[TMaster]

Hello, I want to setup a vacuum for G10 and CF particles, I've been using my normal shop vac and when sucking the G10, the hose hose builds up 12" round of static field when its running. Once the hose touched the metal table and it shutdown my stepper control board from the shock.

What kind of hose to I need to use? Some kind of rubber?

[ger21]

Wrap it with copper wire and ground the wire.

[TMaster]

where should I ground the wire? To the table the mill is bolted too( metal table)? To the Ground on a AC socket? To something else in the shop thats metal on the concrette floor?

[camcam]

I would probably go with the ground on the AC receptacle, or you should have a green wire (US) in your power cord coming from your AC power cord up to your powersupply. Check your outlet with a cheap tester to make sure it's wired correctly and has a ground (3 prong), especially if you live in an older home. Double check ground with a meter if you wire up near the powersupply.

If you don't like the hose wire wrapping idea, you might be able to find a conductive hose, maybe do a search for 3M corporation, or a search on 3M vacums.

[TMaster]

AC recepticle ground sounds good too me, I bought 8 feet of hose and 25feet of 20AWG copper wire earlier. Thanks guy's!

[TMaster]

Well i think i damaged my driver board from the static discharge. What are you guys doing with yoursetups to Cut g10? SHould I get sheilded cables too? Maybe use water mist cutting?

[tsalaf]

Shielded cables are always a good idea, grounded at one end only.

I use conductive flexible dust hose grounded to the AC outlet. When static becomes a problem in the dry indoor winter climate, I mist the air around the hose with water to dissipate static.

[2muchstuff]

In the past I have run a bare copper wire on the inside of non-conductive hoses to reduce the buildup of static electricity. This was then connected to a cold water pipe.

It is always a good thing to use shielded cable on any control or motor wires. Static electricity and electronics don't mix very well.

[ConKbot of Doom]

If it touched your table and killed your machine, it sounds like you have grounding issues. If your machine is in the garage, or in a workshop, either drill a hole in the floor, and drive a grounding stake into the ground, and ground the machine, or if you don't wanna be putting a hole in the floor, you could do it outside and run the wire inside.

If the machine isn't grounded, whats to stop the machine from getting charged with static somehow and zapping you? Or even worse, if you have a wiring fault occur somehow. I'm not sure of the construction of your machine, usually there is a conductive path through everything in most all metal machines, but you could be using something thats breaking the path.

In that case, I would get some copper braid to bond together the 2 parts of the machine. Its similar to solder wick if you've ever used it, just without the flux in it solder wick has. Though you could use some 1/8" solder wick if you wanted to. Just rinse the wick with alcohol first to take out some of the flux if you dont want it in there.

[TMaster]

I've been running my machine for the last 7 months with no problems. I grounded the cnc machine to the ground in the AC recepticle. Also i went to a anti static vacuume hose. The hose is great no charge buildup at all. It cost me $65 for it though. I have the whole metal table and cnc machine grounded.