Magnetic Nut Drivers Pros and Cons

The invention of magnetic drivers was great. These tools make it easy to toss a sheet metal screw into your drill bit or handheld driver and drive it in with little effort. Even better, is the ability to remove screws and bolts from hard to reach areas without worrying of dropping said screw into a potentially dangerous spot, or for it to disappear into the abyss never to be seen again.

The only con? These magnets attract all kinds of metal shavings from everywhere, and before you know it, the bit is hardly able to hold onto anything. This leads to you dropping nuts and bolts as if the bits were not even magnetic to begin. Even worse, is the diminishing ability to grip onto the hex heads as the metal shavings continue to pile up. Once the driver has enough build up on the magnet, you end up stripping heads and rounding out fasteners. Stripping fasteners leads to more metal shavings and an even worse problem than you started with. I am sure that you all have shared in this extremely frustrating experience at some point in time.

How Do You Clean The Debris From The Magnet?

You often see guys get frustrated as their tool no longer works as it once was intended to, I see HVAC techs banging the tools against a hard surface trying to knock the metal shavings out, but that never seems to work. Hard impacts on a magnet actually have adverse effects and should be avoided. As you tap on or hit a magnet, this allows the atoms to rearrange their magnetic fields which will reduce the strength of the magnet.

Next, I will often see technicians attempting to scrape out the metal shavings in their nut driver with a small screwdriver. You may have a little success with this method if your nut driver tool is extremely full of debris, but as you try and pull the shavings out, the magnet always seems to pull them back in. The good news is, there are better more effective ways to clean your magnetic tools.

Working as an HVAC Technician you often have a wide range of materials available to you stock on your truck. I’ve often got a small tub of plumbers putty tucked away that rarely gets used, but it works well for removing metal shavings from your nut drivers and hex drill bits. Just take a small amount of putty and work it into the bit cavity. Using a small controls screwdriver, you can begin to remove the putty which now contains the majority of those metal shavings. This method can be a little messy, and tedious to remove all the bits of putty, but sure beats trying to use a bit full of metal shavings.

The plumbers putty works great, but there are better ways. If you have a tube of fast curing silicone/caulking handy on the truck, I’d recommend using that instead. Just add a healthy pump of your caulking into the driver bit and let it cure. I prefer to use a small pick or small flathead to mix it into the crevices of the nut driver to ensure that the caulk can fully capture all of the metal particles and shavings. Like mentioned before, a fast curing adhesive typically works best, I usually give it 5 or so minutes to solidify, and then I pry out the ball of caulk/adhesive/metal shavings. Works great every time. I prefer this method over the putty as the caulk seems to stay together with a little better, and comes out in one piece vs the putty can be a little more work to cleanout. This method can still leave a little bit of the adhesive bits in the hard to reach areas but is still my go-to method in the field. A hot glue gun works great as well, but unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of need to carry a hot glue gun on my truck.

If you have access to an air compressor, compressed nitrogen, or Co2, you can get those bits and drivers clean as new. CAUTION make sure you where appropriate levels of personal protective equipment using this method. I usually set the outlet pressure on the regulator to 120 psi. Using a fine-tipped air nozzle, (pictured below) a couple of quick bursts and your magnetic nut drivers should be looking good as new. Like I mentioned, make sure you are wearing PPE. I prefer to wear a set of goggles just to be safe. The metal shards are going to fly everywhere, and it would be pretty terrible to end up with a small piece of metal in your eye when it could have easily be prevented.

Possible Alternative Methods

A few other methods that I’ve heard from other technicians in the industry are Duct Gum, which is probably pretty similar to the plumbers putty but probably has a little more rigidity to it and may work a little better. Pookie / Duct Sealant - as hard is this stuff is to remove from anything I’m not sure I'd be brave enough to fill the end of my tool with it, it may not ever come out. Mastic Tape - I’m sure this would work great in a pinch. I’ve even heard of people using regular chewing gum - now that’s ingenuity and dual-purpose tooling right there!

Comment below with any other tips or suggestions you may have as well. I’d love to hear any remedies or stories you may have with this issue!