I have been doing work work for a long time but are somewhat new the CNC… Once I ordered my onefinity I soon added a dust boot to it. Now I will ad that I did NOT go with a Suck-IT dust boot as many have and may upgrade one day but rather made my own and actually work VERY well!! The only issue I was having almost immediately was voltage was showing!
I immediately started looking over it as it was carving and finally came to to conclusion that it must be from friction in the bit, material being carve out moving through the tubing and so on. Mostly thru tubing I will ad! SO… I did some searching online and on this forum and seems as though most people are trying to ground the entire machine, or trying to ground PVC tubing (which you CANNOT ground non conductive surfaces!!! such as PVC) even if you wrap it completely in some sort of copper sheathing or other sort of extensive quote on quote fix…
Dont get me wrong!! PLEASE! I completely understand the urge to want to rid this issue and willingness to try anything there is to do so!
So with all this said and sorry for the long read. As of now the solution I have done on my machine so far has proven to dramatically reduce/ completely rid the machine of any voltage being produced while carving and using a dust boot!
I really hope this helps people out, as ive learned this is an extremely super easy fix that anyone what so ever non matter what their knowledge of cnc machines, electrical and so on can do at home to hopefully rid the same issue.
“Again!” This is just something ive done and personally use myself and works for me. I realize this may or may not be the right fix for everyone! But as ive said, it seems to do just fine for me and I have had no issues since ive done this what so ever! If you feel this may not be right for you, please do not use this method on your own machine!
Steps used to do this on your own.
Get 6" or so “pending your length” of electrical wire. Between 18-16 gauge wire will be fine or whatever you. may have at home or can get.
Use (1) female connector end and crimp on one side of the wire. “You dont need a wire crimper!” If you have a pair of regular pliers at home, you can use them as well. Just make sure the wire wont pull out of the connector as seen if the photos below.
Crimp (1 small) Terminal connector to the other end of the wire for a bolt to go through.
NOTE: For those who do not know. Connectors are different colors for a reason. BLUE fits 14-16 gauge wire and RED fits smaller such as 18-20 gauge and so on.
Make sure for this to work you MUST connect to anything metal coming from your dust boot! Connect from metal strap or other coming from your dust boot using your female end simply by inserting it by hand.
Then connect terminal “O” shaped end to nearest bolt on another part of your dust boot such as you can see in photos. This “grounding” can either be connected to the dust boots bracket or other piece. Make sure the bolt you are using is in fact conductive/ magnetic. (stainless is not a good conductive source)
If you have any questions please feel free to reach out. I dont check this forum often unless I need something so if I do not reply immediately please be patient.
I hope this helps for anyone who needs it and again its not meant for everyone and every type of machine or purpose! Use at your own risk. Thanks !
@anon93936469:
I was thinking something similar to your thoughts too, unless there is something unique that is not shown in the pictures.
@amsteelle:
I couldn’t understand how the router’s housing (aluminum?) was grounded and permitted the alleged static electricity to be discharge through acrylic and PVC. This could be proven with an ohm meter checking two points beyond the crimp terminals. This would measure the complete pathway of continuity beyond the wire and not just the wire itself (the router housing and the opposite end of the flex hose), which I suspect wasn’t actually checked. No offense is implied here. I just used to work on electrical systems that measured capacitance in pico farads (super small).
This is just a hunch, but I believe that two different issues have combined to create the problem that was reported.
I have a hunch that there is static electricity building up from the non-grounded dust collection system. I then suspect that induction is causing the voltage warning that you described. All through the forum I have read that the cables are not shielded and that they are sensitive to EMI which leads me to believe that they would also be susceptible to electrostatic induction. What I don’t know is exactly how sensitive the system is and how much voltage was building up; voltage will eventually find a more negative pathway.
The best thing I can think of is that the cabling has a physical issue or that because of what I suggested above, the cable should be shielded. I don’t claim to know exactly what’s wrong. I’m just remembering some basics that I learned with electrical theory and also remembering discussions of EMI here in the forums (over 50 results in that search link).
Curve ball:
Unless you used a transparent version of conductive paint, I think the above is true. BTW, I figured that there would be a few people here that might find a use for this with other projects.
Your right it’s not electrical work. And the conductivity that comes from the machine and friction while using the dust boot is very low voltage. Never less it does create an arch and if you research it, it has created fires in dust bin in “some” cases. I wasn’t worried personally about that BUT again. This is an extremely simple grounding solution. Whether it makes since or not doesn’t really matter as it shows proven results in my case. So for those having this same issue, try it and if it doesn’t work for you then it doesn’t work
So there isn’t anything special at about the router or dust boot or housing. It’s a standard majors router as used on many other machines. The only thing I can say is that it work for me anyway. I do notice however that the large magnets on the (two piece) dust boot do get some spot which I can only assume is from the electric grounding out on the dust boot from the bolt.
Also to ad since you seemed a little confused about the continuity at the start of your reply (and I may have been reading it the wrong way). You are correct just as I stated before as well. PVC and aluminum don’t conduct and this isn’t where it’s coming from. The arch is coming from mainly dust creating friction within the tubing creating a charge and then arching when two pieces of metal are close together such as the metal band strap on dust boot and metal collet on router are close and creates enough static electricity.
Again SMALL amounts! But if your questioning this, I’d say it’s safe to say you haven’t had this issue which is a good thing, however I did and seen there were others here who had as well. So that’s why I just wanted to share my solution with others to help out.
Far as wiring goes. Everything was followed exactly via manual and rechecked. Everything it also grounded for wiring from receptacle as well.
I’ll also ad that until I put on the dust boot I did have the conductivity at all! I’ve even tested it without it on again and does the same thing. There are also videos/ reviews you can look up as well that show this same issue as well.
Anyway thanks for the reply, hopefully I made more since of everything and answered your question.
If static electricity is an issue then running a bare braided wire inside the dust collection hose from the dust boot (possibly pinching the wire between the plexiglass and router and grounding it at your dust collector would be the traditional way woodworkers have dealt with it. Rule of thumb I was taught is for more than 5’ of flex hose it’s a good idea. Do a Google search for “grounding dust collector hose” should give you plenty of information. I think risk of fire is very low but it’s not hard to do and being safe is never a bad thing.
“Conductor” and “insulator” are both relative terms. Even “insulators” conduct to some degree – you just have to choose a material and geometry that insulates sufficiently well for a given application.
It strikes me that the OP’s black jumper wire bypasses the resistance of the black hose-adapter fitting. Perhaps it is the component with the highest insulation resistance?
Very early in my EE career, I was tasked with designing a charge amplifier for a piezoelectric load cell. I was astonished to learn (the hard way) that the conductivity of ordinary FR4 circuit board material was much too high for the circuit to work properly, even using best-practices PCB layout, and with a meticulously cleaned & sealed PCB surface. I needed at least a teraohm of PCB insulation resistance, and changing to a Teflon PCB substrate solved the problem beautifully.
Now mind you, measuring the resistance of “insulators” can be a challenge. It’s not something that you can do with a garden-variety DVM. For this particular system, a hipot tester might shed some light. But from amsteele’s observed results, I’d wager that the other “insulating” components (or possibly surface contamination thereon) conduct well enough to dissipate the static charge adequately, and that the black plastic hose adapter doesn’t.
Ok so there’s a lot of what seems to be questioning about what I’ve done on my end and what I’m referring to as “grounding” and how it’s “not” actually grounding and/ or wouldn’t work and so on.
SO again! This was meant for those who ARE having this issue to try…. And I’ll say again because clearly the message isn’t clear enough or maybe it’s hard to understand. “Try”
As I’ve said before and will say it again, it’s NOT a professional fix nor is this method for everyone! If it’s not for you and you don’t want to try it. Thats fine with me!
However with this said, do not reply to a post stating that it’s not a solution and that it does “nothing” as some here have stated when you haven’t even tried this yourself.
As I said in the original post. This was an issue I personally had along with many others from I could see as well. It only happened once the dust boot was put on and happens with others as well. If you can’t seem to find anyone else who is having this issue then that sounds like a personal issue.
I personally tested this method and it works for me. Since Ive done this, there has been no sign of conductivity on my end.
So again. I don’t need people to tell me if this works or not because I simply do not care about opinions or comments trying to prove someone wrong, videos and so on. If you want to use this method and “try” it for yourself that great! If not, then don’t! I don’t really care either way.
This is only to attempt to help others and it just amazes me how when any one person has a fix for something or throws in a comment or option there will always be those to try and either disprove it or other.
So AGAIN! Just in case all that was just said doesn’t register to anyone here. This is a helpful tip that has worked for myself and my machine and has been proven to work in (my) case. If it doesn’t work for you then I’m sorry it did not work.
If you’re an electrician and say it’s not “grounding” it or doing anything at all, again I don’t care!! It works for me. Read the post and move on
So to all of that I say have a great. This is my last reply to this post because at this point I’m wasting my time. Have a great day
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Aiph5u
(Aiph5u (not affiliated with Onefinity))
11
Hey Sean, hey all,
I am not sure for your country, but where I live, when you assemble and operate this CNC machine, you are responsible for observing the safety regulations, especially those concerning grounding, as grounding can be vital. The machine comes grounded only at the controller, but the grounding of the rest of the machine must be made by the assembler and operator. This means each moving part must be grounded individually and all ground wires must be brought together in one point. I have described how to do this here and here. See also note on grounding difference Makita router/spindle.
So if I have spots where I get a shock, I would first make sure the machine is properly grounded. That is what I would do first. And then I would see if I still get a shock.
If you have a dust collector and its parts are plastic, you may still get a shock even with a perfectly grounded machine. This is because moving air in a plastic hose are both non-conductors and create friction, thus creating static electricity. This static electricity can be unpleasant if it is discharged over your body, but it is not dangerous because it collapses at the moment of discharge, and it cannot start a fire.
Check out the video of John McGrath I linked above, he is an electrician. He also tells the solution if you get a shock on your dust extraction hose: Either you upgrade to metal tubing, or you can wrap aluminum foil around the spot where you get the shock. However, this will not ground the PVC pipe, the wood dust inside, or the air, because all of these can never be grounded. But you can make the spot you touch free of static electricity with the aluminum foil, and that’s basically what you want. And it seems this is what you have made since it works for the static electricity spot.
However I would check if the rest of the machine is correctly grounded anyway (=the moving metal parts)
(=the moving metal parts)