demagnitize metal with welder

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has anyone ever used a welder to demagnitize  a round pile? people are telling me you can hook up to each end of your pipe and slowly bring up your amps,  sounds to me like it will blow your welder up.  any info would be great, there planning on using a vantage 400
Reply:You're not de-magnetizing. What you're doing is changing the polarity of the pipe.http://weldingweb.com/vbb/showthread.php...=magnetic+pipeOnly when the last tree has died and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught will we realize we cannot eat money.                                         -Cree Indian ProverbSA 200 LincolnVictor Torches
Reply:Sometimes I must make xray welds on magnetized pipe.  Here's what I sometimes do to de-mag the pipe.Unroll extra welding lead from my rig and wrap it neatly and tightly around the end of the pipe making a spool.    The more wraps I make with my cable, the closer my wraps are together - the faster this works.It doesn't matter which lead I use but it does matter which direction I wrap it in. Touch the ground clamp to the stinger for a second.  (ie: run some current through the leads)The current I use is what I normally weld with..With a simple welding rod I'll check to see if the magnetism is better or worse by seeing if it will stick to the bevel......If it got better I know I wrapped the lead in the right direction and zapped it for the right amount of time with the right amount of current......If it got worse then I know I need to wrap the lead in the opposite direction and zap it again......If it was almost gone and I zapped it again but made it worse then I now need to reverse the wraps and zap it the other way again to bring it back.Remove the cable wraps from the pipe and make the weld normally.If the magnetism seems to come back while making the weld then try wrapping some of your welding lead back around the pipe.  If it makes it worse then wrap it in the other direction.  The closer to the weld the better it works.If both pipes are magnetized then de-mag each one first before lining up the weld.I've never tried this process with a Vantage before, only generator type Lincolns,  but it should still work I guess.  I can't imagine why not.  Crude yes, but it does work. Good luckLast edited by slowhand; 06-05-2011 at 10:23 AM.
Reply:The direction will only matter if you're using DC.  If your machine can make AC, then hit it with that.  Much better at demagnetizing.
Reply:Just watch how much current you are using and make sure you do not exceed the duty cycle limits. Allow cooling time after large hits.
Reply:Originally Posted by rlitmanThe direction will only matter if you're using DC.  If your machine can make AC, then hit it with that.  Much better at demagnetizing.