Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I have a few Horsies that I want to re-chrome but I am concerned that the work to strip these and re-chrome them will somehow affect the magnetic properties.

Should this even be a concern?
How do I measure them and what benchmark should I hope to see?

Anyone able to offer sage advice?
Thanks,
Russ

Don't know about affecting the magnetism, but others measure by how well they hold up the weight of a screw. There was a thread with pics about a year ago, but I couldn't find it.

You might try posting this question in Sergio's Winding Up With The Best forum, or Peter could move it there.

Hi Russ! Hey, I know this one It is in my "field" of professional expertise...

A DC current is passed through the piece into the electrolyte bath during chrome plating. Although it is a good amount of current at low voltage, the induced EMF is negligible.

So plating will not demagnetize the shoes.

You should always touch up the magnetic "charge", if you feel the shoes are weak, by placing each shoe into the coils of a nice size arc welder, 100 to 250 amps or so, and then shorting out the welder leads for a few seconds at a time until the full magnetic "strength" is back.

"placing each shoe into the coils of a nice size arc welder, 100 to 250 amps or so, and then shorting out the welder leads for a few seconds at a time"

Oh, that sounds safe...I'll get right on it.
Thanks!

Elys, someone not knowing what they're doing is gonna kill themselves!
This may be within your "field", but damn.

I think Elys has a medical degree, so if he says to do it, well...

Hey Jeff, don't forget, also a PhDEE, with emphasis in Electromagnetic Fields

I was a research physician, and we all had dual-doctorates in a science or engineering specialty as well. It was either that or not be able to get a job in research medicine

By the way, Mike, that's how the RIC factory did it too, using an arc welder just like I described, after the power company locked them out of the old substation at their old location

Calling Dr. Rand, Dr. Howard, Dr. Rand!

I take you are also well versed in Ayn Rand!

"Well I am not exactly an atlas on the subject" he shrugged.

Very few people know that Grandma Alissa gave birth in shame to an out-of-wedlock son in 1925, the result of rape, before she emigrated, and left it behind with family. The birth left her unable to ever bear another child and shaped her attitude irrevocably toward children and sex later in life. It was one of the best-kept of the family secrets (except of course within the family).

Have a look at my "remagnetising horseshoes" thread in the Winding Up With The Best forum for a photo showing how to remagnetise completely safely and for free...

"I was a research physician, and we all had dual-doctorates in a science or engineering specialty as well. It was either that or not be able to get a job in research medicine"

Is that still the case, Elys? Just curious...I'm a PE in EE but also have an interest in medicine.

Yes, it pretty much still is true. The basic MD is considered entry-level these days, more so than thirty years ago, and is equivalent to a "Bachelor's" in most other professions. Most entry-level MDs just want to be a worker-bee practitioner and get paid by an insurance company to see 40 or more patients a day at 10 minutes or less a pop, just to make a decent buck. That's fine, it is a good living if you are energetic and unimaginative, willing to be "well-trained" instead of innovative and curious. Most use a minimum-difficulty biology major and associated BS to get in to med school. That leaves them able to do little else but clinical practice.

After that, to move up to specialize. It takes lots more schooling and passing the boards of the particular specialty. Then you can become a neurologist, or cardiologist, or thoracic surgeon, or psychiatrist, whatever strikes your fancy. You are still a "well-trained" worker bee, however, seeing patients and having your soul owned by a malpractice insurance company telling you what you can and cannot do.

I was always first and foremost interested in electronics. I was a ham radio operator at age six, and wound my first coil pickup for a guitar at seven. I was gonna be either a nuclear physicist or an EE working on avionics and spacecraft. But I wound up with a mom who wanted a doctor-son and a dad who wanted an astrophysics and electronics engineer-son. And I wanted to develop cool remote-sensing inventions, like the "color MRI" that was developed in part using technology that one of my groups in Washington pioneered.

So we all got what we wanted. If you have an interest that area, I can private-email you a link to the lady at the Johns Hopkins Medical School who advises dual-doctorate candidates on how to combine your BSEE with entry into med school, and what you can do after graduation. Nowadays it is very big pay for a new grad, especially with companies like GE Medical, Philips, and Siemens.

Yeah, Elys...if you don't mind, please send me that link (at the e-mail address under my profile).

I'm pretty established in the Consulting Engineering field right now, but I'm always open to options.