Clark Foam planer keeps zapping me!!

General Discussion
1

Anyone out there have this experience?

I’m going along doing my rail bands this evening and as I’m turning the knob on my planer, it starts zapping me! I must have a short somewhere b/c I was also touching the shaft that the little adjuster knob is glued onto.

Any electric whizzes out there who could help?

Thanks

Josh

2

mine is doing the same thing…

sucks, it seems all right for the last 15 boards hopefully it will stay that way…

good luck

3

Are you using a vacuum hose on the planer? Hoses can become statically charged from dust spiraling thru them and need to be grounded. The Clark/Hitachi planer has a plastic body, and doesn’t need a safety ground to the body itself for AC shorting. The only likely places to get shocked are around the trigger or the cord; the knob doesn’t have any power near it. Take it apart, inspect and clean it, there may be some debris that’s causing arcing inside.

4

Ah!!

That was my next question: Could this be related to my use of a vacuum hose?

I’ll clean out the planer, but how sould I ground the hose?

Thanks!!

5

Josh,

heard you had the new fish out on Thursday!!! How did it ride?

drew

6

I know I have had the vacuum hose zap me when I use a different planer than the clack foam and it has zapped me during general dust collecting. Sounds like grounding the hose should work. If it was a short in the planer that zap would do much more that just bother you.

7

Drew,

The fish worked great! I’m totally stoked about it!

I had to surf on the conservative side though b/c my stick-on leash plug fell off and I had to surf sans leash, so no deep cutbacks or anything like that. Just smooth carving and racing down the line.

The thing can move out though!

So now I’ll have to find a way to ground my vac hose. Any suggestions?

8

I have a leash plug if you want it.

9

I already slapped a fiberglass rope loop on it. I’m not sure if I used enough strands of rope though. Is 7 enough?

10

hmmm

there is a bunch of crap in the archives on this. 7 Strands of that fin rope I would think would be enough. The diameter should be about as thick as a mcdonalds straw…or it could be thinner if it were a little wider. the trick is flanging the ends of the rope where it contacts the deck out to a sort of hourglass shape. after that I put a small patch of glass over the hourglass ends.

See pic!

Drew

11

Josh- my vacuum hose kept zapping the sh*t out of me when I first got my system. What I did was run a wire from the hose and wrapped it around the handle of my planer. This way, whenever I use my planer, just by holding onto it, I ground out the hose. -Carl

12

Thanks CarlO for the advice. I just had the experience that you guys are talking about. I just put on a leather glove and didn’t get shocked anymore… I know that was a quick fix but I wanted to get done. I will try your method.

13

The zapping feature is built into the Clark foam planer. It is to remind you to focus and pay attention when your mind begins to wander. Mike

14

If you run a bare (non-insulated), small gauge wire along the length of the hose to a ground source - it should stop any static discharge you’re getting.

Best,

Herb B.

15

Josh, I gotta make my way up to your neck of the woods to check out some of your boards, hopefully before you electrocute yourself! Was the last time I saw you at your wedding? Jeez, time flies!

16

I know we’ve run into each other somewhere in the last year.

I’ve been surfing with Pete Clark a bit.

Definitely come check out the garage shop some time. I just made a 5’8" fish shape that’s really fun to ride.