More on the Onzow Zerodust

I only have a 40X jewelers loupe to examine my cartridge. When this Onzow issue first was reported, I noticed similar looking 'dots' of whiteish grey spots on the cantilever and cartridge body magnets, while gently trying to scrape them off, I noticed how strong the magnetic attraction was on the bottom of the cart body (Audio technica ART9), Dunno if the Onzow debris  is ferrous, something in my environment dust (did have kitchen remodeled recently) but for the last month have been using a photography lens brush mainly with the Onzow every 10 days or so and no longer see these whitish grey dots.

I agree, there's more to the story and just wanted to inject the magnetic part to the considering, my VPI prime does not have a dust cover so that's part of my environmental dust concerns. Gonna turn my hepa air filter back on.

On a a lark, googled 'is dust magnetic' , appears there's some studies that show it can be: My previous residence was at the top of a hill close to an I95 beltway, the constant tire grinding up the road debris made this weird fine dust settle on my outside windows and I had to clean them more regularly, it was really a fine dust. Anywave, just trying to add info to this Onzow thing.

There's no way the Onzow is ferrous, and like others have been saying, magnetism wouldn't cause anything to stick to the non-magnetic cantilever & stylus anyways. When you see the horror-show "before" pics from rebuilders, all the dark ferrous debris is aggregated on the magnetic parts like the front yoke/pole piece and maybe the coil former (except if ruby). And for that - I don't really know where the ferrous debris would have come from, either...that's an interesting one to ponder. 

 I admit, I was surprised to see such gunk on a cantilever. First thought was that the user didn't just 'dip' the stylus, but came into angle of contact with the cleaner surface that made with the stylus AND cantilever. In the case of a brush being used to clean, I would think the same thing. It is important as to how you Apply the brush. Then this stuff about magnetism comes up and it may be possible that static cling causes the dust to rise and contact the cantilever and stay there because of the buildup of cleaning agent.

Found a very interesting post from johnss from 5/12/2020. Seems he's been examinng LP's with a microscope and seeing these cantilever gunkies: to paraphrease his post (thank you johnss):

"Have looked into this for a long time and taken many microphotographs of LP / vinyl groove surfaces.

first you need to understand what is  mixed in with vinyl pellets before the record pressing plants ever sees them. Many think mold releases are used. Have not found that to be the case.

But during PVC pellet processing, Calcium carbonate is added to almost all vinyl formulas during formulation as a processing aid for all the manufacturing steps, from extrusion, to pelletizing to molding.

during the record pressing cycle, the calcium carbonate is still in suspension in the PVC vinyl matrix during the heating cycle. During the cooling cycle, the rapid change in temperature causes the Calcium carbonate to migrate to the the cooler surface, collecting in the bottom of every groove.

As the stylus tracks the groove, the bottom of the stylus is hitting the tops of these larger particles. Want evidence? Take a look at the bottom side of your cartridge. you will likely see some fine dark white to light tan tiny particles clinging everywhere. these are tiny calcium carbonate particles the stylus removed from the bottom of the groove.

Have looked at over 300  records under a microscope and have never found one without the deposits."