Crack it in half, remove some of the innards, insert a small magnet, glue back up, touch it up with a little paint to cover the crack?

Any better ways or tips?

Derek Merdinyan

Why not cast one out of casting resin, with the magnet already inside? I can't imagine trying to cleanly break and hollow out a rock.

Easy to cleanly break one, but really hard to hollow out unless you have all the right tools.
Definately cast one.
Gwyd

I think it depends on the rock that one uses, and how it will be used. (are you letting others handle it>)
There are some that will not require any shimming!
Sandstone, slates, soapstones are all soft enough, or able to be split, ground a bit with a dremmel and a carbide or diamond bit, and plugged with the dust. (Actually with soapstone and sandstone, you can use a nail and a small rasp)
k

Well-equiped model railroad supply shops carry Woodland Scenics products, and rubber rock molds for casting is one of the nifty items available.

Follow the links to: Terrain > Rock Molds

You can order everything you need directly from them.

~michael

You can actually buy (hematite) magnetic rocks here.

http://www.magnetwraps.com/MagnetRocks.h......od1QrXeA

The rocks look a little obvious if you are performing PK effects with them, so what I did was sand off the outside glaze with an electric sander until they look more like a normal rock.

Stupid me... Trying to hollow out a rock...

Any suggestions for casting that could be done by an average schmo out of his garage? Materials and molding material.

I remember seeing some form of casting wherein an object was coated with a rubbery material - when it cooled, the object was cut out with a single slit cut and was then filled with yet another substance.

Derek Merdinyan

All right, Michael... You need to decide to either get out of model railroading, or to give in to your baser insticts and dust off that N-scale layout. You can't have it both ways...

;)

Amos,

Hey, I learned a lot of things that are applicable to magic from model railroading! Come over sometime, and YOU can dust off the layout! Ha-ha! That room is so packed with magic stuff now, you can't even get to it!

~michael

You could simply drill a hole, insert whatever then fill in with resin

You could also make a hollow stone which can be found on that one site with the blood from stone trick.

Get a fake stone from the shop, the ones you can hide a door key in.