The Complete Handbook of Magnetizers & Demagnetizers

I'm a maintenance lead at a small motor shop, and this book earned its place next to my other reference manuals. The explanation of how coercivity drives your choice of magnetizer actually saved me from buying a machine that would have been too weak for the alnico magnets we re-magnetize. My only gripe is that the troubleshooting section for older machines is a bit thin, we have a 1980s unit that still runs, and I would have liked more on those vintage capacitor banks. Still, a very solid, practical read.

Finally, a reference that treats the subject with respect. As a tooling engineer, I've wasted hours digging through forum posts and conflicting manufacturer specs. This handbook walks you through the math on pulse width and coil turns without dumbing it down, and the chapter on business opportunities gave me a few new angles for my side consulting. The writing is dense and technical in the best way. I expect I'll be referencing this for a decade.

I bought this to demagnetize my lathe chucks and other tooling, and it did not disappoint. The setup chapter is worth the price alone, especially the part about grounding and dealing with the mains supply. It's written for industrial use, but a serious hobbyist like me can follow it easily. Not a marketer's sketch, it's a manual. I just wish they had included a few more photos of different benchtop units in the types chapter, but the text descriptions are good enough.

The book is thorough and well-structured, and I learned a lot about the difference between impulse and continuous magnetizers. However, I found the chapter on maintenance a little generic in places; it mentions inspecting contactors but doesn't get into specific failure modes for different brands. The first chapter is a bit of a physics refresher, which is useful but felt long for a practical handbook. It's a good reference, I'll keep it, but I expected a touch more 'been there, done that' advice in the troubleshooting parts.

This is the book I should have had when I started my contract demag service ten years ago. The comparison table in the types chapter alone is worth the purchase, and the business chapter is brutally honest about the realities of rental and repair income. It is not a marketing piece, it's a technical manual that respects your intelligence and your time. I actually bought two copies, one for the office and one for the workshop.

As a lab tech, I mostly deal with small components and need precise control over the process. This book's explanation of pulse width and fixture design helped me justify a new coil fixture to my supervisor with real numbers. It is written in a clear, neutral tone, though there are a few places where I felt the author could have provided a non-magnetic materials price range for those of us on a tighter budget. A solid, practical handbook, four stars.