Magical Moving MC Cartridge


Yikes! Had a heart-stopping moment this afternoon.

I noticed that my Lyra Delos had a persistent piece of hair hanging off one side of the washi-paper. It had been there for weeks and refused to come off despite all other debris being removed successfully.
I'd had enough and at first tried a wooden toothpick which failed to tease it off. Time to get the blunt instrument - a pair of long-nosed pliers!
As I approached gingerly from the right of the cartridge upon reaching a range of 1cm or so the tonearm suddenly jumped towards the pliers! I was fortunate the arm clip arrested its progress or I'd be looking at a distressed cantilever by now. Immediately, thinking the pliers were magnetised I checked them and found them to be unmagnetised but merely ferrous. Then the penny dropped - the carts internal magnet was the culprit.
Amazing how easily we can be forgetful and "drop clangers" like this :)
Now all I need is a pair of plastic tweezers.... :D
Something to watch out for when you are tempted to clean your cart :)

I'm pleased to say the cart was none the worse for its ordeal and plays perfectly.
moonglum
Thanks JF :)
This hobby of ours likes to spring these "little surprises" every now and then... :)

After this experience I found myself idly wondering how "non-magnetic" the grades of stainless steel in certain turntable platters/screws/centre spindle etc were :)

(I understand that provided the ratio of nickel to chromium is good there should be little change in VTF) ;)
Cheers...
A scientific supply company, such as Edmund can furnish bamboo forceps for just such a task.

http://www.edmundoptics.com/lab-production/component-handling-tools/tweezers-pliers/bamboo-tweezers/1484
Just so you don't feel alone, I had a baseball cap on...decided to dust around the equipment...leaned into things a bit to get the table done carefully and the bill of cap caught my then Lyra Skala cantilever just to perfect...

I don't think I said Yikes....it's likely something I shouldn't type here ;-)