Grounding the blast cabinet

[428]

I re-arranged the garage this weekend to get the dirty stuff away from the semi clean area where I'll be doing engine and ****** work. But this puts the blast cabinet near the tractor, and the gas cans. I run a shop vac with a variable speed control and a flood light inside.
It has occasionally bit me with static so I was looking at grounding it.
Suggestions?

 

[Vicegrip]

Learn to like it!

Or run a small wire to the center screw of a grounded outlet.

 

[PAToyota]

You mention floodlight - on mine the ground wire for the floodlight is connected to the metal electrical box (as it should be). That solves the problem for me.

You may want to check the wiring to make sure that the ground wire is attached in there.

 

[Uncle Buck]

I want your horse!

 

[Charles (in GA)]

I had the same problem with my TPtools unit. While the electrical boxes are grounded, I'm not so sure they make a good connection to the whole housing. They have foam on the bottom to prevent dust and grit leakage and since they were installed when the unit was new, they were clamped with the cross bar and nut to a painted surface.

I was getting zapped ocassionally, but as the weather cooled and the air was real dry, I was getting zapped too much. Got hit twice in the lower lip and felt it go all the way thru to my teeth.

Finally took some green grounding wire from the reel and stripped it and put it under a sheet metal screw on the leg of the case, and put the other end on the metal electrical box on the wall (which I know for sure is well grounded)

I haven't tired it since I added the ground wire, so I cannot say if it cured the problem or not.

Charles

 

[toxicz28]

I grounded mine near the hinge to a grounded box. Still get zapped.

 

[rockwithjason]

to properly ground this or any metal equipment, you need to use a lug or a green grounding screw that is tapped into the steel. remove all of the paint in the area of contact and attach the lug or screw. run a bare copper wire 12ga should be fine, to the nearest outlet and slip the wire behind the face plate. make up the wire to the grounds in the box. if you need to you can ground several spots on the cabinet for better effect.

 

[Franz©]

You really need to install a bleed wire from the gun itself to ground to minimize the problem. The cabinet is only half of the problem.

 

[Blown71X]

You really need to install a bleed wire from the gun itself to ground to minimize the problem. The cabinet is only half of the problem.

Exactly, The static buildup is due to the media flowing and rubbing on the inside of the plastic hose leading to the gun...Rub a a piece wool on a plastic rod you will get the same effect, electrically grounding the cabinet to the service feed will not stop it no matter how you do it.
The simplest fix is to run a ground wire along the feed hose to the tip or gun body and ground it to the cabinet, assuming it is metal (mine is) this will for all practical purposes stop it. I had to finally give in and ground mine, it dosen`t bother me as I think it`s cool to see how big the arc can get (it`s a long story but static hits don`t even phase me ) but since the wife also uses my cabinet once and a while I was ordered to make it stop
Although I personally haven`t tryed them I know there is conductive coated hose out there to cure it also.

Rick

 

[428]

So Rick, you're saying it doesn't; effect,effect,effect you at,at,at all? Shocking

I think I will run a wire from the gun to the cabinet, put a lug on it and wire that to a ground. Never thought about the gun but I'm sure that's a lot of it. That's why I asked.

Thanks Guys.

 

[Junkman]

I never realized that owning a blast cabinet was such a shocking experiance. If I had used mine more, I might have realized it. I guess that is why there is a ground lug on mine that was installed by the factory, and it is wired directly to the ground on the lamp circuit.