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I have a harbor freight dust collector with a 10’ flex hose that I use for just about everything. I’ve never really had static issues in the past but for some reason it’s really bad this year; the outside of the tube picks up dust off the floor and I get a pretty decent shock whenever I’m vacuuming with it and I touch something else. Considering it’s reinforced with metal wire, could I connect a grounded copper wire to one side to prevent static? Thanks
Yes, use the copper wire
That is what I did.
You are about to start a war :-) with that question! As an experiment try spraying the exterior of the hose with static guard and let us know how that works for you.
No need for a "war" as it's less likely that static in a small shop DC system is going to be an explosion disaster, but the effects of static electricity are still a real thing when non-metallic hose and duct is involved. Grounding can help alleviate that as Scott and Ole mention. Some hose is also manufactured to be more conductive and doesn't have the "shocking" problem. I do not remember where my hose came from, but I've had no issues with shocks or even "clinging" dust with mine. I do know it wasn't inexpensive hose, however.
When my DC system was new I had static issues, but they have completely disappeared over time. 3M makes an anti-static spray that works well to eliminate static charge generation.
I had the static electricity problem with the flex hose from my planer and drum sander. I wrapped several turns of stranded copper wire around the hose and tied an old wrench to the other end of the wire. The wrench lays on my shop floor. It seems to be working well.
Joe
If there is a metal spring inside the hose, attach a wire to the end of the spring and run the wire to the ground connection on an electric outlet or to some other grounding connection, like maybe a cold water pipe. If the motor in your vacuum has a ground connection (3 conductor power plug, you might be able to add a wire from the motor end of the green ground wire at the motor to a bolt that you install through the plastic case near the vacuum inlet port. Then you can attach the wire that you added to the spring of the vacuum hose to the other end of this bolt, completing the path to ground for the static charge being built up in the hose to drain away safely.
I once had an all plastic cased shop vac that gave me bad shocks in very dry Weather, like we on the East Coast are experiencing now. Before I fixed the problem, using it in the dark provided almost enough light from the flashes to be able to see where I was vacuuming. I did this exact modification to my shop vac band it worked very well, except for the plastic extension pipes, which still gave me shocks, although much less than previously. I used some of the foil furnace duct sealing tape on them. Just a long narrow strip from end to end is needed folded over into the ends of the pipes so that the foil ends would touch each other and the metal spring in the end of the hose and it solved my problem. For a static electricity charge to build up enough to shock you, it needs a large non conducting surface to accumulate on. A grounded metal conductor placed against this surface will drain the charge off of small areas, but you need this conductor spaced fairly close together so all areas are protected within a few inches of each grounding point/wire.
Although the voltage of a static charge can build up quite high on non conducting surfaces in low humidity, there isn't enough current to be very dangerous by itself, but you can injure yourself when you jump violently as a result of it passing through you on it's way to ground. Finding a way to drain the charge off before it can build up enough for you to feel it is the best way to deal with it. The best way is to buy an all metal vacuum that has a 3 pin grounded plug on it. Then the metal is already there to keep static charges from building up on it.
Charley
I never had static issues with my dust collector until I moved into my ‘new’ (1959 garage) shop. Turns out the electrical sub panel wasn’t grounded with a stake into the ground.
I added a true ground round to the sub panel and all my static issues went away.
Same here as Jim. I opted for the more expensive flex no issues.
I have, however, had static issues in my PVC ducting. Grounding the blast gates seems to have solved the issue.
Will wrapping the duct in wire and grounding it work?
Always happy I installed steel duct whenever I see one of these threads.
I had the same issue with the PVC flexible duct from my DW735 planer to the dust collector. Calgary has stupidly low humidity and higher altitude to boot - so when the shops at 10% humidity (doesnt really get much higher...) you can get shocked from 2ft away (about 600,000v!)... thats a big enough shock to make you clothes hit you hard enough to hurt as they get pulled in by the shock travelling across your skin to ground. Good times. I took an extension cord, broke off the live/neutral prongs (leaving me with just ground), then stripped the outer insulation off, then cut off the live/neutral wires, stripped all the wires, chained the once-live/neutral wires to the ground wire and ended up with about 100ft of nice stranded copper wire. After wrapping that around the dust collector hoses - no more shocks. Doesn't even need to be wound tight or anything, just one turn per foot is fine. The extension cord then got plugged into my regular power board/wall socket, which meant I could remove it when I moved the planer. Might not be ideal, but it did a damn good job for me!
Maybe stupid question but if hose attaches to a plastic rather than metal dust hood or fitting on whatever shop machine, to make this circuit complete (assuming the dust collector is also grounded) do most here wire a connector from wire in flex hose to something metal on machine?
Thx
Jon
This article is a good resource for this discussion. Lots of misinformation out there.. http://www.woodcentral.com/articles/...cles_221.shtml