Self-bondage is hard to do; or rather, it’s hard to do reliably, and safely. Coming up with elaborate methods of being unlocked after a certain time is a lot of work. Ice locks are a traditional method, but the exact amount of time is hard to set, and there’s always going to be some kind of mess from the ice melting. Magnetic locks, which engage only when they have power, are another way to do this more precisely–but unless you have a knack for DIY, they can be hard to wire up and construct a suitable mount.
SelfBondage-Shop.com has the solution: Magbound. It’s a ready-made electromagnetic lock that runs off USB. And there’s some optional mounting hardware for even more variety. Let’s take a closer look at this marvelous bit of kink engineering.
What’s in The Box?
Inside you’ll find the Magbound main lock with an attached power cable, a smaller USB cable, a steel locking disc, and a manual.
The Magbound runs off USB power and doesn’t include built-in a timer, so you’re encouraged to plug it into a USB battery bank–the kind that are sold to charge your phone from. The instruction manual has a useful table estimating how long the power will last for and you’ll remain locked up. Once the battery runs out, you’re freed, so it’s safe and foolproof.
Whatever you do, do not plug it directly into a USB wall charger. Without some sort of timer, you’d stay locked forever. Also, please don’t plug into in to your PC–you may damage the port, and even if you don’t, it may remain powered on after your PC shuts down!
Plugging into a portable battery bank is your safest option. Once the power runs out, there’s no way you’ll remain accidentally locked up.
SelfBondage-Shop also sells a suitable electronic USB timing device, but there’s no need to purchase that if you already have a battery or can find something cheaper locally. I’m guessing most of us have a spare phone charger lying around, so this is a good way of not making yet more e-waste.
For testing, I tried both with an old battery bank and Apple wall charger paired with a mechanical timer, which we normally use for Xmas fairy lights. Both worked great.
The Magbound is a “normally-open” or NO lock, meaning that if power is cut for any reason at all, the lock will immediately open. It requires constant power in order to stay locked. This is great from a safety point of view, but don’t worry, the power requirements are so low that it isn’t going to affect your electric bill. The power consumption was about 8W when I measured it.
Using the MagBound
The Magbound consists of the main locking body, with a strong eye-bolt on one end and a two-metre power cable coming out the side. You’ll also find an eye-bolt attached to a large stainless steel disc, which is what magnetically attaches to provide the other half of the lock. Note that the locking force is 35Kg, so you shouldn’t use this for suspension (you shouldn’t be doing any kind of self-bondage suspension anyway!)
Magnetic locking discs are notoriously good at securing in one direction only, but not so great when being slid off. The MagBound gets around that issue by embedding the lock within a strong plastic case; you won’t be able to slide out of this one. You can spin it, but that’s not going to get you free.
One great aspect of using the Magbound compared to other more complex systems is that you can easily look yourself one-handed by simply guiding the locking plate into the Magbound case. If the power is on, it’ll “catch” the lock magnetically, and engage itself. You won’t need to fumble around with a padlock.
Of course, the Magbound can function standalone just fine, but for more options, you also want to look at the additional mounting accessories. Namely: a wall or chair mount. We’ll take a closer look at those later in the review.
Wall Mount
The optional wall mount accessory (€19) is designed to be screwed directly to a wall or other fixture, for use with only a single attachment point, such as one wrist in a multi-point tie. To use it, you’ll need to remove the eye-bolt attached to the Magbound: this is what screws into the centre of the wall mount.
You’ll notice a cable-sized indentation on the wall mount, ensure this is facing away from the Magbound, then screw the two together.
Once you’ve screwed the Magbound into the wall mount, carefully thread the power cable through the indentation, then screw the wall mount to the wall or your chosen fixture. I found this worked great for a spreader bar.
The downside to the wall mount option is that your Magbound is stuck there until you undo three screws holding it in place. If you’re likely to use the Magbound standalone fairly often, the chair mount is a better option.
Chair Mount
Available separately for €29, the chair mount feels like an evolution of the wall mount, and is similarly designed to screw securely to a chair (or any other flat surface).
The one crucial difference is that it allows for the Magbound to be removed after play, without unscrewing everything. To achieve this, it’s a two-part design and will require another standard padlock to secure the Magbound into place horizontally.
That’s a lot of locks, but two of those are for the cuffs.
Is The Magbound Worth It?
At €109, the Magbound isn’t cheap, but it’s a durable, well-made bit of kit that’ll last for years and should allow you to easily fulfill all your self-bondage dreams. Suitable for all levels of experience, it’s one of the few ways to practice genuine self-bondage safely.
If you like a bit of randomness, use it with a semi-charged power bank. This will give you rough idea of the time limit, but still not know exactly how long it’ll remain locked for.
If you’d rather use exact timings, combine with an electronic or mechanical timer (or preferably both, to act as a failsafe). There’s a range of mounting options to use it as a more permanent tie-point, or you can just use it as is. For me, the chair mount was the more useful of the two mounts, as it allowed me to easier redeploy the Magbound elsewhere later without needing to unscrew anything. It’s a little less elegant though and requires another padlock to secure the Magbound into the mount.
I think it’s safe to say the Magbound is a revolution in self-bondage.
