Tooltime

TOOLTIME

Anyone who has ever worked on carburetors, instruments or electncal components knows that there are times when you’d kill for a magnetic screwdriver that would hold that tiny screw you’re trying to get started down in a narrow opening. And at other times, you’d like that same screwdriver not to be magnetic so it wouldn’t attract every shard of ferrous material it comes near. Well, here’s the solution: the $9 Magnetizer/Demagnetizer from Wiha Tools (800/494-6104; www.wihatools.com). It’s a 2 x 2 x 1-inch block of plastic molded around a strong permanent magnet (no batteries required), with two window openings, one marked plus and the other marked minus. To magnetize a screwdriver, you poke the blade into and out of the plus window just one time; to demagnetize it, you do likewise in the minus window.

It’s that simple, and it works on any steel screwdriver blade or small ferrous component.

Paul Dean