hope the pine holds up over the years.

From the woodworking point of view, pine, even the best pine stocks, is not respected well enough on the supply side to receive proper seasoning before conversion to lumber. As a commodity for so many industries, pine is quickly moved from forest to end use. In the furniture industry, pine trees become veneers for laminates and plywoods, oriented strand board, and other none-dimensional products. Anyone trying to find straight 2x4s at Home Depot knows the quality of pine and spruce lumber is simply not very good.

Congrats on finding such uniform, minimalist, non-distracting grains!