What do you use to magnatize a magnet?

[Possum]

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Those Annis meters are just about useless. They don't measure gauss, Evan is not correct on that, a "25 guass" magnet would be so freaking weak people would think their pickups were broken. What he is measuring as 25 guass is more like 500-600 guass in reality. I have no idea why they use those things except its a hold over from the 70s. A digital gaussmeter allows you to see what is really happening and to adjust your magnets to a fine degree that a mechanical spring meter never could, sad but true....

[Possum]

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There used to be a guy on Ebay who made digital gaussmeters for model race car motor rechargers, he seems to have disappeared. I did see this cool old guassmeter that actually measures in real guass numbers but is a spring meter, pretty cool old deal:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-General-...QQcmdZViewItem

[Peter Naglitsch]

Those Annis meters are just about useless. They don't measure gauss, Evan is not correct on that, a "25 guass" magnet would be so freaking weak people would think their pickups were broken. What he is measuring as 25 guass is more like 500-600 guass in reality.

Yeah, I know it's not top of the line. But it is OK for measure "relative" gauss. I mean, if I know the gauss (taken with my meter) on a pickup I try to duplicate I know I'm in the ballpark as long as I have about the same readings on my pickup. And that's what I use it for, keeping a record on my pickups, pickups I get in for rewinds, pickups I can borrow for taking notes etc. And as I started using it way back, when I actually thought it was a good tool, I have all my past readings taken with that meter. If I upgraded I would still have to use my old meter to be able to compare to older notes. It's "good enough" for what I use it for.

EDIT: Yeah a pretty cool meter, and not too expensive. In the US->too expensive shipping for me...

EDIT2: Can anyone tell me why all those question marks turns up in my posts? They are not there when I prewiew the post!

[David Schwab]

EDIT2: Can anyone tell me why all those question marks turns up in my posts? They are not there when I prewiew the post!

The forum software can't handle any kind of special font characters, so it replacing them with a question mark.

I don't remember it always being this way though.

[declan]

Hey, This is my first post here. I think some people here might know me from projectguitar.com.... over there I'm registered as "iwishicouldshred"

Anyway! I'd like to try and wind some pickups. I've already figured out my bobbin design and started making a winding machine, but I know nothing about magnets. I'm posting in this thread because the question is about remagnetization.

Most of the magnet suppliers listed in the FAQ section of this forum do sell AlNiCo or ceramic bar magnets, however, they are magnetized along the length of the bar. When I hold a compass near a pickup, I always find that it's magnetized along the width of the bar. Can you magnetize an alnico magnet with a neodymium magnet so that it does this, or do you need to buy it that way? If so, where might I find them like that?

Also, who makes cheap Gauss meters?

[NightWinder]

Nitewinder your magnetizer is ugly, damn!
Just kidding. They cost around $600 shipped.

Yours is uglyer than mine!! At least I spray it down with Wd 40....Gotta be prettier than your : )

[NightWinder]

Nitewinder your magnetizer is ugly, damn!
Just kidding. They cost around $600 shipped.

Whats the orientation of your poles....Facing the unit- Is yours Right- North, left south??

[NightWinder]

asdf

Hey, This is my first post here. I think some people here might know me from projectguitar.com.... over there I'm registered as "iwishicouldshred"

Anyway! I'd like to try and wind some pickups. I've already figured out my bobbin design and started making a winding machine, but I know nothing about magnets. I'm posting in this thread because the question is about remagnetization.

Most of the magnet suppliers listed in the FAQ section of this forum do sell AlNiCo or ceramic bar magnets, however, they are magnetized along the length of the bar. When I hold a compass near a pickup, I always find that it's magnetized along the width of the bar. Can you magnetize an alnico magnet with a neodymium magnet so that it does this, or do you need to buy it that way? If so, where might I find them like that?


Also, who makes cheap Gauss meters?

Your absolute best bet is to get the GM-200a. Its a bit of money but the uses are endless and Quality control is very much improved

[Scott S.]

+1 on the Carlson melton GM200A. Works great, and although is is a bit pricy after you use it you will consider it money well spent.

[cam atkinson]

magnet zapper

hi, i used to own a slot car raceway up here in canada in the 90's. i have a zapper like this one. i actually built it myself from looking at a friends. i think it cost me around a few hundred dollars. i now wind pickups and have wondered if it would work to zap alnico's. it works fine to remagnetize ceramic type mags.

cam atkinson
handcrafted pickups

[Possum]

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should work with alnico, it just depends on how strong it is, only a guass meter will tell you if its charging full strength.

You can magnetize a humbucker bar magnet end to end if it is alnico 5, it can only be magnetized across the width. the other alnicos you can magnetize end to end but why you want to do that unless you're doing a miniature charlie christian pickup, is beyond me :-) Or if you meant can you magnetize through the thickness , yes only if it is not alnico 5, but they are too thin to magnetize in that direction, it won't hold a charge over time, needs to be a quarter inch thick or so before that will work and the charge will be very low, around 200 guass and would require a metal baseplate as a keeper or it won't last that long....

There aren't any cheap gaussmeters. you can sometimes find old ones on Ebay but they are big clunky things and still cost a couple hundred.

[Mark Hammer]

Q#1: Assuming the charging device is up to it, does one set the gauss on the charger, or is the target gauss more a property of the polepiece? I.E., are there some polepieces that I could simply never get up to the gauss reading of an Alnico 2, etc?

Q#2: If one IS using the pair-of-neodymiums method, what sort of neodymiums could be considered the minimum necessary to do the job? And what sort of distance between the ends of the polepiece and the charging magnets is appropriate?

[Joe Gwinn]

Q#1: Assuming the charging device is up to it, does one set the gauss on the charger, or is the target gauss more a property of the polepiece? I.E., are there some polepieces that I could simply never get up to the gauss reading of an Alnico 2, etc?

Don't quite understand the question, but the necessary gauss level is a function of the material being magnetized, and the charger need only exceed a material-dependent threshold to achieve saturation.

The charger polepieces are shaped to focus the field on the object being magnetized, so as to not waste field and yet reach all parts of the object being magnetized, but great precision is not required.

Q#2: If one IS using the pair-of-neodymiums method, what sort of neodymiums could be considered the minimum necessary to do the job? And what sort of distance between the ends of the polepiece and the charging magnets is appropriate?

Any rare earth magnet will do for alnico, if the rare earth magnets are together physically large enough to generate a field that's well above the threshold for the alnico material being magnetized, everywhere within the object being magnetized. Again, great precision is not required.

[Mark Hammer]

You managed to catch a poorly thrown ball quite well, indeed.

Thanks. That pretty much answers my questions.

[devnull]

Acquiring Neos

LOL, yep!! You know it!! Thats funny you say that, I used stew macs Neos to degauss after full saturation. This way you can really control the percentage and see just how consistant your magnets are when fully charged after with the same sizing. Anyone got any info on how Gibby frat boys charged their mags anyway- WHere's Gundry when you need him!!!

I'm new to this, but I looked on the StewMac site and didn't find any Neo magnets. Can anyone point me to a site?

Thanks.