Using the flexible collection hose as marketed by Jet. May the copper grounding wire be wrapped around the hose or must it pass through the interior for proper results. 
-
April 2025 Turning Challenge: Turn an Egg! (click here for details) -
Congratulations to Kelly Shaw winner of the March 2025 Turning Challenge (click here for details) -
Congratulations to Ellen Starr for "Lotus Temple" being selected as Turning of the Week for 21 April, 2025 (click here for details) -
Welcome new registering member. Your username must be your real First and Last name (for example: John Doe). "Screen names" and "handles" are not allowed and your registration will be deleted if you don't use your real name. Also, do not use all caps nor all lower case.
Dust Collection Grounding System
- Thread starter cwearing
- Start date
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2005
- Messages
- 13,096
- Likes
- 5,554
- Location
- Dalworthington Gardens, TX
- Website
- pbase.com
Neither one. The copper grounding wire doesn't really serve a useful purpose -- sort of like an urban legend. If you want fairly good results in reducing static, get a large rag and douse it good with graphite powder and pull it through the hose with a wire or string several times to coat the inside of the hose. Graphite is a fairly good conductor and it sticks well to plastic (and almost everything else that it comes in contact with).
Bill
Bill
Last edited:
Urban Legends
Charlie,
I've been round-n-round on this "issue" having to do with DC systems using plastic pipe (flexible or otherwise). EVERY electrical engineer to whom I've posed the question has smiled [literally or figuratively] and told me you can't "ground" a DC system with plastic duct/pipe-work; the plastic is such a good insulator that the static charges will not flow from one point to another. They've also told me, without exception, that a home/hobbyist system will not build strong enough static charges to generate a spark HOT ENOUGH to ignite wood dust. Remember, it's not enough just to have a static spark, that spark has to be of sufficient temperature to raise the dust (given a sufficient air/dust concentration] to combustion temperature. Just because it will zap your hand doesn't mean it will ignite a fire in your ductwork or DC bag.
Bottom Line: You can't effectively ground your system other than grounding the DC and the power tool which happens with a three-prong plug anyway. If you want to be totally "grounded," get rid of ALL of your plactic pipe and run everything in metal ducts, including the flex-connectors.
I've had on-line conversations with people who "witnessed" home-shop DC explosions. Funny that there is not a single substantiated report by fire departments of such occurances. I suspect those folks can also testify as to the efficacy of Spanish Fly.
Mark Mandell
Charlie,
I've been round-n-round on this "issue" having to do with DC systems using plastic pipe (flexible or otherwise). EVERY electrical engineer to whom I've posed the question has smiled [literally or figuratively] and told me you can't "ground" a DC system with plastic duct/pipe-work; the plastic is such a good insulator that the static charges will not flow from one point to another. They've also told me, without exception, that a home/hobbyist system will not build strong enough static charges to generate a spark HOT ENOUGH to ignite wood dust. Remember, it's not enough just to have a static spark, that spark has to be of sufficient temperature to raise the dust (given a sufficient air/dust concentration] to combustion temperature. Just because it will zap your hand doesn't mean it will ignite a fire in your ductwork or DC bag.
Bottom Line: You can't effectively ground your system other than grounding the DC and the power tool which happens with a three-prong plug anyway. If you want to be totally "grounded," get rid of ALL of your plactic pipe and run everything in metal ducts, including the flex-connectors.
I've had on-line conversations with people who "witnessed" home-shop DC explosions. Funny that there is not a single substantiated report by fire departments of such occurances. I suspect those folks can also testify as to the efficacy of Spanish Fly.
Mark Mandell
Last edited:
Mark is 100% right on the money - take his advice. No need to repeat it, just a nod of confirmation.
Some folks just can't stand the little jolt/shock when they touch the DC hose to skin. If that is your case, then sure, thats a good enough reason to work to minimize it, but forget about grounding it. I have no idea why - but my DC used to shock me pretty reliably but I replumbed it - same material, just more of it, and it stopped completly. I'm sure there is an engineering explanation for it, but I was just happy to not get shocked any longer.
Some folks just can't stand the little jolt/shock when they touch the DC hose to skin. If that is your case, then sure, thats a good enough reason to work to minimize it, but forget about grounding it. I have no idea why - but my DC used to shock me pretty reliably but I replumbed it - same material, just more of it, and it stopped completly. I'm sure there is an engineering explanation for it, but I was just happy to not get shocked any longer.
Last edited:
They were doing it on Mythbusters the other week, they sandblasted pvc pipe with more sand than I've ever seen and built up just a few milivolts but not enough to shock you.