I eventually found an application for one of those neodymium magnets I bought from Dealextreme.com!
I had made up a bracket for attaching the old engine salvaged from a Suffolk Punch lawn mower to my cement mixer. Some of the nuts had shaken loose from vibration so it was time to replace them with lock nuts. Unfortunately clearance between the engine and back of the mixer bowl was limited so I needed some assistance getting the nuts into place so that they could be screwed onto the bolts. A standard magnetic pickup tool was out of the question and a socket was difficult to position, so I made up a right angled magnet pickup to get the nuts into place so that they could be spun onto the bolts.
You can buy various sized versions of these strong magnets here: http://dx.com/p/super-strong-rare-earth-re-magnets-20-pack-12mm-x-1mm-5964?Utm_rid=55371787&Utm_source=affiliate