We present designs for compact, inexpensive and strong dipole permanent magnets aimed primarily at magnetic resonance applications where prepolarization and detection occur at different locations. Low-homogeneity magnets with a 7.5 mm bore size and field up to nearly 2 T are constructed using low-cost starting materials, standard workshop tools and only few hours of labor – an achievable project for a student or postdoc with spare time. As an application example we show how our magnet was used to polarize the nuclear spins in approximately 1 mL of pure [13C]-methanol prior to detection of its high-resolution NMR spectrum at zero field (measurement field below 10−10 T), where signals appear at multiples of the carbon-hydrogen spin-spin coupling frequency 1JCH=140.7(1) Hz.This work has received support from the European Research Council (author DS, grant agreement FP7-205119 R-EvolutioN-MR) and from the European Commission’s Seventh Framework Program (author MCDT under the Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellowship Programme, grant agreement FP7-625054 ODMR-CHEM; author DS, 2007–2013)
