anyone ever build a magnet charger?

kly

Member
I have been thinking about building a magnet charger to charge magnetos. I have found some instructions online and was wondering if anyone here has tried it?
I was wondering what gauge copper wire and how much is needed.
Do I need insulated wire or bare copper wire?
 
Interesting project. Keep us posted on how it goes.
I would imagine you would have to use insulated wire to be able to pass a current thru it. Otherwise it would short out across the windings.
 
Magnet wire - has a thin but tough layer of plastic insulation. What you see in electric motors. Going to take quite a coil of it to get an electromagnet capable of really strongly magnetizing a large hunk of metal.
 
Kly,
never built one, but used one. They are nothing but a coil, insulated wire, and a DCV source. The one I used had a bridge circuit, used 120vac, and it also had a 10 amp circuit breaker. The more turns of wire, the stronger the MF. The more current the stronger the MF.

The difference between a magnetizer and a demagnitizer is you use ACV instead of DCV. Pull the object through the varying MF to demagnetize.

Should be very simple to build.
 
There is a book on this also;How to Build a Magneto Magnetizer.[ISBN #1-878087-15-0 ] In the book the source for the 18 awg magnet wire is Conductors Unlimited PO box 282 Lyons .IL, 60534-0282.{ph 708-447-0282] Regular copper wire won't work.The book shows how to design various type pole pieces to line up with the shape of various magneto magnets.I never built one as there is still a magneto shop near me that has this.
 
Somewhere here I have one that I built. The book mentioned below is probably the same one I worked out of. I got the wire from an electric motor shop, along with a part can of varnish? to hold the coil together. The shop owner was a friend so he just gave me a couple of end spools of wire that he couldn't use. The thing probably weighs 30 pounds. Works well on hard iron magnets, but is not powerful enough to do a good job on the ones in the typical tractor WICO mags.
 
Wico XH, farmall H4 magnetos is what I was wanting to recharge.

it takes more power to charge a Wico type mag than the old horse shoe magnetos?

I see a lot of really old chargers on ebay for horse shoe type magnets. They wouldn't work then on 1940's magnetos?
 
I built a charger several years ago, for use in recharging the non-permanent (IE horseshoe) magnets on magnetos. The Wico XH and IHC H4 magnetos use a permanent magnet. A much more powerful charger is need for those than for the non-permanent magnets. This is just my opinion, but you really don't need to recharge the magnets on the permanent magnet magnetos. I have rebuilt numerous Wico XH and IHC H4 magnetos and have never recharged them and they always work just fine.
 
Look up Gingery Publishing. they have a book on magnet charging.Gas Engine Magazine has articles on magnet rechargers.
 

We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today.

Back
Top