I recently went through this problem with a hard drive and went to my local hobby shop with a kitchen magnet and a paper clip. The metal that I found to be the most effective magnetic shield was tin. Brass has been recommended on a site but it did not work for me and the magnet was able to easily hold the paperclip through the brass.
Because the brass doesn't offer any shielding for magnetic fields.
In doing some research into finding a good magnetic shield if found that the magnetic field cannot be blocked per se but needs to be diverted. The tin I found worked in this way. Although the magnet would actually grab and hold onto the tin it was not able to grab the paperclip through the tin. I found that to be an interesting tidbit.
When the field is contained in the steel it can't grab anything else. Magnetic field lines are in closed loops, always. And they take the path of least reluctance, or, in other words, they travel through the material that has the highest "permeability". In this case it's the steel shield. If they can pass through any piece of steel they will not be in the air around it. If they are not in the air around it, they will not pick up anything magnetic in the area. If you have ever owned a horseshoe magnet it probably came with a "keeper", or a small steel bar that fit across the end of the magnet. When the keeper is on the magnet won't pick up anything. This is because the field is contained, thorughout its entire "circuit", in a ferromagnetic medium and no field is in the surrounding air. Remove the keeper to let lose the field and it picks up anything magnetic in the vicinity.
- web
-- G-Books is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and...
Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- Check our web site for refurbished PowerBooks | & CDRWs on Sale! |
Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html>
G-Books list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-books.html> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/g-books%40mail.maclaunch.com/>
---------------------------------------------------------------
The Think Different Store
http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com ---------------------------------------------------------------
