Static generator ??

[Willbird]

Somebody was talking about ABS accumulating static quickly. Got me to thinking about our vacuum system at work, it is schedule 80 PVC I think, but any time you need to change a filter it will zap you good when you touch it. Was thinking about making something like that to use a vacuum cleaner to pull air through a double walled container.

Apparently air moving past anything leaves a static charge ? That is why antennas are grounded ??

So I needed a way to discharge the static charge which can build up in the antenna. Antenna acts a a capacitor against ground. The 80m 1/4-wave vertical antenna capacitance is in the order of 100-200pF. Snowflakes and rain can and will carry a charge and charge the antenna (capacitor)

[popper]

Yes, static is accumulated in the plastic as air and particles pass through, forget the name of the principle. Some cheap PC guns use the method. The reason we use #5 plastic is it's dielectric constant, holds charge longer. No, antenna towers are grounded to act as a lightning arrester system due to charged clouds from above.

[cas]

I was trying for far two long last night to get some Lil'Gun powder out of my Pact auto dispenser last night , wiping and blowing and still it wouldn't come out. I thought "dang, I need to make a bullet tumbler out of this stuff!

[Toymaker]

I did my first DT last night using Smoke's powder. After the swirl and shake I looked in the container and wasn't real sure I'd gotten good coverage. I looked around for a piece of flannel to rub the plastic container with and spied a pair of my military wool gloves in a box on top of the freezer. Put them on and did the swirl and shake again, with a little extra rubbing. Got excellent coverage.

[abunaitoo]

We don't have much of a problem with static here.
Swirling in the bowl seems to cover the boolets good enough.
Would be nice to have something that I don't have to shake for so long.
So.... blowing air through plastic will make the boolets static?????

[Mr_Sheesh]

Willbird - You could suggest that they put a metal piece at the filter area on that ABS plastic, say a wire grid piece covering it, with a wire leading to a 1 Megohm resistor from the wire grid to ground. That would drain the static so you shouldn't get zapped when changing the filter. Use stranded wire, not solid. (could be pretty light wire, 24AWG or so, as it won't be carrying much current.) I'd put the resistor at the grounding point but it doesn't really matter here, just matters if you could touch both the grounded wire and a powered AC wire at the same time. Safety Third, as Mike Rowe says :P

[Smoke4320]

I was trying for far two long last night to get some Lil'Gun powder out of my Pact auto dispenser last night , wiping and blowing and still it wouldn't come out. I thought "dang, I need to make a bullet tumbler out of this stuff!

when not in use add a dryer sheet to the powder measure tube.. It will kill all the built up static

[scotner]

when not in use add a dryer sheet to the powder measure tube.. It will kill all the built up static

I told someone about the dryer sheet solution and he said he tried it but he couldn't get the powder to come out with the dryer sheet in the powder measure. It's the small details that bite you.

[airone46]

Sorry, but you are so lucky to live in USA!
An electrostatic gun from you costs very little, and does the best job!

In Italy they cost a lot more: I found on Amazon an electrostatic gun at € 79 free shipping!

Better to use your free time to shoot, instead of building gadgets that then maybe do not work!

There is a very old proverb with us:
"Do the job you know: if you do not become rich, at least you'll have something alive"

[Dragonheart]

Without a doubt the Best static generator is Dry Air!