Sounds darft but solar storms can magnetize stuff too IME. There was a baddish one a few months back, still not got around to demagging everything, but pretty much everything in my shop has some magnetism, from digital callipers to stock. Never had a issue like that before the storm, literally one day, all the swarft fell on the floor no issue, 24 hours later and whilst not strong a hell of a lot of stuff now noticeably attracts stuff, including a screw driver i had been trying to magnetize for years. Everything in the lathes metal cabinet does not show this problem, so i can only assume its a outside created problem.
A simple ac powered coil though will take care of it, had it happen a few years back.
