Anti-Fatigue mats = static electricity?

[Bruce Page]

Ground the mats.

An ESD mat is a different creature from your typical shop floor mat. Connecting a ground wire to a typical shop floor mat is pointless. I agree with Lee – grind some sawdust into them and you should be ok.

[Rodney Randal]

Note that a lot of the fabric softeners are simply a diluted, emulsified silicone. I'd think twice about spraying that around my shop if I plan to do any finishing in there. Fisheye isn't as attractive as birdseye.

Blaine

Ohhh how I hope that you're wrong ! I have already sprayed lightly with a diluted mixture of Downy and water. The good news is that it worked for eliminating the static, and it smells GOOD in the shop for a change!

I'd recommend grounding the mat as well. You can test to see if it works by securing a conductor/wire from the mat to a suitable ground. Tape would work okay for securing the conductor as long as you have decent pressure on the conductor. If this works, then a simple bolt and washer will suffice to permanently attach the grounding strap.
Matt

I have installed the mats on almost the entire floor except where the machines reside - they are all interlocked. Since they are all interlocked and basically one piece, would 1 ground wire be sufficient? What would be a sufficient ground? Would I just secure the ground wire to my table saw cabinet for example?

I don't know if I would even be able to test the grounding of the mats now that I have sprayed them with the fabric softener and they aren't generating any static....

Rodney

[Matt Warfield]

I don't know if I would even be able to test the grounding of the mats now that I have sprayed them with the fabric softener and they aren't generating any static....

Rodney

Rodney,

If they're not generating any static now, then I wouldn't worry about it at all. By the time the fab soft wears off, Lee's suggestion will probably have happened automatically...unless you have a really good dust collection system.

[Rodney Randal]

Rodney,

If they're not generating any static now, then I wouldn't worry about it at all. By the time the fab soft wears off, Lee's suggestion will probably have happened automatically...unless you have a really good dust collection system.

My dust collection works fairly well, but there is still some that escapes, and will probably coat most of the mat surfaces sooner or later, but I am still curious about exactly how you would ground the mats.

[Matt Warfield]

That really depends on the surface material of the mat itself. If it's conductive or dissipative, simply bolting a ground strap to the corner will work fine. The other end should go to a ground point. Machinery may or may not be based on my limited electrical background. If it's 120V machine, no problem. If it's 240V, it may not have a ground back to the central ground in the electrical box.

As far as whether you need to ground one or all of your mats that are connected, it really depends on the material involved. If it's PVC based then you may not be able to ground an of the mats. That was the basis for my recommendation to securely tape a ground wire to a mat in order to test its effectiveness. It's no fun putting a hole in a mat to find out it doesn't help.

[Kent Fitzgerald]

Machinery may or may not be based on my limited electrical background. If it's 120V machine, no problem. If it's 240V, it may not have a ground back to the central ground in the electrical box.

Matt, your'e confusing the neutral and grounding conductors. A 240 V circuit does not have a neutral, but it is required to have a ground. Any tool, 120 V or 240 V, that is not double insulated should be grounded.

[Steve Clardy]

New mats will probably hold a charge. What you need to do is get them dirty.

Once you get sawdust on them the problem will most likely go away. Sprinkle some sawdust on them and then sweep it up with a broom. My bet is that the charge will be gone or at least greatly diminished.



Or you could make boooties of those dryer sheet fabric softeners and wear those in the shop for a few days. They work well to de-static face shields and safety glasses.

The booties approach would be

[Dick Strauss]

Fabric softener will probably make the mats a little slick.

A simple wrist strap will solve the problem. Connect one end of a piece of raw copper wire to your machine and connect the other end to your wrist in a loose fashion.

FYI-Elastic wrist straps are routinely used in the electronics industry to prevent ESD. They work the same as a copper wire except they are more expensive and more comfortable.

[David Rose]

Steve, I can just see you wearing those static free booties around the shop! If you do that, please post pics.

David

The booties approach would be

[Rodney Randal]

Fabric softener will probably make the mats a little slick.

The fabric softener did make them slick when they were wet, but now they are fine. There does seem to be a residue that is sticking to our shoes that when we walk inside on the wood floors, causes our shoes to sound like they are a little damp on the bottom. Hope this goes away.

A simple wrist strap will solve the problem. Connect one end of a piece of raw copper wire to your machine and connect the other end to your wrist in a loose fashion.

FYI-Elastic wrist straps are routinely used in the electronics industry to prevent ESD. They work the same as a copper wire except they are more expensive and more comfortable.

I wondered if those wrist straps would work, but didn't want any extraneous dangly things hanging around any spinny things, like blades !

Rodney

[David Rose]

Let's see... "2 inch spinny thing" (over 6" around), 6' wrist strap cord (72"), 300rpm on the spinny thing (5 rounds per second)... I think that you have just over 2 seconds to realize you are "connected" and rip that velcro off your arm or find your arm attached to the spinny thing! Hmmm...

David