[JONESJONES]

Wheres the best place to ground what you are painting if a water spigate isnt around. a electrical metal conduit that runs into the ground, protecting a plug sockets wires, or would that defeat the purpose?

Anywhere on the building good?

[302 Z28]

If you can get to building steel that would do it. Also the ground circuit of a receptacle will work.

Vince

[BarryK]

Originally Posted by 302/Z28

If you can get to building steel that would do it. Also the ground circuit of a receptacle will work.

Vince

Just the guy I wanted to ask and have been forgetting.

I have a copper rod 8' in the ground with a 4 gage copper coated wire attached and running to a plate inside.
Now the question? from the plate I have grounding alligator clip wire (8 GA) made for industrial static that I run from ground to car. Can you use two and space them on car or does one do all you want.
I no longer have access to a static meter to figure out and I'm no electrician!

[adtkart]

Can someone tell me what the advantage is to grounding a vehicle while paint it? I have never seen a grounding rod in a paint booth before. Maybe I was missing something?

Aaron

[Bee4Me]

Static electricty.
The grounding of the body bleeds off the static charge from,usually,blowing it off with air as well as the air from painting.Low humidity is another factor as well.
The static charge is a TRASH magnet which pulls any piece of flying crap TO the body your trying SO hard to keep it off of. Ever notice how much dust is STUCK to the vacume cleaner,especally the hose?
Barry, I suppose you could use 2 wires but I really figure one is plenty as long as it's to the BODY and not just the frame as the rubber isolators would prevent or slow down the process. Same with the axle,still has rubber grommets in the shackles.I know there are "grounds" to the frame in different forms but directly to the body would be better IMO.

[jcclark]

You can buy bare braided (flexible) copper wire at Home Depot or any
hardware store. Some people connect it to the ground lead of the battery,
and the other end to the ground of the compressor, or the ground of
an electrical receptacle. The center screw of a receptacle, the one that holds
the cover plate on, is also a ground.
A grounded bare wire on a wetted floor seems like a good idea I guess.
You probably would be better with a ground going to the compressor and
to the receptacle, and connecting to the cars battery and body.
I have tried it all different ways and honestly, I can't tell a difference.
But hey, it couldn't hurt.

[302 Z28]

Originally Posted by BarryK

Just the guy I wanted to ask and have been forgetting.

I have a copper rod 8' in the ground with a 4 gage copper coated wire attached and running to a plate inside.
Now the question? from the plate I have grounding alligator clip wire (8 GA) made for industrial static that I run from ground to car. Can you use two and space them on car or does one do all you want.
I no longer have access to a static meter to figure out and I'm no electrician!

Barry, as long as the car is electrically the same from front to back all you need is one connection. What I mean by that is that there is no potential difference electrically from front to rear.

Vince

[shine]

i have a short chain with small vicegrips on the end. i just lay it on the floor. i use it in the blasting booth also. believe me the plastic in the blast hose builds a huge charge. the table i use for parts is just about waist high. without the chain it will throw a charge 12 inches. guess where it hits ? with the chain you can tell the difference while tacking.

[jcclark]

[QUOTE=shine] without the chain it will throw a charge 12 inches.

WOW, I guess we now know why they call you "Shine"

[shine]

we're not talking just a little jolt here. first time it dang near knocked me down. hurt like hell too. it will definitely light you up. you can actualy see the charge. neadless to say there's a chain permantly attached to the blast table that drags the ground.

[BarryK]

Thanks Vince.

Shine the only problem with chain is cement is a very poor ground.

Although it will ground as days in plants when everything you touch you get a shock (in winter) we have ground straps you put on your shoe and it does stop the shocks.

[shine]

i wish i had put a bar in the slab when we built but i was in a hurry to get back to work. without the chain it gets real exciting in there. i keep saying i'm going to drill a hole and put a ground bar in but there never seems to be enough time. at least the chain keeps it from zapping me. not too bad with starblast but the plastic is bad news.

[BarryK]

Shine,

Just pound a rod outside the building and get a coated wire and run to a copper strip plate, takes 10 minutes!

I know because every time we put in a new filling machine or pour from a tote in a different place we must have ground.
Some places will have a strip running the whole length of the building suspend from the ceiling so you can ground anywhere, you could do the same thing but those copper strips are expensive when talking a 100-200 feet.

[Beenaway2long]

Barry-
1/2" Copper water pipe acts as a grounding strip as well. MUCH cheaper to hang! Tie that into your ground system.

Cars SHOULD have a ground strap from the motor to the firewall, battery to motor,frame AND body, and frame to body. A simple continuity tester will tell you if your ground is good. Where ever you attach your ground, place a lead there, and some where on bare sheetmetal. You get a tone, your good to go.

[BarryK]

1/2" Copper water pipe acts as a grounding strip as well. MUCH cheaper to hang! Tie that into your ground system.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I aways wondered about that.

They have classes and books on static grounding for manufacturing and I have never varied from what they say.

When you have 350-550 gallon totes your draining and just the flowing of the solvents can create static it's not something you want to experiment with.

Your right, I bet it would work just as good.