In article ,
Larry Jaques wrote:

On Mon, 29 Sep 2008 13:42:11 -0700 (PDT), the renowned
wrote:

I have an old fleamarket growler for checking electric motor
armatures. It warns not to be turned on without armature in V. My
physics has faded over the years, what will happen with an incomplete
magnetic circuit? Can this be modified to use as a de-magnetiser or
is it a piece of junk just worth the copper?

Sell it on eBay and put the money in your pocket, then pick up a demag
while you're there. http://tinyurl.com/4kd7k9 about $15, delivered.

Armature testers/growlers are going for $10 to $3k.

-
If the gods had meant us to vote, they'd have given us candidates.
--------------

I use an old TV Degaussing coil, similar to this one:

http://www.happcontrols.com/monitors/49055900.htm

It's great, I've had it for probably 35 years and it works wonderful on
hand tools, and is big enough to do the vise.

I hate magnetized tools... unless I purposely magnetize a screwdriver or
whatever for something special. Magnetized vise jaw inserts are much
nicer when you can quickly degauss your vise jaws once done with them.

Turn it on an arm's length away from the object/s to be demagnetized,
bring it and the object together and wave it around, then pull it back
away before releasing the switch. The whole operation only needs like 5
or 7 seconds tops. (I don't know the duty cycle of these things, but I
bet it's not long.)

In my opinion, the one in the link above is pricy. I bet if you snooped
around a serviceable used one could be had for a few bucks...

I try to keep my watch, wallet, cell phone, VOM's and the like away
during use, but have forgotten a few times with no apparent ill effects.

Once for snorts and giggles, I tried erasing a VHS tape with it... it
didn't work worth a damn.

Erik