# If you really truely know about magnet zappers please respond here



## AMX (Nov 1, 2005)

Where is a good source for these things? Where can T-Jet slugs be gotten for them? Should I make my own?

What is the deal with the RC can motor zappers? Will they work for slots?

All 1960s-70s magnets have to be way weak by now and I have been tossing this topic around for too long not to finally do something about it.

I have an F.W.Bell laboratory gauss meter and need to put it to good use.

Please let me hear.


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## tjettim (Nov 29, 2005)

*Zappers*

A zapper capable of doing rc motors will do any ceramic
slotcar motor.I made my own plates and Zapper.The Tjet
magnets definetly come up. Prints for zappers are easy to
find on the internet.I went with the dual field coil ac to Dc
type.If you have access to large capacitors you can make a
portable one.For rare earth an air coil zapper is needed.They
are way more complicated,dangerous and expensive.


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## AMX (Nov 1, 2005)

I am up for building one....I can get caps as big as paint cans.

Where did you get your schematics/ideas/instructions from?

Does yours draw down the mags as well? Do you unzap and then zap them?

I am going to need info on how to build the thing as well as how to use it I am afraid  

Thanks


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## tjettim (Nov 29, 2005)

I can kill,reverse,and correct ceramic magnets.If you can get large caps you can
build a far stronger one.A watercooled aircoil can reach a higher guass than steel
saturates at.These can be dangerous,and I would do some online research on
aircore zappers to familarize yourself with the hazzards.Basically you charge a
refrigerator size bank of capacitors full,the shot them to a low resistance coil
of wire surronding a non conducting tube.It has to be jacketed and have water
flowing trough for cooling as it will get very hot.The tude should be about 6'
long and the ID only slightly larger than the magnets being zapped.A plastic
fixture to secure the magnet in the center of the tube so it won't shoot out
like a cannon.The thickness of the windings should be about the same as the
radius of the tube.Larger wire= less turns=more guass=more heat= you
could overload the caps and blow your garage up.I would put a 100 amp or
less fuse between the caps and the core just in case. Let us know how you do.


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## AMX (Nov 1, 2005)

Jesus I don't need one that big 

No refrigerator sized components for toy car playing.....

But I do want to build a fairly decent sized one that doesn't need liquid cooling (although that does sound very cool)

Looks like you have looked into this pretty far. Where should I start looking?

I have seen most of the RC zappers and figured I could do better with another type of unit. Are these AC powered or do I need to hang on to one of my big DC supplies?

Point me towards some reference material and thanks !


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## tjettim (Nov 29, 2005)

You can run AC trough a full wave rectifier.Build two field coils with 1.5" x6" bars
of cold rolled steel.Tap both ends for 3/8 bolts .Make 4-5" diameter 1/16" thick 
endplates out of G10 or phenolic with a 1.5" hole in them.Epoxy one 1/4" inch from the ends of both bars.Now spool 10 guage magnet wire onto the spools until almost full.Run pigtails and epoxy the spools.Bolt to a 1/2" thick cold rolled steel base with about an inch between the coils Box the unit so that the coils will stick up just above the top of the box (wood or plastic), make your magnet plates slotted for bolting
to the bars with different thickness and shaped magnets.Run two swithces after the
rectifier-one to the coils,one to your caps.Wire the coils in parrallel.If it trips your
ac breaker change them to series.If the two plates repel from each other reverse
the leads on one of the coils.Now from your caps put in another switch to your coils.
Now you can DC or CD charge your coils.If the DC way seems stronger you need
more capacitance.If the coils get real hot on the caps you will need less.


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## AMX (Nov 1, 2005)

Ok I have a far greater understanding of what these things are now.

I follow building the coils perfectly. Would I want an exact count of windings on each one and am I scatter winding them or am I winding them perfectly even with all of the wire strands parallel to each other and perfetly uniform?

There are so many variables I would need more details before I though power through it.

The steel plates that actually fire the charge into the magnets - are they perfectly cut to fit the magnets shape? Is there an air gap between the magnet and the plate? I would assume not, but what if all T-Jet type magnets are not the same arc? There may be a sall gap at one end or in the middle? 

So many variables I will need to learn more, but this is helping out quite a bit.

What size caps mfd & voltage are we talking here? How many? We are running 115ac rectified into the thing with no transformer correct?

I will still need to see a schematic. Thanks


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## AMX (Nov 1, 2005)

Also, these two coils must be insulated from the steel base correct ?


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## tjettim (Nov 29, 2005)

The magnet wire is insulated,pole to base do not insulate.No airgaps on plates.The field travels in a circle,pole to plate to pole to bottom back to ple again.I put the
ples in a lathe to wind the wire on.If you have a good scale just set the tare to zero
and have them close to the same as possible when wound,you will get dizzy trying
to count turns,and it is not that critical.You can check them with an ohmeter to make sure.


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## AMX (Nov 1, 2005)

I like the weight idea....we have used that measurement format in winding / comparing vintage PAF Gibson guitar pickups before.........


OK, what size caps am I looking at and a bank of how many ?

I think I can safely start building the coils now since that is pretty straight forward and that is really the meat and potatoes of the unit.

Once they are built and mounted it is acedemics at that point as far as the point to point "circuitry" is concerned.

Some have suggested a light bulb as a load source to keep a device like this from tripping breakers....I am looking at running it off of a 200 amp service on a 15 amp circut...

Am I looking at trouble there?

I still have a way to go till I fully understand this thing.....I have built huge antenna arrays, color television and stereo transmitters (exciters) with less questions than I have on this.....maybe it is the big cap bank that has me questioning the specifics......


thanks again.


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## tjettim (Nov 29, 2005)

*Zapper*

On the caps I would get the biggest I could.Put an ampmeter in line
so you can tell when they are "full" and ready to unload.No lightbulb,
I just run a slow-blow 15 amp fuse in the Zappers 110 input.I also
have a 220 plug on it for rezapping neo.With caps you won't need it.
One more thing I forgot,put some insulation paper on the bar before
you wind the wire on it,a very thin wrap.If you can get the coils warm
with the caps you can add an aircore later.Then you can tell me how
to build one.I learn sometimes by my mistakes,alot by luck.Experimenting
can be fun.If you use a lot of caps I would Isolate them in another room,
just in case.No pacemakers any where near this device.It will ruin cheap
watches also.Keep me updated. Tim


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## AfxToo (Aug 29, 2003)

This sounds like an interesting experiment. But I can't recall those old stock TJet magnets being very good when they were brand new. Is it even worth restoring slightly weakened weak magnets to their original weak state? I can understand trying to restore magnet car magnets, especially ones that have been nicely grooved, but stock TJet magnets ... ho hum. Just use JL magnets.


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## AMX (Nov 1, 2005)

Pretty soon JL magnets are going to need to be zapped too you know.......

All magnets need to be zapped and matched. If nothing else just by how they have been handled and stored....

I have had mixed results swapping JL magnets into some original cars... even with shimming and moving them around they don't all run as good.

I have made the fastest cars by finding the "correct" magnets, not necessarily the strongest magnets, for a given arm and gear ratio.

I also have a bar of t-jet/afx shaped magnetic material that I have cut some surprising magnets out of....just a little bigger than stock sized that still fit without misaligning stuff. In Xlerator conversions or quadralam cars there is no comparison to any other magnet except maybe polymer with these. 

I bet if those were zapped full they would be the best.

If nothing else, equalizing the magnets is more important than trying to pack more magnetism into a dud magnet. Weed out the duds and get rid of them forever.

I just have to have cars that fishtail all the way up to top speed even on good tires, or wheelie out of the slot on demand. :dude: 

Plus I can use it for other mags too including guitar pickup mags, RC mags, other slots, etc.


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## tjettim (Nov 29, 2005)

*magnets*

What are you cutting your magnet material with?
I have never been able to cut ceramic sucessfully.
Getting blocks of class 8 material is easy.Zapping
it after it is shaped is easy.JL magnets are about
class 7.


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## AMX (Nov 1, 2005)

An older tile saw.....

The problem is I have to cut them too big then grind them down to shape....this causes several problems the most annoying of which is magnetic dust everywhere including the bearings and motor of the saw and angle grinder....I use a big strip of air file paper on a flat surface to dress the top and bottom perfectly square. Keep in mind these magnetic strips I have are almost the exact same horseshoe shape as Aurora magnets just real long like 40 magnets stacked on top of each other. I would not be surprised if that is where they came from.

I need a big opposite polarity sacraficial magnet to collect the dust and allot of duck tape to get the rest.

Most of this may not be worth it and a lot of this stuff I did before there even where Johnny Lightnings, let alone the internet or polymer magnets.

All I know is JL magnets are not the answer to everything as well as polymer magnets are not either....cars with real low ohm arms burn up quicker and I think they burn your rails up quicker too.

I just want decent all around drag and road race cars.


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## tjettim (Nov 29, 2005)

Are you grinding the magnets with them charged? You need to kill them,
cut them and then rezap them.Put them on an old iron skillet and heat them
slowly on the stove till you can slide them around.300 degrees or less usualy
does it.I could tell you how to make a demagnitizer,but the stove is cheaper.
When you make your zapper you can also cross field zap them down.You are
right,they cut the radius's first then slice them.They used the same "sticks'
to cut AFX and Magnatraction magnets.


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## AfxToo (Aug 29, 2003)

Okay, I get it. A matched magnet set is definately a big benefit and I agree that you have to find the right magnets for the situation. I guess AMX stands for A Magnet eXtremist. Have you noticed any P-3 Orions circling your house when you fire up the zapper? 

Since cutting custom magnets is an option, have you ever considred making a set of notched MT/XT magnets that extend down below the cross brace to boost the magnetic downforce?


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## tjettim (Nov 29, 2005)

I used to just eliminate the cross brace and glue the magnets in a little lower.
Sluggo uses steel shims behind the magnets and gets even better results.
Just remember,when the Zapper is on,all the nieborhood compasses point
to your house.


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## Mike(^RacerX^) (Mar 15, 2003)

Nothing to add to this...

Just wanted to say that I found the thread very interesting reading.

Mike(ice9)


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## AMX (Nov 1, 2005)

I can cut the magnets and get them mostly flat, but intricate shapes are simply out of the question.

I would make a bigger pair of magnets and let them hang out the bottom of the chassis.

I must admit than NON mag AFX and T-Jets have become my all time favorite cars. I ran magnetraction cars so much I just got tired of it. Now they just seem like rail scrapers to me......

A small amount of traction magnet is ok - just to get a little more crazy around a turn and have the rear end re center itself is OK, but the glued down on rails cars see very little time at my track....just enough to compare their scale Mach speeds to the slower cars is actually all I use them for.


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