Static electricity from a vacuum hose

[Webb Willmott]

Picture running a 20’ section of 4” vinyl hose that is reinforced with wire from a drum sander to a dust collector.

I was sanding some segmented rings on a drum sander and the vacuum hose was in the way. So I decided to support it with a plastic garbage can. After I did that, I started getting static electricity shocks on my torso through my shirt where I touched the hose. It didn’t take long for me to decide that wasn’t safe, and I removed the garbage can and put the hose back on the ground. No more shocks!

I thought I would share because it makes me wonder if people have grounded those really nice dust collection lines leading to their collector.

Now that I think about it, was it the air going through the plastic hose or the wood being sanded that generated the static electricity. I think I’ll try to repeat and see if I can get shocked with and without sanding to answer my own question and report back.

 

[Russ Braun]

Shocking!! I covered my entire shop floor with rubber interlocking pads. For months I got a shock when touching tools…kept me awake and on my toes. It dissipated over time; still happens occasionally when it’s low humidity. I did ground all my flex hoses to my metal ductwork using the reinforcing wire…grain storehouse explosion phobia. I don’t know anything about static electricity shocks other than they gets old quickly, lol!

 

[John K Jordan]

it makes me wonder if people have grounded those really nice dust collection lines leading to their collector.

When I installed my ClearVue cyclone I used 6” PVC pipe. At the time I found much written about static build up in plastic pipes from moving dust. There were many opinions and predictions of doom unless the PVC was “grounded” - there were suggestions to use grounded wire on the outside and suggestions to run grounded wire down the inside.

The bottom line for me was articles based on experiment that showed grounding the outside of the PVC did nothing and grounding the inside was not needed. In the past 10 years I’ve moved hundreds of gallons of dust and chips through the PVC from bandsaw, lathe, drum sander, erc. Nothing is grounded except maybe the metal trashcan bin which sits on a dry concrete floor. I do inspect the insides of the 6” PVC ducts occasionally just in case some anomaly of my design or use should cause a potentially hazardous dust buildup but never found a trace.

The ClearVue cycolne is so powerful - someone made a video of one picking up a 25’ measuring tape and dumping it into the bin:

View: https://youtu.be/WFPtC3kfmeg?si=L5hoFT9i2aNbZLMy


You would not want to let your cat get close to a pickup…

JKJ

 

[Webb Willmott]

You would want to let your cat get close to a pickup…

JKJ
[/QUOTE]

You must not like your cat….

 

[Kent Reisdorph]

Not the same thing but it reminded me of a time I was out fishing. A single cloud came over us. It was a storm cloud, albeit pretty weak. The fishing rod I was holding started to CLICK, CLICK, CLICK in my hand as if the lightning was looking for a place to ground. I set the rod down.

 

[robo hippy]

I remember how "they" used to say that all ducts needed to be "grounded". I never have grounded mine. The reasoning was that the static could spark a fire. I asked some people who installed the in house vacuum systems with multiple inputs in houses about that and got a blank stare, they had no idea what I was talking about. I guess it is not necessary. Though, in the days when my daughter was little, one could get nasty static shocks from them going down the plastic playground slides.....

robo hippy

 

[Webb Willmott]

Not the same thing but it reminded me of a time I was out fishing. A single cloud came over us. It was a storm cloud, albeit pretty weak. The fishing rod I was holding started to CLICK, CLICK, CLICK in my hand as if the lightning was looking for a place to ground. I set the rod down.

Guess you were “click bait”.

Reporting back on the checking what caused the static. Just running the collector and the sander didn’t produce a charge. When sanding, the wood dust moving through the hose did create a static charge. When the hose was laying on the ground, there was no charge present. When elevated above the ground, charge was present.

So, when I get my new shop built the collector lines will be grounded. Until then the hose will be laying on the ground.

 

[John K Jordan]

You would want to let your cat get close to a pickup…

JKJ

You must not like your cat….

Thank you. I have edited and corrected the text I did Not type correctly so it now does Not imply incorrectly that I do Not like my cat.
For the record, I do Not dislike any of my five of my cats but like them very much. And my two horses, two llamas, 13 peacocks/peahens, 11 guineas, and our dog. There is one dog in the neighborhood I do Not like much. Actually, the dog is fine, not its fault. The problem is the people who do Not spend any time with it and have given it no training.

Not the same thing but it reminded me of a time I was out fishing. A single cloud came over us. It was a storm cloud, albeit pretty weak. The fishing rod I was holding started to CLICK, CLICK, CLICK in my hand as if the lightning was looking for a place to ground. I set the rod down.

I'm glad you didn't die. You could have reenacted Benjamin's kite/key experiment. I understand Mr Franklin took safety precautions but lightning never actually struck the kite. Google tells me "A German physicist who tried to replicate the experiment without Franklin's safety precautions (like the dry silk ribbon) was killed the following year. "

I once set up my big telescope below some big power transmission lines. The telescope tripod legs were chrome-plated steel. When I touched a tripod leg it felt really "odd". A careful look showed the light from numerous tiny electrical arcs between my fingers and the tripod leg. Apparently the steel legs were picking up a significant amount of electrical energy from the overhead power lines. I think this is the way people sometimes steal power by stretching a wire below such transmission lines. It makes me wonder how much power across the country is wasted going into the ground under the 642,000 miles of high voltage power lines in the US.

JKJ