sandblasting static discharge problem

my sandblast cabinet has been zapping me occasionally, mostly when i hold a part in my hand while blasting it. I duct taped the screws on the gloves which were the typical spot it attacked. I didn't pay too much attention to it. Cecil commented that he has the same issue, after seeing my duct tape job.

My son, Dave was over blasting some parts for the HD-5 crawler in the shop, and he got zapped repeatedly. well, after a little on-line checking, he said, ground the gun, its the media passing the gun that's creating the static.

I did it several weeks ago - the result - no more static discharge!

Mods, feel free to move this, but leave a shell so more people can see it.

The movement of the media, through the plastic feed tube, causes the static. Occasionally, shop vacs do that. (sweepings, sucked up the plastic hose.) Ed

A good old electronic ground strap from your arm to the frame of the cabinet should do it too.

Thank the powers that be for spell check of even I would not know what i was typing

I usually feel the static in my left arm that's touching the cabinet. I just figured it was an OSHA requirement to keep you from falling asleep when you were standing there.

Bob

Now I know what the wire running inside the left glove of my sandblast cabinet is for.

Same principle applies for a centralized dust collection system in a woodworking shop. There's gobs of info on the web about it (pros and cons) of using PVC pipe for that application. Never thought that a sandblasting cabinet w/ media passing thru a PVC hose would build up enough static to shock the user.

Good to know, Art. Thanks.

Run a wire from your power head to the cabinet and the problem is solved Mike

This brought back a memory. About 30 years ago part of my job was installing and maintaining Motorola IMTS mobile phones. One of my customers was a chiropractor whose wife worked nights in Monsanto's clean room cleaning the tanks where they grew the chips for integrated circuit substrates, and he said she was always complaining about getting shocked from the static discharge while doing the cleaning. I had a spare static strap ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antistatic_wrist_strap ) with me and gave it to him for her to try as well as telling him where the other women working there could get them. A couple days later he came by the shop with a couple of meal certificates to a local restaurant compliments of the ladies that cleaned the tanks. They had been trying to get Monsanto to do come up with a solution to that problem for a year or more, and I showed them how to fix it for about $2 per person.