Demagnetizing some bits and probably a bunch of screwdrivers too.

[cathead]

My morning project was to sharpen a pile of drill bits that I use for general hole drilling. That was going well but I noticed
that they all would pick up swarf, a major pain in my opinion. After I finished sharpening all the bits, I connected up an old
speaker magnet coil, the kind found in old timey speakers. I removed the iron plug so I could pass the bits through the
coil and connected it up to a Variac to limit the current if needed. It worked really well as the drill bits showed no tendency
to pick up metal. I will keep this setup and run my screwdrivers through it too as long as I am at it.



I test drilled a few of the bits to make sure they would cut nicely.















This is a photo of the sharpened bits and the speaker coil connected to the Variac. As it turned out I think I could just connect the coil to 120V AC
directly so may try it without the Variac in line.











That's my little swarf pile to make sure the bits were demagnetized.



So that's what I did in the shop this morning as part of my ongoing spring cleaning.

 

[f350ca]

Would love to know the cause, magnetism comes and goes in my shop. For a while cuttings stick to everything, have to wipe chips off calibers steady, then for no apparent reason I realize Im not needing to wipe them again. ???????

Greg

 

[cathead]

Would love to know the cause, magnetism comes and goes in my shop. For a while cuttings stick to everything, have to wipe chips off calibers steady, then for no apparent reason I realize Im not needing to wipe them again. ???????

Greg

In my case I had a huge laboratory magnet in proximity to the box of drill bits. I'm thinking it might be handy to
make a wood box for the coil with a momentary switch on it and mount it on the wall for routine use for end mills
and parallels and any other offending tools.

 

[C-Bag]

Would love to know the cause, magnetism comes and goes in my shop. For a while cuttings stick to everything, have to wipe chips off calibers steady, then for no apparent reason I realize Im not needing to wipe them again. ???????

Greg

Have you heard? The earth’s core quit spinning! Uh, like in 2004……maybe not the cause.

 

[benmychree]

Where I apprenticed, we had a coil from a big DC welder with a hole in the center for the pole piece that was perhaps 4X5", the coil was about 2" thick and was simply plugged into 120V AC and the objects passed through it a few times, it worked just fine, now I use the Neutrofier on my B&S surface grinder, it works even finer ---

 

[ChazzC]

I connected up an old speaker magnet coil, the kind found in old timey speakers.

View attachment 443540
This is a photo of the sharpened bits and the speaker coil connected to the Variac. As it turned out I think I could just connect the coil to 120V AC
directly so may try it without the Variac in line.
So that's what I did in the shop this morning as part of my ongoing spring cle

Not what I was expecting to see as the voice coil from a speaker!

 

[pontiac428]

I de-mag all my tools.

 

[markba633csi]

LOL
I would have loved to see/hear that in real time
(from a discrete distance)