Unwelcomed attraction.

[boater sam]

My workshop was small before the move and bench space was a problem.
My hand tools, cutters, pliers, nut runners etc. were on wall racks.
Now here is a word of caution for anyone else doing this.

Thinking I was being clever I bought several magnetic racks from Lidl on the premise that normal slotted and holed racks never would give me the multiple positions required for the wide size and shape of the tools.

Now I have a full set of tools that have become magnetised and are unsuitable for any work on tape recorders.
Silly me.

Sam.

[Craig]

There are various you tube videos about demagnetizing tools. About the most persuasive was to cannibalise a shaded pole motor, just leaving the coil and the laminations - but leaving, so the video says, the copper straps on the laminations. You end up with a big hole into which to move your tool. It is basically arranged as a degausser.

I haven't done this myself, but you move the tool back and forth a couple of times, then remove to a distance of a meter or so and switch the power to coil off (or have it on a variac and slowly wind it down)

The plastic sort with a magnetizing slot and a demagnetizing one simply do not work (spent the money, money wasted).

Good luck

Craig

[Craig]

This is the (American) shaded pole tool demagnetizer video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kKTJQTyX-w

Craig

[radioman]

Thanks for the link to that video, I think I'll have a go at making one using the motor from a scrapped BSR turntable.

Andy

[Mike Watterson]

Microwave oven fans look identical!

Sounds like a viable idea.

[Craig]

I didn't have one kicking around - so I've just bought one from eBay for a tenner all in. Now we'll all see if it works as a technique or not ⚡

[Refugee]

When I used to work on CRTs for a living we used one of those Weller gun style instant heat irons. The coil was so lossy that it used to work as well as one of those expensive coils that posh TV shops used to have.

[ppppenguin]

I have a hand held bulk eraser (Bib?) that was designed to erase audio cassettes and works well with CRT TVs. It's a black oval puck, about 3" thick. It should be able to degauss tools. It doesn't work well with high coercivity video tape. This needs a higher field strength and the tape is wider too.

The Ikea magnetic knife rack I fitted in our kitchen is magic. Far better than a wooden knife block. They warn you not to get your fingers pinched when you attach the stainless steel cover to the wall fixings. Very easily done.

[DrStrangelove]

I have one of those CRT degaussers.

I think I've used it once.

A bit like the Thandar 25kV measuring stick, ditto.

Or the x1000 scope probe I used to frighten the students with.

[ppppenguin]

I've used my degausser quite a few times. I looked at it today. It was made by Bib and was designed for wiping VHS or Beta cassettes. Occasionally I've deliberately used it to magnetise a CRT to a point that's well beyond the set's internal degauss coils. Purely as a demonstration, certainly not with malice.

I've used my home-made 25kV probe many times. I think I built it in 1974, using 15x 33M VR37 series resistors "borrowed" from the drawer at the labs where I spent my gap year.