Sometimes my tools get magnitized.  Sometimes I’ll used a magnet to hold a chuck key to the headstock.  Sometimes it just happens for no apparent reason.  But when you don’t want your tool sticking to the tool rest, etc. you need to demagnitize it.

I made a demagnitizer from an old soldering gun.  I figured since the soldering tip is basically a short-circuit (a chunk of heavy nichrome wire), the transformer in the gun should be beefy enough to use this way.

I wound up some wire I had sitting around – it looks like 12 gague – and replaced the soldering tip with the coil.

To use it, I stick my magnetized tool through the coil, turn on the gun, and move it up and down the tool a couple times.  Then slide it slowly off the end of the tool.  The alternating current through the coil randomizes the magnetization of the tool, leaving it neutral.  If it still seems magnetized, just repeat the process.