Hi all,
Has anybody encountered this one? Been working on an EPS board with carbon mesh this stuff - http://www.shapers.com.au/carbon-quad-axial-25-cloth/
under regular 4 oz. When sanding both laps and fill coat I was getting fairly painful static shocks when I touched the board. This happened with power sander and hand sanding and get this - when I used a vucuum cleaner with brush to suck up the dust from the hand sanding. Like a couple of passes with the vacuum brush was enough to charge the board up enough to give me a shock.
Any physicist out there who can explain to me what’s going on? Haven’t had this issue when sanding carbon rail tape.
How many gigawatts is your flux capacitor?!? https://www.oreillyauto.com/flux-capacitor
As long as it’s static and not leakage from the mains…isn’t that 220VAC in Oz?
What is the preferred technique for grounding dust collection systems down under?
Maybe treat your board the same way?
I had to install a grounding wire on my snow thrower to prevent random discharges of static generated by a spinning metal auger inside a plastic chute.
I can’t wait til O’reilly replenishes their stock. I already have their keychain rewards card. I’m sure it’ll work in a Ford Ranger with some tweaks.
Not sure if I can hit 88 MPH, though . . . hmmm.
As far as dealing with the static thing, I’ve been thinking about this. We use a lot of ESD controls at work dealing with circuit boards. This application might be challenging, though. Like you say, somehow keeping everything grounded is key.
They do make ESD ankle straps that the operator could wear, though this probably wouldn’t help much.
An ionizing fan blowing on the board could help, but they aren’t cheap.
I dunno. This could be the start of a whole new field of energy storage. Maybe the start of a revolution. Or maybe just a fluke pain in the arse for OP. Time will tell.
I am bummed that the Mr. Fusion is also not readily available.
The Dust Deputy cyclones ship with an aluminized tape that is ran across the plastic and then grounded via a wire. I’ve run mine with a shop vac for hours on the CNC, often undoing the hose end on the CNC to vacuum up loose sawdust and have yet to get ‘zapped’. In my workspace I am not ‘strapped’ (like is done for PCB/FPC/SMT) but the dust system is. I think you’d want it that way for the surfboard too, remove the human as the easiest path to ground.
I have also seen tinsel and small silverized lines used on machinery to help with static in roll-to-roll material handling. Sometimes a small increase in humidity can help too in drier climates.
Funny, about to go to bed and I was just logging in to add that increasing the humidity could help. A humidifier in the workspace, or simply wetting the floor with a mop may be all it takes to keep our friend from getting zapped.
Most of the year here in Florida we see no evidence of static issues. The area around our shop is literally a swamp much of the time.
Your making a battery by charging the carbon with static electricity from the spinning sanding pad (+) and when when touched that’s (-). Wrap some bare wire around the board (couple of turns) then ground one end. You may need to tape the wire in a few places. If you’re getting zapped while holding the tool, that’s another story.
Does the carbon wrap the rail? If not there’s your big capacitor, as said before. Maybe it just needs a conductive path between the hull and deck carbon layers if they are patches that don’t wrap. Drive a nail through it, that might work
(Just kiddin).
If fully wrapped, yeah, ground it and you.