Magnetize Tools

A friend used magnetized tools for a press that requires metal primers to vibrate down a feeder tray. Occasionally the primers jam in the feeder tray when the press is in use. He used a magnet on a screwdriver because others were too powerful magnet to straighten the jammed primer.

Take a small screwdriver and briskly stroke the magnet in one direction on the shaft. Do this ten times and then try to pick up one of your small primers. The bar magnet, when stroked on an iron material, will align the molecules making the object magnetic. The more the metal is stroked, the stronger the magnetism will be.

You do not have to leave the comfort of your home to acquire this tool. If you have a medium sized magnet, you can make your tool while performing an age-old science experiment.

You can make the magnetism even stronger by leaving a bar magnet stuck to the shaft of the screwdriver because more molecules point in the same direction. Or change the sizes of the magnet and screwdriver to reduce the strength.

This will not leave the screwdriver permanently magnetized, it will last a day or two. To demagnetize the screwdriver sooner, slide the magnet back and forth on the metal screwdriver shaft like you are scribbling. That should demagnetize the screwdriver by scattering the alignment of the molecules.