This is one of those threads that recurs periodically, and the answers are always the same.
Many plastics will generate a static charge, almost by themselves. Styrofoam is one of the worst, it's why the packing p'nuts fly all over the place and stick to you when you try to cram them into the trash can. Plastic trash bags are another, some seem to come highly charged right out of the box. Thus, styrofoam egg cartons are a huge no-no for parts sorting. The ones made out of recycled newspaper are probably OK. Metal muffin baking tins are good. I clip them to the frame of whatever I'm working on with clip leads. The idea is to make an equipotential conductive plane on your desk that includes the stuff you're working on, all your parts, all your tools [soldering station], and you. #1 goal is, "Don't electrocute yourself." Regardless of how you connect to your body, make sure it goes to your equipotential plane through a high value resistor [1 megohm or so]. Set ESD bags and ESD foam on the chassis or something metallic connected to it to make sure they are at the same potential before opening. Connecting your equipotential plane to the planet is a mixed bag. If the connection is direct and big, it's probably fine. If other things use it and might put significant current spikes into it, you might want to reconsider. It's sometimes surprising the amount of noise pulses that can wander around on the "green wire" in a normal residence. If your house is wired to code, it's connected to the neutral and the planet at the main electrical entrance [only], which could mean quite a bit of wire to your shack and lots of inductive reactance in it for very fast pulses. Anti-static sprays on your cotton clothes, chair, and carpet will help a lot. Working barefooted even more. Working without clothing, although probably helpful in the static generation business poses other risks, see previous post :-) Avoid synthetic and wool clothes ... jeans and a T-shirts are good. I built my KX1, K2, K3, W1, and a couple of small modules without a static mat. I did use a wrist strap, metal sorting trays, and everything was hooked together, generally barefooted but otherwise clothed in my usual shabby cotton shorts and T-shirts. Nothing was purposefully grounded. All the kits worked fine, no ESD problems. 73, Fred K6DGW - Northern California Contest Club - CU in the 2011 Cal QSO Party 1-2 Oct 2011 - www.cqp.org On 12/18/2010 1:20 PM, ve7ymm wrote: > > I used a static strap and mat when building my K1& K2. I left the sensitive > componants, the ones in esd foam in the bag until needed. I did, however, > sort the other parts into plastic bins with compartments such as are used > for screw assortments. Is this not recomended? If not, what should be > used? Would this be okay if the bins were sprayed with my wife's anti-cling > stuff? > Mark, VE7YMM ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
