--I was welding a little tab onto one side of a length of 1" square tubing the other day and suddenly it started to wobble; fairly high rate, maybe 10 cycles per second. The tube wasn't fixed to the table, but was sitting on a couple of pieces of 2" square tubing that was on the table. I removed magnets from the vicinity and tried again; same thing! Could this something to do with settings on my inverter? Weird!
Weird effect; cause?
Aug 23, 2007
1 Replies
Eddy currents. A magnetic field moving through a conductor sets up electric currents around the flux lines. These electric currents set up a resultant magnetic field, which just happens to oppose the magnetic field which created it all to start with. It's sort of perpetuates itself, falling off based on the losses (electrical resistance) in the materials. Drop a magnet down a sheet of aluminum, copper, and non-ferrous non-conducting materials. Copper and aluminum will slow the magnet's falling down. You can find out a lot more on the web, and some interesting videos on youtube and the like.
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