Shocking!

[chiere]

O.K., At loooong last, after much whining and griping, my boss finally had the electrician come in and wire up the Shopbot. I asked him if it needed to be grounded with a long wire to outside, and he said no, and assured me that it was properly grounded as is.

So I went about my merry way after he left, plugging in all the accessories and doo-dads. Today, the vacume for chip removal is installed, (and I grounded it,) and I was setting the little metal pieces under the limit switch detectors,..

And the Shopbot has now shocked me 3 times!

It's not a big shock, more like you get when you rub your feet on the carpet then touch the dog's nose. (Not that I have ever done that,...) But it is disturbing, and I worry that, A., I will short out the Shopbot; B., I will short out me; and C., the Electrician is fulla hooey.

I live in Fla, near the coast, (so it's damp), it just got cold, and I have really long hair, which seems to invite static. Do I need to ground the 'bot better? Do I need to ground me?

What do I do now?

Thanks,
Cheri'

[bob_lofthouse]

I've had the same problem until I changed my trainers,

[daniel]

In my opinnion, I would not plug the shopbot in until you resolve this issue! I went through a similar issue about a month ago. I moved my shopbot to a new place. After getting it all set up I noticed it would shock me. I also live in florida right on the beach. I figured damp air and the small wooden house was causing static electricity. I used my bot two or three times with no problem, then one day I pluged it in and a bunch of smoke came out of the control box!

Turns out I had a power wire that was shorting out to my ground. I fixed that and spent 160 bucks on the control box and now all is well.

Its time to get out your meter and check you outlets!

[jhicks]

Cheri, I'm sure some of the technically competent folks out there will explain why you need to be grounded but you do. If I read this right you just installed a dust collector as well. I think you'll find that that dust creates a LOT of static inside and outside the dust pipes plus probably a bit on your dust skirt tube etc.
read more but you should also make sure the inside of your vacuum system has a ground wire inside of it. :Ie a grounded bare copper wire inside the pipes. Vacuum grounded as well!
More better ground is the way to go for many reasons.

[myxpykalix]

I don't think you would hurt anything if you did ground the table and dust collection so I would take a ground wire to a seperate ground rod. It sounds like there may be some type of short in the power system that is "leaking" to the table. I would remove the router from the table, check to see if you're getting "juiced" again, and disconnect vacumn (power supply) try again till you don't get juiced with each add on. If it continues call shopbot cuz it sounds like it might be the control box, but they are far more knowledgable about their components than me. I recall when I work on computer components you had to wear a "groundstrap"...I don't think you have to go that far!!

[chiere]

Well, I unplugged the router (it's wired through the control box, but the electrician put a plug on the 'bot and I plug the router into it) and ran the thing around the table. No shock. Then I plugged it back in and ran it all around the table, and still no shock,

???

I did ground the vacuum I thought,... I connected the copper wire from the short hose off the router to the metal wire in the hose, (which is dryer hose and made of metalic foil. My boss couldn't find the right stuff, so bought this for use in a pinch), then I stripped a bit of hose off the other end, leaving the wire, and attached that to a screw on the vac motor housing.

I haven't had a chance to route anything yet. I still haven't even planed the table, so I have only cut the vac on long enough to suck up a test handful of foam. (The simple things that amuse us,...)

I did put my hair in a bun,...

Do I just wait and call the electrician back out? I really don't want to fry my new toy,...

[scottj]

Hi Cheri,
This sounds like a good time to call support, 888-680-4466. The machine should not have any voltage to the table at all, there may be a problem in the machine.

Scott Julian
Shopbot Support

[trakwebster]

I've used a lot of computer-driven things over the last 20 years, and three things never hurt: (a) earth grounding, (b) air-conditioning if it's warm, and (c) power-conditioning. Do these three things, and 90% of the gremlins go away.

I'd suggest you ground the table to an earth ground, and run the same ground to the control box, and run the same ground to the dust-collector. The dust collector in turn should be grounded to some sort of ground wire running all the way around the hose to the shopbot chassis again. In other words, ground the poodle out of it. Ain't going to be no ground loops around here!

Costs little. Saves much.