Fixing Everything WRONG with My Dust Collector Setup || Static Electricity || PVC Pipe 

I’m an engineer and have written on esd even was an expert witness in a couple on legal cases related to injury and esd mitigation. I think your solution here is very good. Use of chains for grounding is pretty common. There are ways you can simply ground yourself with a grounding wrist strap. The discharge is due to a difference in potential between you and the static build up on the equipment. A human can themself build up a static charge of up to 35,000v at 3 amps! So it’s not just the static of the system but also you the operator. Anyway great solution to your problem.

Your explanations are second to none, thank you for your focus and clarity

The chain is a neat idea. You would get "better" grounding by using earthed metal pipe rather than plastic, which is totally impractical. Being zapped is a PITA but I would assume that given you're generating the spark on the outside of the dust extraction the risk would be negligible. Probably better to build a meteorite catcher above the shop ;-)

“I get shocked every time I touch this” Well quit touching that!…lol. But seriously. The chain is a great solution. Those shocks are annoying at best. Cheers.

The chain is a clever idea to get rid of the static build up!

Your system is great and Oneida makes fantastic dust collection products. A couple things I would suggest would be to use a shop vac with a simple and inexpensive Dust Deputy VM for your miter saw and other small dust producing tools like sanders and routers,drill presses etc. They need suction more than High CFM. You can also simply use a cardboard box for the jointer chips as this machine simply drops them down the chute. Doing this you could eliminate a lot of piping and elbows which would increase the CFM to the planer. Great video. Thanks

Hello, watched your video and can agree you came to the right conclusion. I would suggest you consider using the wire all the way long of the PVC piping as they act (as you did it before) as a capacitor and buildup charge when the particles fly/rub around/against the walls. As well with an even better result, you can use simple bare wire instead of the bulky chain and leave it on the ground but the best is to install some grounding rod and properly ground the whole system. By the way, have you guessed what is the purpose of the spring in the flexible hoses you use? If you have taught also for discharge you guested right, so you can screw wire along the PVC and connect it to the flexible hose's spring, and so forth.

Obviously for different reasons but when I was getting underway on Navy ships and then later, Coast Guard cutters, tie-down chain was never allowed to act as the ground for helos on the helo pad. A stranded wire (don't remember the gauge but relatively large) was required; anything with links was not considered a reliable ground. This is certainly a different application but just thought I would throw that out there.

Thanks to you I now have an affordable plan for my dust collection system!

The dust explosion thing is real, but it is VERY rare. The conditions for the dust to explode from static spark must be perfect; exactly right size particles at exactly right density etc.. Another danger to cause an explosion is to put a board through the planer/table saw/drum sander with a nail/screw inside. Not only will it damage your blades, but can cause sparks. Nice videos. Subbed

I mentioned last video to ground your system and air to your houses ground, like the ground in an outlet, not sure if you actually did this or tried this, but for me it worked with no static.

Nice fix on the Y. One improvement to keep CFM up would be to remove the the flex hose between cyclone and collector. If you can make that solid, they'll be less friction. Nice lil set up though.

Your video gives me some ideas on how I'll be getting my dust collection system set up

Hey there! I watched both of your videos and the improvements to the 2nd were spot on! It's hard to tell from the angle of the shots but if you have a 90-degree in the corner nearest your DC, I would suggest using two 45 in that corner to ease the curve. Work safe! :)

Looks good Matt, my mitersaw dust collection consists of a folded piece of cardboard funneled down to a trash can!!😜🤣

Eliminate the flex hose by the collector to improve performance. The turbulence created by flex hose dramatically lowers airflow.

If the chain works, then let it fly. Your mileage may vary on a dry winter day with the static discharge, but I wouldn't sweat it too much until you actually have a static problem again. The plumbing for the dust collection setup looks way better now. You lose a lot of flow velocity with the flex pipe. The straighter and smoother you can make those bends in your piping, the better. If you want to get better flow, put as little of that flex hose in as reasonably feasible.

You might want to talk to an electrician, or someone who is familiar with electrical work, to get a real understanding of what grounding means. Just touching the ground with your chain is not grounding. Also it would probably be a good idea to complete the electrical outlets in the walls.

Just connect the wire to that green wire right behind the dust collector in the un finished outlet. I use a Computer plug and cut the hot out and use it plug in.

Blast gates can fit in the pvc fitting and held with a screw

Would be better to straighten the last tube from oneida to the extraction to get more sucction?

you will get much better air volume if you remove the 90dg bends as the most severe bend you should have is 45dg i would consider a 45dg then a short straight and then another 45dg bend 6that way it will help the airflow

If you were to screw the metal clamps on the pvc pipe to one stud, do we still need the chain? great video

So… I watched this video quite awhile back, but it’s been on my mind and I thought I would share some thoughts. Now, I am an electrician and “should” know about the static electricity issue and how to solve it. But I think there may be more to what’s going on than meets the eye. My first thought is this… the wire around the pipe connected to the chassis (ground) of the collector should have worked, but obviously didn’t. Today I think I understand why. One of my other hobbies includes antique radio repair. One of the first things you do with an old radio is replace the capacitors. That got me thinking… static electricity is a capacitor!! Capacitors are essentially two plates with different charges separated by an insulator or electrolyte. Capacitance relies on a few things, the size of the plates, the electrolyte, the insulator, the voltage and the amount of charge present. So… hear me out… the wire should have worked, but the wire is a relatively small plate (area) as compared to the pipe and therefore wasn’t able to dissipate the charge. The chain however, is making contact with the concrete floor which is a MUCH larger plate size compared to the pipe and I think this is why the charge was able to be dissipated as it was distributed over a large area and the charge existing at any single point would be very small and wouldn’t be noticed by anyone touching it. I’m probably not 100% correct or explaining it correctly, but I think this is the crux of what is going on. 🙂 Now I can sleep… lol 😂

Thanks for the video. I am just getting ready to install a dust collector when it arrives. I have to ask you however, Why would you use gawdy chain and have it laying loose on the floor when you have at least 2 ground wires sticking out of your walls that you can connect to?

Hi, just a small comment, can you not put the gate things into the pvc pipe rather than have them in the flexible hose? It might make it look even more neat?

Thanks for sharing , now I think I might use pvc pipe in my future shop instead of metal ductwork since that’s extremely expensive….

You would still need to ground the chain, just laying on the ground may not be enough with heavy and long usage.

Ground it to the water pipes or to an actual ground rod

I just watched the video yesterday of a guy who is an electrician by trade and talk about PVC and static electricity and he swears there’s no way to remove static from PVC pipe. And he demonstrated it.

Why didn't you just use that copper wire you tried to use to begin with?

💯 better

The frame of the DC is 100% grounded to the ground rod of your main panel via the ground prong. The reason you copper wire didn't work is because you needed to wrap way more copper. At least four raps per foot. Ground that to the DC bolt and it will work. I bond the wire inside my hoses to that same bolt and it's night and day. The 735 I have will zap the piss out of you otherwise!

you fixed alot of problems with you cyclone but you still have a bunch to go

You cannot ground PVC, it is the insulator used to surround all your wires. You want to discharge the static electricity with a static discharge device or path. All the screws through the PVC to collect internal static is misinformed BS. Also there has never been a reported dust explosion in a home hobbyist shop. Only a large industrial shop is capable of producing the vast quantities of dust required to reach the threshold of ignition. I used aluminum duct sealing tape on the exterior of the PVC to a ground to discharge any built up static which stopped the static shocks when making contact with the system. Cost is about $4.00 for a roll of tape.

You have to run the grounding wire All the way to the out let box, connect it to the conduit. The chain idea is kinda silly.

Do yourself a favor and get metal blast gates. The plastic ones are a pain over time.

1:44…. Man you just way over thought how to fix this problem! Lmao… you have the Y on flex hose on both sides, just turn the Y around and let the flex bend in the direction it needs to! Facepalm lol. Sorry not trying to be harsh haha

Maybe you should have spent more time getting a clue about what you are doing to start with! You have completely over complicated dust collection and simple grounding, BUT, you did the most important thing that most people will not understand….you, sir, TRIED!!! You did not stop at “I don’t know”. You did SOMETHING where others would have done nothing. You did it, and you put it out there for criticism, considered suggestions and made improvements. Do not stop now young man, always keep critiquing yourself, educating yourself and never quitting short of perfection. Also, keep in mind that perfection is an ever evolving target.