Magnetic heat sink mess w components?

[Fndr8875]

Bought a new heat sink today, realized it's magnetic, will that mess w transistors, opamps or anything?

[R.G.]

Read.

[induction]

Read.

Good suggestion. Anything in particular you recommend? 

[R.G.]

Good suggestion. Anything in particular you recommend? 

Yes. Things which describe the effect of magnetic fields on conductors and semiconductors.

And yes, it was a very broad answer, for a very broad question: "[...]magnetic, will that mess w transistors, opamps or anything?"

At some levels of magnetic field, yes, it will mess with transistors, opamps and in general everything. At lower levels, the effects are less severe, and at some level they can be ignored. What levels for what component? That's a fairly broad question again. M-fields will mess with currents flowing in any conductor. That is the basis of the Hall Effect. Some semiconductors are excruciatingly sensitive to this, but those tend to have been designed to be sensitive.

Sometimes I get tired of people going and asking in a forum on line where the answers they get may be completely uninformed and unintentionally or maliciously wrong, instead of trying to find out something for themselves.

If the OP had asked, for instance, whether a magnetic field affects transistors, he'd probably have received a much more detailed answer. You asked a much more cogent question, and got a much less subtle answer. I could have told the OP anything at all; sometimes the devil makes me see how much bafflegab I can string together. What I did tell him is the very best answer for his state of readiness to learn.

Learning to learn and getting the motivation to do so is far more useful than having a couple of sentences spoon fed to you on a forum.

[tonyharker]

Hang on how can a heatsink be magnetic?  Heatsinks should be copper or aluminium (aluminum) they are not magnetic.  Steel heatsinks are about as useful as a chocolate teapot!! They will not conduct heat quickly enough!

[R.G.]

Yeah, that was one of the things I hoped he'd either find out, or more likely ask about. Even asking about the thermal conductivity of  iron/nickel/cobalt alloys versus aluminum and copper was one of the desired outcomes.

Could be a steel insert, I guess. Or one of those newfangled "aluminum magnets".    

[PRR]

Could be a soldering-aid heatsink.

I never use them on Silicon or alumi-caps, but they can be wise for Germanium and Polystyrene.

I can't see how they could possibly do the damage we did when sticking floppy-disks to the file cabinet with a magnet. But more info needed here.

Yes, steel can be a fine heatsink. Not as good per bulk as Cu or Al, but hundreds of times better than Air, which is the real bottleneck. I think the advantage of Al is that the ideal sink has a heavy part to take concentrated heat and many thin fins to spread that heat to a maximum of air with a minimum of metal. Extrusion makes tolerable shapes and with Al you can do many different shapes (so the customer finds one to suit his need) at fairly low tooling cost. But flat iron does minor sinks without excess cost; I have seen such on a PC motherboard (a minor chip, not a modern CPU!).

[duck_arse]

I read the OP as a soldering heatsink as well. and now I'm wondering what it would stick to, as to be useful while soldering.

.... a very short test with a magnet just produced predictably inconsistent results as to which (component leads) does and which doesn't stick.

[Fndr8875]

Im sorry i didnt clarify my original post more clearly. I was at harbor freight yesterday and they had these on sale for a dollar and thought hmm thatd be nice for getting into tight spaces. well i got home and realized its magnetic. and it dawned on my this might mess with certain components. So i got online and spent about 30 minutes trying to figure out an answer, as i always do before posting questions on here. I think some people have to realize that some people are smarter than others, and some people had to just grind over and over and over simple things for them to make sense to someone that it just instantly clicks. I got frustrated bc i thought well i just got done searching in every way i could think of and couldnt find any thing conclusive. Im embarressed at my lack of comprehension of electronics. Ive spent the better part of a year of my free time pouring over schematics layouts, message boards, unsuccessful builds and i still have so much trouble understanding such "simple concepts" to those who do get it. I have finally had 2 successful builds in past 2 weeks, they were following effectslayout.blog spot layouts, but some things clicked in getting those to work. Any way , i should have posted more info in my intial question. I refered to it as a heatsink bc the couple i had from radioshak looked like this.



But i also know this is a heatsink to


heres my crappy little first build that works




, i know there are some geniouses on here who prob built things 10 times more complicated the first week the got into this hobby, but im proud of myself for sticking with it and finally getting results. I dont know how i go about actually undertanding things when i read and reread pour over things for hours and just cant  get certain concepts down. I refuse to quit, ive always been amazed with guitar pedals since i was a kid. I finally ordered my first pcb, but wouldnt allow myself to until i was able to do one on pad per hole. Sorry for the long post but just trying to explain where im coming from

[R.G.]

[...] So i got online and spent about 30 minutes trying to figure out an answer, as i always do before posting questions on here.

That's a different kettle of fish entirely. And it's worth putting that in. I personally would have answered a lot differently if that phrase had been there. I am aware of how that happens, so when I go looking for expert advice in forums about things that are outside my training, I try to ensure that I both have done a reasonable amount of searching and that I say that I have looked unsuccessfully.

This forum and many others is the target for the sorts of people who think that the internet will simply hand them the answer to any question, with no thought involved. For better or worse, the way your post was worded set that flag waving for me. Sorry.

That being the case, no it's not a problem. And you probably don't need the heat sink at all unless you're soldering vintage germaniums, or using a vastly overpowered soldering iron.

Im embarressed at my lack of comprehension of electronics.

Don't be. Electronics is a discipline that is totally outside normal human experience. It's artificial for humans to be able to comprehend it.

I'm embarrassed that I'm not a better guitar player, but that's due to a lack of talent on my part.     

[davent]

A lot of my small, frequently reached for hand tools are magnetized as they're stored on a magnetic, knife holder strip behind the workbench. That magnetism can be a hindrance/pain at times.

dave

[PRR]

> who prob built things 10 times more complicated the first week

No. I remember struggling to wire a motor, a battery, and a switch. And that wasn't my first week.

(I still struggle to wire a motor; main change is that I can make several mistakes in my head and catch them before I start the fire motor.)
________________

> a magnet just produced predictably inconsistent results

A fair number of older part leads were tin-plated steel, magnetic. Other parts weren't. I don't know rhyme or reason.

[Fndr8875]

Thanks for the replys and support guys. Sometimes i have a hard time bending components just right or need to get in a super small spot and the short heatsinks, tweakers, hemostats etc dont help much. I have the red insulated on in pic above. The one i got is like needle nose pliers but super skinny, anyway, i cant wait for my first pcb from rullywow to get here on thursday.