DOES ANYONE WORRY ABOUT STATIC ELECTRICITY??

[Atavar]

Another interesting thing is static cling seems inversely proportional to temperature and (mostly) humidity, the problem seems the worst here in the dead of winter.
This might mean this becomes less of a problem the farther south/east you go? Thoughts?
Again, just an observation from my bench, and my bench only......

Static is definitely more prevalent when temperatures go below zero and all water is frozen out of the air. A humidifier is your friend in that case.

 

[entropy]

So reloading in a carpeted room is perfectly OK?

As long as you get someone else to do the vacuuming, sure. My mom refused to after a live primer went off in the Hoover. Shag carpet isn't the best choice for reloading room floors.

 

[Remington1911]

https://www.shootingtimes.com/editorial/static-electricity-and-the-reloader/99537

This article goes into the "dust" more then anything, and brings up the story of a kaboom in a grain storage area as proof of this. Well duh. Anyone that works around these buildings knows it is roughly the hindenburg, it is very dangerous and one spark can make the thing explode if things are just right.....and in that place just right is not all that hard. It has gone down over the years as more modern safety things have "helped" reduce the risk of a kaboom. But yea, back when there actually was a Kansas City Board of Trade (for about all things grain) I was around this world quite a bit, and if you dig back you will find in the 70's back it was something that happened far too often with life ending results.

Our reloading areas are not like this on their worst day, so this guy going on and on about "primer dust", just go away, for it to happen the human is going to be wearing a real mask, and not the jokes that did nothing from the last two years.

In general static is nothing you really need to worry about. Like the other article @Another_Kelley posted, it is real hard to get it to ignite. And if you have a little pile of powder like shown in the photo, it does not kaboom, and it is not like you see in the movies with black powder, it will just burn.

Story time:

I started reloading when my son was pretty young, when he hit roughly 10 he became worried about the powder in the basement, thought it would explode. Now by this time he was already shooting, but still learning. I am not sure where this fear came from, likely school, but he went to a VERY rural school, so doubt the anti agenda had made its way there yet.

So we take a jug of powder outside and start to play. I hit it with a hammer, nothing. Step on it, nothing. Light it on fire and it just burns. Really that is all it does, yup, loose powder is really just going to burn, and not like gasoline on a fire, more like diesel.

His dad (me) is a closet pyromaniac and I burn lots of yard waste, live in the country with some land and yea it is an ongoing chore. So he has seen all kinds of stupid stuff his old man did in his Quest for fire.

It was really nothing, and IMHO is a little like the fluorescent light deal with electronic scales, yea it can mess it up, but unless you are loading on the ceiling you really don't need to pull every light out of your basement ceiling and replace them. Yea it can happen, but for it to happen other things are going to be not quite right.

 

[Bob Willman]

Do remember that if you ground your bench or equipment to do it through a 1MΩ resistor. If you ground with a continuous copper wire you are actually increasing your odds of a static spark. With a direct ground there is no resistance to current making it easier to draw an arc.

The reason for the resistor is to protect the human operator. Without the resistor if he/she comes in contact with a 120v AC source from any electrical device in the area there would be a direct connection to ground and nothing to limit the current through the body. This is not a comfortable situation.

NRA Benefactor Golden Eagle

 

[J-Bar]

IMO, you are more likely to have an explosion from using an automatic primer feed than from static electricity. I have reloaded cartridges and shotshells with both smokeless and black powder and substitutes in the same carpeted room for over 24 years without worrying about static electricity. I do not use an automatic primer feed. Too many of my friends have set off fireworks when a primer tube goes off. Heat ignites powder, not electricity.

The OP asked if I worried about static and my answer is no. If you want to worry about it, that’s OK with me.

You pays your money and you takes your chance.

 

[Jim Watson]

I don't worry about static sparks setting off my powder but static cling to cheap plastic powder handling is a great annoyance.
I sprayed the plastic pan of my PACT scale with graphite based mold release, which fixed it. I have possibly the last Pacific/Hornady aluminum powder measure they made and an aluminum + brass caliber specific funnel for .223 target loading.

The plastic hopper on my Dillon seems not subject to static cling or the rot that destroyed my Redding's really really cheap plastic, although it is very discolored. I have an improvised dipstick but am looking at Pyrex.

 

[Atavar]

The reason for the resistor is to protect the human operator. Without the resistor if he/she comes in contact with a 120v AC source from any electrical device in the area there would be a direct connection to ground and nothing to limit the current through the body. This is not a comfortable situation.

NRA Benefactor Golden Eagle

It is also to slow down the discharge rate to something that will not sustain an arc.

 

[Remington1911]

I don't worry about static sparks setting off my powder but static cling to cheap plastic powder handling is a great annoyance.
I sprayed the plastic pan of my PACT scale with graphite based mold release, which fixed it. I have possibly the last Pacific/Hornady aluminum powder measure they made and an aluminum + brass caliber specific funnel for .223 target loading.

The plastic hopper on my Dillon seems not subject to static cling or the rot that destroyed my Redding's really really cheap plastic, although it is very discolored. I have an improvised dipstick but am looking at Pyrex.

Only reason I can see them not using something like Pyrex, or glass for that matter is weight and cost. Personally I hate all things plastic, and think everything bad with the world is linked back to plastic......but it is the way of the world, not much I can do about it. You know what.....want to stop pollution stop plastic.

I was going to go on an old man rant yelling at clouds, but stopped myself.

 

[tightgroup tiger]

Another interesting thing is static cling seems inversely proportional to temperature and (mostly) humidity, the problem seems the worst here in the dead of winter.
This might mean this becomes less of a problem the farther south/east you go? Thoughts?
Again, just an observation from my bench, and my bench only......

It gets like a desert in North Carolina in the winter. I've seen RH as low as 16 for days at a time. We ended up putting a misting system in where I worked at due to the alcohols in our ink catching fire from static spark. It got bad enough that we set up experiments and could make the machine catch fire at will.
Then we learned how to defeat it by until I had a water misting system put in.
Moving east doesn't much with the static problem. I try not to reload in the winter here unless the RH factor is around 35%. That is the safety threshold where sparking from static stops.
I bought an $8.00 humidity gauge from Lowes for in the loading room so I know what I'm dealing with before I even start. We used these cheap gauges at work and we had them stuck all over the press room, and they proved as accurate as the $1000.00 one that was running the misting system and lasted longer.
I don't ground anything, don't want the potential from lightning strike coming back through the grounds and lighting everything up. I'm more worried about that then I am igniting powder from touching it due minor static.

 

[Remington1911]

It gets like a desert in North Carolina in the winter. I've seen RH as low as 16 for days at a time. We ended up putting a misting system in where I worked at due to the alcohols in our ink catching fire from static spark. It got bad enough that we set up experiments and could make the machine catch fire at will.
Then we learned how to defeat it by until I had a water misting system put in.
Moving east doesn't much with the static problem. I try not to reload in the winter here unless the RH factor is around 35%. That is the safety threshold where sparking from static stops.
I bought an $8.00 humidity gauge from Lowes for in the loading room so I know what I'm dealing with before I even start. We used these cheap gauges at work and we had them stuck all over the press room, and they proved as accurate as the $1000.00 one that was running the misting system and lasted longer.
I don't ground anything, don't want the potential from lightning strike coming back through the grounds and lighting everything up. I'm more worried about that then I am igniting powder from touching it due minor static.

What kind of publishing do you do, I thought someone told me that newspapers used a veggy based ink? Not sure if that is accurate. If you do books, do those use petrol based inks?

Sorry for the side track on the thread, I really want to learn, and I know this place is pretty firm against that.

 

[ballman6711]

I try not to reload in the winter here unless the RH factor is around 35%. That is the safety threshold where sparking from static stops.
I bought an $8.00 humidity gauge from Lowes for in the loading room so I know what I'm dealing with before I even start.

I bought a cheap temp/humidity gauge from Lowes for my reloading room as well. It sits on the shelf a few inches away from my scale. It seems to me that if the temp and humidity stay fairly stable during loading my powder drops are very consistent, exception being extruded powder (but that also seems to be more consistent).

I also use 30~35% RH as my lower cutoff for loading, as I tend to get more static in my hopper and funnel when RH drops below that. I'm not worried about static setting my powder or primers alight, it just becomes an annoyance when powder sticks in the funnel and I have to use a finger or something else to push the individual grains down and into the case. I do have some caliber specific aluminum funnels, but still need to use the plastic one for some calibers.

chris

 

[barnfrog]

Only reason I can see them not using something like Pyrex, or glass for that matter is weight and cost. Personally I hate all things plastic, and think everything bad with the world is linked back to plastic......but it is the way of the world, not much I can do about it. You know what.....want to stop pollution stop plastic.

I was going to go on an old man rant yelling at clouds, but stopped myself.

View attachment 1108306

That was an impressive stomp on the brakes. You were rolling pretty good there.

 

[Remington1911]

That was an impressive stomp on the brakes. You were rolling pretty good there.

Other places let you roll, and it can be quite fun. This place however, zero fun.

 

[1066]

I can tell you that my homemade static machine will set off blackpowder but not nitro powder.

 

[entropy]

Yes, because Van DeGraff generators produce high voltage, but extremely low amperage. They generate much higher voltage than possible in normal static electricity situations.

 

[derek45]

PS - My reply about dawn dishwashing detergent on my DILLON was about preventing powder granules from sticking in the power measure from static......not fear of an explosion.

the DILLON powder measure is very consistent when it's setup right