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Pliers turned magnetic, is this bad for diodes?

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nvmextc

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My leatherman pliers and even my cheap needle nose pliers that I like using for squishing diodes into modules and extracting diodes from heatsinks have both recently turned magnetic, could this damage diodes if I still use them? The tip of my pliers are strong enough to hold onto paperclips :-/
I'm scared to do much without getting new pliers now.
So should I get some new one's and forget about using these for electronics. Or who knows how to "uncharge" a charged metal if that's even possible :-? ?
 





Re: Pliers turned magnetic, is this bad for diodes

nvmextc said:
My leatherman pliers and even my cheap needle nose pliers that I like using for squishing diodes into modules and extracting diodes from heatsinks have both recently turned magnetic, could this damage diodes if I still use them? The tip of my pliers are strong enough to hold onto paperclips  :-/
I'm scared to do much without getting new pliers now.
So should I get some new one's and forget about using these for electronics. Or who knows how to "uncharge" a charged metal if that's even possible  :-? ?
Click to expand...


Hitting them off something quite hard can demagnetize them ;)

-Adam
 
Re: Pliers turned magnetic, is this bad for diodes

Oh yer, I heard of that for screwdrivers and stuff, thx but I think it's very small, don't think much of this will fit in there :-/ lol
LT830278.jpg

So is this magnetism bad for diodes then?
 
Re: Pliers turned magnetic, is this bad for diodes

Diachi said:
[quote author=nvmextc link=1229209100/0#0 date=1229209100]My leatherman pliers and even my cheap needle nose pliers that I like using for squishing diodes into modules and extracting diodes from heatsinks have both recently turned magnetic, could this damage diodes if I still use them? The tip of my pliers are strong enough to hold onto paperclips  :-/
I'm scared to do much without getting new pliers now.
So should I get some new one's and forget about using these for electronics. Or who knows how to "uncharge" a charged metal if that's even possible  :-? ?
Click to expand...


Hitting them off something quite hard can demagnetize them  ;)

-Adam[/quote]

What do you mean "hitting them off something" this sounds good, brute force can always win ;D
 
Re: Pliers turned magnetic, is this bad for diodes

If I were you I wouldn't care about it. I'm pretty sure it's completely safe. :)
 
Re: Pliers turned magnetic, is this bad for diodes

shouldn't be a problem, most of the components inside a diode are nonmagnetic, even if they were you'd need a pretty powerful magnet to kill the diode from sheer magnetic strength

you're way more likely to break it from overheating during soldering or just dropping it :P
 
Re: Pliers turned magnetic, is this bad for diodes

nvmextc said:
What do you mean "hitting them off something" this sounds good, brute force can always win  ;D
Click to expand...


hitting a magnetized object really hard messes up the alignment of the dipoles in the metal, which are what's making it magnetic in the first place

so whacking it can make it less magnetic :P
 
Re: Pliers turned magnetic, is this bad for diodes

You somehow acquired or just noticed a weak magnetic field on those.  That weak magnet would need a BIG coil of wire to generate any real voltage at all.  Just touching them to a wire will do nothing.

I used to demagnetize tape recorder heads using a 100 watt soldering gun. The strong alternating field did the trick. (Didn't touch the head either!)

Mike
 
Re: Pliers turned magnetic, is this bad for diodes

OK, I'm not worried about it anymore but I'm very curious about it. I think the magnetic field was acquired when some current or something went through it.. I remeber when it happened I was thinking, electromagnet.

hitting a magnetized object really hard messes up the alignment of the dipoles in the metal, which are what's making it magnetic in the first place
Click to expand...
Yes, I remember learning that in school now!
I Just tried hitting it a bit, didn't do too much, so I went out to a brick...the brick is messed up, pliers are still the same, but I think maybe slightly stronger now... lol
 
Re: Pliers turned magnetic, is this bad for diodes

OK, sry this is about to go a bit offtopic but I thought this was really wierd.
I just picked up 11 dead diodes with the nose of my slightly magnetic pliers.
In all those diodes there are PHR's, 2 open cans, stonetek reds, and random IR diodes inculding one from a green module. All parts of those diodes are magnetic, the "gold" colored base, the silver can, the pins. BUT 1 long open can, either LG or Sony, I think it's the Sony 1, is not magnetic at all! Only the pins.
Sry I found this fascinating. The whole "gold" colored part of that diode is a totally different material from the others.
 
Re: Pliers turned magnetic, is this bad for diodes

MarioMaster said:
shouldn't be a problem, most of the components inside a diode are nonmagnetic, even if they were you'd need a pretty powerful magnet to kill the diode from sheer magnetic strength

you're way more likely to break it from overheating during soldering or just dropping it  :P
Click to expand...
Could dropping the bare diode REALLY kill it? :-/

They are so small, it doesn't seem like they are heavy enough to do themselves damage...
The thing is, i dropped an open can on a wooden cabinet from like 3 feet, when i broke its heatsink in half.
It doesn't look at all damaged.
 
Re: Pliers turned magnetic, is this bad for diodes

It depends. I've dropped an unharvested PHR sled and I shattered the diode window. Others have reported severing the ultra-fine wires that connect the diode chip to the pins after dropping.

As per the original question, the easiest way to remove magnetism from a pair of pliers is to heat them up with a lighter. If you heat a magnetic material past it's curie point, it will loose magnetism. Keep in mind that this could also ruin the temper of the metal...
 
Re: Pliers turned magnetic, is this bad for diodes

Whoa, before we start quoting sources for demagnetizes and new tools, let's first establish whether or not magnetism is detrimental.

nvmextc said:
I was just worried cos I know there are tiny strands of metal in diodes etc..
Click to expand...

These strands are likely made of copper or perhaps brass (not magnetic). A common misconception is magnetic fields attract metal. Magnetic fields (unless inordinately strong) only attract nickel, iron, cobalt, and their alloys.
 
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