This Page shows my portable carpenter's vice rigged for magnet recharging. |
Below is my collection of rare earth magnets in their WELL PADDED packaging. Each arrow below points to packages of different sizes. They are stuck together in a proper polarization stacking scheme; Something that can be understood by reading the references previously provided above. Except in simple single stacks, it is not just a matter of matching North and South poles properly, but when bundling smaller magnets in rows a person should know / understand lateral polarity syncronization as well. I always have a CHEAP magnetic compass handy and kept amply far away from the magnets when not in use. The compass is used to read the poles and direcions of flux lines around magnets including those in a guitar pickup; Especially in trying to figure out odd-ball pickup designs such as this one. A person MUST know the polarity of a pickup's magnet(s) in order to recharge them, or to properly syncronize the magnetic / physical placement of multiple pickups on a guitar if the pickups polarities are diffierent, or if a single pickup on a guitar has polarized metal co-located with the pickup such as pickups mounted on metal electronics plates; The metal plates themselves will become magnetized & polarized over time and will contribute to a pickup's magnetic strength if the pickup is oriented properly with the magnetized electronics plate. Supro "bunker" pickups are a good example: The magnets are mounted on a large ferrous metal electronics & bridge plate, and the top of the magnets are bridged by a metal plate. Over time the plates will get magnetized while the magnets lose some magnetism. A Player can disassemble a Supro "bunker" pickup for a number of reasons, as simple as doing a thorough clean-up of the guitar; And because it is commonly said that it doesn't matter which polarity faces up or down on those pickups, the Player can install the magnets in a polarity opposite from when they were removed. This puts old magnetically degraded magnets at odds with the polarity of the metal plates the magnets magnetized, resulting in the pickup being quite noticeably weaker than when the magnets were removed. Packaged NeoDymium rare earth magnets: |
WARNING: A PERSON SHOULD BE ABSOLUTELY SURE THAT THEY CAREFULLY & THOROUGHLY LEARN PRECAUTIONS AND TECHNIQUES OF HANDLING RARE EARTH MAGNETS BEFORE THEY EVEN ATTEMPT TO TAKE SUCH MAGNETS OUT OF THEIR PACKAGE. I USE PROTECTIVE GLOVES AND EYE GOGGLES WHEN WORKING WITH RARE EARTH MAGNETS, AND I STRONGLY SUGGEST ANYONE ELSE DOES TOO. Rare Earth magnets are EXTREMELY STRONG. Two 2" X 1/2" X 1/2" N42 grade rare earth magnets like those used here have a combined contact pulling / holding force of more than 500 lbs. When handling two such magnets, ...if they come within a caution range of 2 feet from each other they will launch violently towards each other with astonishing force if not kept under positive control. Working with two magnets, one in each hand, is not uncommon, and if a person gets them within about 2 feet of each other, one or both can violently leap out of one hand to rejoin each other, with plenty enough velocity and impact force to severly pinch and even break fingers. Another potentially dangerous characteristic of rare earth magnets is that they are brittle, and if dropped should be deemed to likely shatter with a "zillion" pieces launching in all directions with great speed and force. If two strong rare earth magnets launch towards and impact with each other, their explosion can be twice the force of shattering one by itself. Picture smashing a marble on concrete with a heavy claw hammer. WORKING WITH RARE EARTH MAGNETS REQUIRES EXTREME CAUTION AND THOUGHTFULNESS OF METALLIC AND MAGNETIC SURROUNDINGS; Because those magnets are always interacting with ferrous metal and magnets and magnetic sensitive materials within about a 2 foot radius of the rare earth magnet. For instance, they will snatch up tools that can impact a person's hands with great force; Particularly nasty if the tool has even dull-sharp edges, such as screw drivers, punches, sheet metal, etc; And down-right dangerous if they suck up a razor blade, knife, scissors, sharp punch, nail, screw, etc. etc. etc. It is IMPERATIVE that a person study and learn how to handle Rare Earth magnets before they try to handle any Rare Earth magnet larger than 1/4" on any side, diameter, thickness, etc. The 1/2"x1/2"x2" rare earth magnets shown on this page have an in-contact pulling force greater than 500lbs; A collision force about the same force as normally hitting a nail with a claw hammer, ....and that's the force that is likely to slam into fingers if one magnet jumps from one place to or towards a magnet in a person's hand; And they WILL jump towards each other with alarming speed and force if a person allows one, or anything ferrous, within about 10" of each other and not positively secured; I use 2 feet distance as my caution zone. Humans normally, regularly and subconciously move things within that range when handling things. I GUARANTEE that the majority of people handling rare earth magnets for the first several times will experience one magnet launching toward another or interacting similarly with another ferrous object. LEARNING ABOUT RARE EARTH MAGNETS: Then read THIS PAGE about rare earth magnets in brief: Here is a great source for reading about magnetism. This is a good and quite short mini course. It will help understand the basics and nuances of working with magnets: BEFORE a person takes rare earth magnets out of their packaging, they should have a clean and clear work area and assign a spot for each magnet on the work area that is no closer than 30" from any other or any ferrous object; And review the Safety precautions said here before unpacking them. ------------ oOo ------------ DISCLAIMER: The information provided on this website are for educational purposes only, and are not instructions. Anyone using information on this website should study and learn themselves how to do anything that presents a danger or potential for harm. ------------ oOo ------------ Now let's get down to how I recharge guitar pickups magnets: ------------ oOo ------------ |
WARNING: A PERSON SHOULD BE ABSOLUTELY SURE THAT THEY CAREFULLY & THOROUGHLY LEARN PRECAUTIONS AND TECHNIQUES OF HANDLING RARE EARTH MAGNETS BEFORE THEY EVEN ATTEMPT TO TAKE SUCH MAGNETS OUT OF THEIR PACKAGE. I USE PROTECTIVE GLOVES AND EYE GOGGLES WHEN WORKING WITH RARE EARTH MAGNETS, AND I STRONGLY SUGGEST ANYONE ELSE DOES TOO. Rare Earth magnets are EXTREMELY STRONG. Two 2" X 1/2" X 1/2" N42 grade rare earth magnets like those used here have a combined contact pulling / holding force of more than 500 lbs. When handling two such magnets, ...if they come within a caution range of 2 feet from each other they will launch violently towards each other with astonishing force if not kept under positive control. Working with two magnets, one in each hand, is not uncommon, and if a person gets them within about 2 feet of each other, one or both can violently leap out of one hand to rejoin each other, with plenty enough velocity and impact force to severly pinch and even break fingers. Another potentially dangerous characteristic of rare earth magnets is that they are brittle, and if dropped should be deemed to likely shatter with a "zillion" pieces launching in all directions with great speed and force. If two strong rare earth magnets launch towards and impact with each other, their explosion can be twice the force of shattering one by itself. Picture smashing a marble on concrete with a heavy claw hammer. WORKING WITH RARE EARTH MAGNETS REQUIRES EXTREME CAUTION AND THOUGHTFULNESS OF METALLIC AND MAGNETIC SURROUNDINGS; Because those magnets are always interacting with ferrous metal and magnets and magnetic sensitive materials within about a 2 foot radius of the rare earth magnet. For instance, they will snatch up tools that can impact a person's hands with great force; Particularly nasty if the tool has even dull-sharp edges, such as screw drivers, punches, sheet metal, etc; And down-right dangerous if they suck up a razor blade, knife, scissors, sharp punch, nail, screw, etc. etc. etc. It is IMPERATIVE that a person study and learn how to handle Rare Earth magnets before they try to handle any Rare Earth magnet larger than 1/4" on any side, diameter, thickness, etc. The 1/2"x1/2"x2" rare earth magnets shown on this page have an in-contact pulling force greater than 500lbs; A collision force about the same force as normally hitting a nail with a claw hammer, ....and that's the force that is likely to slam into fingers if one magnet jumps from one place to or towards a magnet in a person's hand; And they WILL jump towards each other with alarming speed and force if a person allows one, or anything ferrous, within about 10" of each other and not positively secured; I use 2 feet distance as my caution zone. Humans normally, regularly and subconciously move things within that range when handling things. I GUARANTEE that the majority of people handling rare earth magnets for the first several times will experience one magnet launching toward another or interacting similarly with another ferrous object. LEARNING ABOUT RARE EARTH MAGNETS: Then read THIS PAGE about rare earth magnets in brief: Here is a great source for reading about magnetism. This is a good and quite short mini course. It will help understand the basics and nuances of working with magnets: BEFORE a person takes rare earth magnets out of their packaging, they should have a clean and clear work area and assign a spot for each magnet on the work area that is no closer than 30" from any other or any ferrous object; And review the Safety precautions said here before unpacking them. ------------ oOo ------------ DISCLAIMER: The information provided on this website are for educational purposes only, and are not instructions. Anyone using information on this website should study and learn themselves how to do anything that presents a danger or potential for harm. ------------ oOo ------------ Now let's get down to how I recharge guitar pickups magnets: ------------ oOo ------------ |
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Recharging Pickup Magnets Using Rare Earth NeoDymium Magnets in a Vice Rig. |
Below is my collection of rare earth magnets in their WELL PADDED packaging. Each arrow below points to packages of different sizes. They are stuck together in a proper polarization stacking scheme; Something that can be understood by reading the references previously provided above. Except in simple single stacks, it is not just a matter of matching North and South poles properly, but when bundling smaller magnets in rows a person should know / understand lateral polarity syncronization as well. I always have a CHEAP magnetic compass handy and kept amply far away from the magnets when not in use. The compass is used to read the poles and direcions of flux lines around magnets including those in a guitar pickup; Especially in trying to figure out odd-ball pickup designs such as this one. A person MUST know the polarity of a pickup's magnet(s) in order to recharge them, or to properly syncronize the magnetic / physical placement of multiple pickups on a guitar if the pickups polarities are diffierent, or if a single pickup on a guitar has polarized metal co-located with the pickup such as pickups mounted on metal electronics plates; The metal plates themselves will become magnetized & polarized over time and will contribute to a pickup's magnetic strength if the pickup is oriented properly with the magnetized electronics plate. Supro "bunker" pickups are a good example: The magnets are mounted on a large ferrous metal electronics & bridge plate, and the top of the magnets are bridged by a metal plate. Over time the plates will get magnetized while the magnets lose some magnetism. A Player can disassemble a Supro "bunker" pickup for a number of reasons, as simple as doing a thorough clean-up of the guitar; And because it is commonly said that it doesn't matter which polarity faces up or down on those pickups, the Player can install the magnets in a polarity opposite from when they were removed. This puts old magnetically degraded magnets at odds with the polarity of the metal plates the magnets magnetized, resulting in the pickup being quite noticeably weaker than when the magnets were removed. Packaged NeoDymium rare earth magnets: |
Here is one of my extremely strong grade N45 Neo-Dymium magnets; It measures 2" x 1/2" x 1/2". 2 of these stuck together in direct contact have a clinging force of more than 500 lbs! |
Here is forming a single stack of magnets, for use or storage. Since it can be extremely difficult to pull such rare earth magnets apart if they ever came in direct contact with other; A strong spacer must be placed between each one. Most factory spacers are made out of nylon or teflon in about the same thickness shown below; But cutting spacers from flat Tupperware also works, as long as it's thick enough to keep the magnets at-least 1/8" distance from each other. Thicker spacers will allow easier separation, and vice versa. Spacer material should be hard enough and tough enough to allow magnets to be moved / slid on the spacer; Such as the top or bottom magnet in the stack below could be twisted 90 degrees so that there is less magnetism at the point of stacking, ...which is a bit easier than sliding a magnet sideways on the spacer to pull it from a stack. |
Example of recharging a Supro lap steel's magnets: The diagram is an overhead view. Actual picture is below the diagram. |
For easy recognizition of the poles of magnets being worked with: Determine the existing polarity of each magnet and place a piece of masking tape on the North side and mark it well with an 'N'. Mounting the magnets in the vice can be in either N / S or S / N polarities as shown below. Once mounted in one polarity, that same polarity should be used in that vice because the rare magnets are strong enough and will magnetize / polarize the vice as well, so we would want future uses in sync with the vice's magnetism. |
Supro magnets |
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The jaws are NOT closed tight, but just lightly to the thickness of the ratchet ties. The wire ties keep the magnets from making contact, because once a guitar's pickup / magnet(s) are recharged then their being in direct contact with the rare earth magnet would cause allot of squirming and movement of the vice's several loose fittings while withdrawing the jaws when the guitar's magnets are recharged. We don't want that squirming / movement which would loosen / weaken the pickup's new magnet strength; We want the pickups to separate as straight and perpendicular as possible, ...which greatly helps to keep the guitar's magnets now-strong magnetism lined up tightly and thus strong. The tightness of alignment of the polarized molecules domains determines the strength of the pickup magnets magnetism. |
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Rare earth magnets |
The combined strength of stacking magnets helps preserve their magnetism. The polarity above could be South on top and North on the bottom, as long as the polarity carries throughout the stack. Which way the sides face doesn't matter; Only the polarized top and bottom surfaces do. Here is how rows of vertical stacked magnets are aranged for shipping space considerations. Again, it doesn't matter which way the magnets are rotated around their polarity axis: |
This Page shows my portable carpenter's vice rigged for magnet recharging. |
( Or an entire guitar pickup with it's magnets facing in the proper direction to be in magnetic sync with the rare earth magnets ). |
When mounting the magnets, open the jaws all the way or even remove the moving jaw; Then mount the rare earth magnets first and the guitar's magnets or pickup last, before continuing to close the vice jaws with care. |
Here's how the attraction and repulsion would look had the top polarity of every stack not been arranged for their attractions and repulsions to coordinate a magnetic balance with each other. And remember that a whole stack and any given point in a stack has the same North / South orientation; So with rare earth magnets, mismatched stack can repel each other quite forcefully, yet amazingly balance out when their top and bottom polarities are coordinated. |
HOWEVER; When magnets are stored in coordinated in rows of stacks, the domains along the sides of adjoining stacks can be such that their unlike poles to turn towards each others attraction, N to S; So stored over time some of the domains can become unaligned and the magnetism degraded to some considerable degree. So for storage the rows of stacks should be separated and rejoined as one or more long stacks so their domains will remain aligned. Keep the stacks away from each other by at least 6 inches or so. I box the stacks in corners of cardboard boxes to keep them separated with plenty of cushion. Matched poles facing up / down provide some nominal repulsion and keep the stacks from being attracted to each other: |
Long stacks laying on their sides. Popcycle sticks are great for reinforcing the sides so they don't collapse from leaning or handling. Tape them down well. |
Looking down on long stacks packed into the corner of a box. |
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Study hard; There will likely be a test someday ! |
The magnets are not aligned face to face in this pic, but will have to be. That's easily done by hand when the vice is loose but magnets almost tighting face to face. |
