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My Demagnetiser is Magnetising

margolisd

By margolisd
in Tools & Equipment

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Tmuir Distinguished Member

Tmuir

Posted
Posted
On 1/20/2019 at 9:14 PM, margolisd said:

Yeah, thanks Tmuir you are indeed correct. Preventing the HS from vibrating causes it to demagnetise. I put it in a plastic bag and held it gently in my fingers and it worked.

Does this mean it's best to remove the hairspring to demagnetise a watch movement and do the HS separately? As I'm sure it was my attempt to demagnetise a movement that ended up magnetising the HS in the first place.

Another thing that seemed to help, before I was only holding the button down and moving the object about half a meter out of the field. A full meter as suggested by ecodec actually seemed to make a big difference.

Thanks everyone. Mystery solved.

Glad I helped.

To give full credit I was told this by a lecturer at one of my night classes at the watch and clock school I attend.

I have demagnatised whole watches successfully before, but only using an expensive Greiner Magnomatic Demagnetiser unit that has built in decay, so you don't need to move it away at my watch school, never on my cheap Chinese demag. Also when the hairspring is in place both ends of the spring are restrained which won't completely stop the vibration, but will limit it.

I also agree that the full meter is important, I basically move it as far away as I can stretch my arm

You can see the same thing happen with tweezers if you try to demag them by only holding the end and leaving them open, they will vibrate in the magnetic field and won't demag properly, but will if you hold them closed and slowly move them away as you say up to a meter.

I would love to have the demag unit that is at my school, but as they cost £850 new I can see me staying with my $5 Chinese unit for a while yet.

  • Like 1
vinn3 Distinguished Member

vinn3

Posted
Posted

  you should still be able to find vintage watch de mags. on ebay .      if they don't work ,  it is a simple fix as its just a copper coil soldered to 110 volt, 60 cycle plug end -----  I DON'T KNOW  if they are diferent on UK  curent, but they sure work good in the US.  vin

Marc Distinguished Member

Marc

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Tmuir said:

Also when the hairspring is in place both ends of the spring are restrained which won't completely stop the vibration, but will limit it.

If you are de-magging a whole movement then try and do it running as not only are both ends of the H/S restrained from the motive influence of the field but the spring itself is moving independently of the magnetic field, further enhancing the efficacy of the method.

  • Like 2
margolisd WRT Addict

margolisd

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Interesting stuff. I'm working on quite a tiny movement at the moment and I don't know if that has something to do with it. But when I demagnetise the movement, even though the hairspring is fixed in place and running, it is magnetising the HS. When it comes away from the demagnetiser it instantly forms a cone shape and the movement starts going super fast. It seems the only way to demagnetise this movement successfully is to remove the HS first and demagnetise it separately.

  • 3 years later...
Laynezilla New Member

Laynezilla

Posted
Posted

oh I'm so happy! I bought this device under the impression that it magnetized things ..then google told me it was a demagnetizer!! I was so sad until I watch that YouTube video..now I know it is simply: BOTH!! Even better..why are we against this concept at any degree!!?? Multi purpose tools are the BEST!!! K thanks!

Pearl

LittleWatchShop Distinguished Member

LittleWatchShop

Posted
Posted
On 8/19/2022 at 1:25 AM, Laynezilla said:

oh I'm so happy! I bought this device under the impression that it magnetized things ..then google told me it was a demagnetizer!! I was so sad until I watch that YouTube video..now I know it is simply: BOTH!! Even better..why are we against this concept at any degree!!?? Multi purpose tools are the BEST!!! K thanks!

Pearl

I think watchmakers like things demagnetized.  Auto mechanics like things magnetized.  So, there's that.

JohnR725 Distinguished Member

JohnR725

Posted
Posted
On 8/18/2022 at 11:25 PM, Laynezilla said:

BOTH!! Even better..why are we against this concept at any degree!!??

The concept is fine if people know what they're doing. It's a lot easier to use a tool if it has a single function if you can end up magnetizing your watch because you don't really know how to use the tool then that's a problem.

1 hour ago, LittleWatchShop said:

I think watchmakers like things demagnetized

That is an interesting concept Would that prevent the screws from all sticking together? Fortunately my tweezers Cannot magnetized or it would be a real problems the screws stuck to the tweezers. Then it's sad I can't even demagnetized the entire watch as that would ruin the magnets on the tuning fork.

1 hour ago, LittleWatchShop said:

Auto mechanics like things magnetized. 

Not just auto mechanics it's really nice to have magnetized screwdrivers when you're working on a computer. That way if you drop a screw into the case which typically do it easy to get it back out again.

 

  • Like 1
nickelsilver Distinguished Member

nickelsilver

Posted
Posted (edited)
On 1/27/2019 at 1:42 PM, margolisd said:

Interesting stuff. I'm working on quite a tiny movement at the moment and I don't know if that has something to do with it. But when I demagnetise the movement, even though the hairspring is fixed in place and running, it is magnetising the HS. When it comes away from the demagnetiser it instantly forms a cone shape and the movement starts going super fast. It seems the only way to demagnetise this movement successfully is to remove the HS first and demagnetise it separately.

I worked with a Japanese guy who swore by wrapping the balance complete in watch tissue. It actually solved issues for me (very small jlc calibers). I have the Greiner Magnomatic (and sister machine that detects magnetism) .

Edited by nickelsilver
  • Like 1
Shane WRT Addict

Shane

Posted
Posted
On 1/20/2019 at 12:44 AM, AndyHull said:

Old fashioned colour cathode ray tube degausing coils

Wow CRTs. That's old school.  Why does 13.675k keep popping into my head now.  Sink pulse on green, I think.

Shane WRT Addict

Shane

Posted
Posted
On 1/24/2019 at 8:16 AM, Tmuir said:

To give full credit I was told this by a lecturer at one of my night classes at the watch and clock school I attend.

Very few of us are born with all the information we and those around us will need.  It all just build, layer upon layer.

Good form though.

Shane WRT Addict

Shane

Posted
Posted

I use the coil out of a 240v motor contactor and run it on 110v.  Works pretty good.  I have seen some 24v contactors rated for AC/DC that had an internal diode to protect control circuitry.  They won't work and will just magnetize stuff.

18 minutes ago, LittleWatchShop said:

not with NTSC system.

Sorry, apparently that was an old Radio neuron not an old TV neuron.

  • Like 1

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