To smoothly detach magnetically attracted ferrous turnings with respect to a high-performance ferrous turnings separator using a permanent magnet.

This separator is provided with a drum 4 rotating while a part of it is dipped in a filter tank 3 storing a coolant all the time and a permanent magnet 10 exerting magnetism on the surface of the drum 4 is arranged in the drum. Ferrous turnings mixed in the coolant in the tank 3 and attracted onto the drum 4 surface are successively scraped off by a scraper 5 outside the tank 3. In this case, a gap 12 between the magnet 10 corresponding to the position of the scraper 5 and the drum 4 surface is mde larger than that at the other parts, and a magnetic spacer 16 for attenuating the magnetism of the magnet 10 is provided at the gap 12.