Static electricity building up in my mini cyclone

[Toni Ciuraneta]

A couple of weeks ago I changed the lid of my mini cyclone to a plexiglas one because I wanted to be able to see when the reservoir was full. It seems that is has been a bad idea because I just noticed that all dust particles are attracted to it. Maybe I should go back to the previous lid although to be honest I don't know if it didn't happen before or maybe I could connect this one to earth so that the electricity is discharged.
Any hints?

 

[Darren Wright]

To prevent the build up you can try running it all down with a dryer sheet, if you have one. This works for gun powder dispensers on my reloading presses. Aslo can spray down with soapy water from a spray bottle and let that dry. I've done both on the dispensers and it helps.

To help with discharging, add a bare copper wire on the outside of the cyclone/ cover, connected to a ground on the machine itself, or to the wall outlet.

 

[Toni Ciuraneta]

Thanks Darren, I'll try both and see how it works.

 

[glenn bradley]

Bare or not, a wire will provide a path to ground. You could start at the top of the cyclone, do a single wrap around it down to the top and trail off to the nearest water pipe or electrical ground. Not sure of your floor construction but, I scrubbed a spot of concrete floor about the size of a pair of shoes, applied foil tape and simply clipped the wire to it. Worked great.

Anyone who has gotten a static shock knows that it doesn't take much to encourage a static charge to jump to the nearest ground. A piece of even semi-grounded copper wire is more desireable that we are. The dust you see in the second picture just settled there, it is not stuck due to static.

 

[Charles Lent]

Glenn has it about right. Static electricity will build up on the surface of plastic when sawdust or other tiny debris pass through or against the surface of it. Providing a metal path via a wire wrapped around it every few inches and connected to a metal surface that is then connected to an electrical ground or metal water pipe that goes into the ground, will help eliminate high levels of static electricity on the plastic surfaces. Let the wire remove it so it doesn't try to go through you. I worked in the semi-conductor industry for 40 years and had to find solutions to this frequently. The closer together the wire wraps are, the less static electricity can build up, but one wrap every few (2-4) inches is usually more than sufficient. If you don't know much about this, it seems like Hokus Pokus, but it's a common problem on surfaces that don't provide their own flow path for excess electrons. Jus do it, and then enjoy the solution.

Charley

 

[Toni Ciuraneta]

Thanks a lot to you all guys, I applied your suggestios and now it stays clean.