Postwar 282R gantry crane magnet

I wouldn't try DC. The items the magnet picks up will become magnatized and won't fall off the magnet. AC current prevents that from happening.

You'd also need DC at a lower voltage for sure, but I agree with Chuck, it would gradually magnetize the pickup and things would start sticking.

Thanks guys.  The amount of useful knowledge on these forums, that help me from getting into trouble, is fantastic!

   Bob A.

When I had my 182 crane set up, I ran it on DC. It was much quieter, and ran better. The electromagnet did become magnetized, my solution was to put a DPDT toggel switch in the power line so I could switch between an AC and DC feed. A few moments of AC took care of the magnetize problem.

I used variable voltage, and just set it to whatever felt right. I am certain that the crane ran at lower voltage on DC.

All this would apply to a 282 or 282R crane as well.

I have an old VCR bulk tape eraser I use for degaussing functions like this.  One useful thing with it is to demagnetize track.  I find tiny metal bits sometimes stick to the track over time, I speculate they might work their way into the locomotives.  Demagnetizing the track solves that issue.

I finally figured out a combination of loads and work-arounds to allow my 16V AC gantry crane to pick up and deliver the loads I wanted, without going to DC.  But it's nice to know the DC option may exist, with care, in the future.

The results of my crane investigations are available on the 13th YouTube video in my LCJ&I Lines series. It's posted on 2/24/2012 "Weekend at the Movies", and is available here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCHkRcakRaY

  Thanks again.

   Bob A.