Stainless steel caliper magnetic?

[woodchucker]

Stick a big paper or plastic cup in the winding and you won't touch them, it will protect it. I like my little guy, It doesn't use up space, but use whatcha gots.

 

[B2]

An oscillating magnetic field of decreasing amplitude causes the magnetization to continually reverse and remagnetize. Since the amplitude is decreasing the last low amplitude field yields the final state of near zero magnetization. For simple steel and some stainless steels the coercivity is quite low and so the amplitude does not have to be very large to cause the demagnetization. In audio tape recording, this process is call de-gaussing. The recording process, where a DC field is applied while the oscillating field amplitude decreases, is called anhysteretic recording. The result in magnetic tape is that the final resulting magnetization along the tape is the determined by the DC field magnetitude.

Sometimes you want to magnetize a screw driver and you make this by stroking a magnet along the tip. (Sort of an anhysteretic recording process) However, after some extended use of the screw driver you find that it is no longer magnetized. This is because stresses of use causes this magnetize state to relax to become demagnetized. You can also just repeatedly tap the screw driver tip to induce this stress and this will also cause demagnetization to occur. You might find that the vernier calipers tips will also demagnetize if you tap them a lot! But, maybe you do not want the tips of your calipers to look like the ends of your screw drivers!

 

[Metaloxide]

An oscillating magnetic field of decreasing amplitude causes the magnetization to continually reverse and remagnetize. Since the amplitude is decreasing the last low amplitude field yields the final state of near zero magnetization. For simple steel and some stainless steels the coercivity is quite low and so the amplitude does not have to be very large to cause the demagnetization. In audio tape recording, this process is call de-gaussing. The recording process, where a DC field is applied while the oscillating field amplitude decreases, is called anhysteretic recording. The result in magnetic tape is that the final resulting magnetization along the tape is the determined by the DC field magnetitude.

Sometimes you want to magnetize a screw driver and you make this by stroking a magnet along the tip. (Sort of an anhysteretic recording process) However, after some extended use of the screw driver you find that it is no longer magnetized. This is because stresses of use causes this magnetize state to relax to become demagnetized. You can also just repeatedly tap the screw driver tip to induce this stress and this will also cause demagnetization to occur. You might find that the vernier calipers tips will also demagnetize if you tap them a lot! But, maybe you do not want the tips of your calipers to look like the ends of your screw drivers!

LOL yeah I'm not really sure why my calipers became magnetized. I mean I've had my main one for at least 15 years and I never noticed it picking up metal shavings until about a month ago. However I started carrying it in my tool bag with a magnetic tool just above it I think that might be part of the problem. As far as the other one though I just received it in the mail three days ago so I was surprised that it was magnetized as well.
It's extremely mildly magnetic it can only pick up metal shavings but I really don't want metal shaving staying on my stainless calipers and potentially causing them to rust especially my original one that I've had for so many years. I bought it when I was a kid at a tool museum they had a bin of tools and the caliper was $10 and I had $10 with me that day so I bought it. That has been one of the handiest things I've ever owned. It took me about 3 months to learn how to use the vernier scale but thankfully a machinist friend of mine when I was a kid was very patient with kids and was able to teach me. He had to re-explain it probably a dozen times but I finally got it.

 

[benmychree]

I have a big coil from the field windings of a DC welding machine, it had leads attached and was wrapped with cloth tape and varnished, it just plugs into 120 V AC, you just pass objects through a few times to demagnetize. I can do the same even better with the mag chuck in my surface grinder with the Neutrofier chuck control.

 

[benmychree]

Also, some grades of stainless are magnetic and hardenable, such as 440-C.