The magnetic letterpress was fabricated for the artist Graham Plumb in 2017 and 2018. The sculpture uses ferrofluid (magnetic oil) and a series of magnets on motors that move to create letters and numbers that appear and then disappear in the oil.
The fabrication for this project included welding, buffing and assembling the aluminum table and the aluminum frame for the projection screen that hangs above the table. Because of the parameters of this project, the table had to be made extremely flat to hold just a thin layer of magnetic oil. Special compensation had to be made for aluminum expansion due to heat transfer during welding.
