Posted by David Sherman on Wednesday, February 08, 2006 at 9:40PM :
In Reply to: Thanks Paul... posted by Chris Davis - UT on Wednesday, February 08, 2006 at 8:33PM :
It doesn't take much of a ground to dissipate static. In other words a piece of welding cable is not going to do any more good than a piece of lamp cord. To get voltages high enough to jump through the air (~20000 volts/inch) you need really good insulation, like plastic or rubber or glass. If the metal legs of the cabinet are sitting on a concrete floor, that alone is enough "grounding" to keep tens of thousands of volts from building up on the cabinet. If I was you, I'd start with the most highly-insulated thing that's exposed to the stream of sand or dust, which is probably the nozzle. Any other insulated parts like parts of a dust collector insulated by plastic plastic pipe or hoses would be other things to check. You don't need huge wires and you don't need them tightly bonded, at least for test purposes. Just wrap or tape whatever wire you have laying around to whatever parts you're trying to ground. Once you find out what kills the static, you can do a fancier job of grounding it.
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