System grounding – Woodstock SHOP FOX W1808 User Manual
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W1808/W1809/W1810 Cyclone Dust Collectors
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Figure 56. Ground jumper wire when using
plastic blast gates and metal duct.
Figure 55. Flex-hose grounded to
machine.
System Grounding
Since plastic hose is abundant, relatively inexpensive, eas-
ily assembled and air tight, it is a very popular material
for conveying dust from woodworking machines to the
dust collector. We recommend using flexible hose (flex-
hose) to connect the woodworking machine to the dust
collector. However, plastic flex-hose and plastic duct are
an insulator, and dust particles moving against the walls
of the plastic duct create a static electrical build up.
This charge will build until it discharges to a ground. If a
grounding medium is not available to prevent static elec-
trical build up, the electrical charge will arc to the near-
est grounded source. This electrical discharge may cause
an explosion and subsequent fire inside the system.
To protect against static electrical build up inside a non-
conducting duct, a bare copper wire should be placed
inside the duct along its length and grounded to the dust
collector. You must also confirm that the dust collector
is continuously grounded through the electrical circuit to
the electric service panel.
If you connect the dust collector to more than one
machine by way of a non-conducting branching duct sys-
tem and blast gates, the system must still be grounded
as mentioned above. We recommend inserting a continu-
ous bare copper ground wire (
Figure 55) inside the entire
duct system and attaching the wire to each grounded
woodworking machine and dust collector.
Be sure that you extend the bare copper wire down all
branches of the system. Do not forget to connect the
wires to each other with wire nuts when two branches
meet at a “Y” or “T” connection.
Ensure that the entire system is grounded. If using plastic
blast gates to direct air flow, the grounding wire must be
jumped (
Figure 56) around the blast gate without inter-
ruption to the grounding system.
We also recommend wrapping the outside of all plastic
ducts with bare copper wire to ground the outside of the
system against static electrical build up. Wire connections
at Y's and T's should be made with wire nuts.
Attach the bare ground wire to each stationary wood-
working machine and attach to the dust collector frame
with a ground screw as shown in
Figure 55. Ensure that
each machine is continuously grounded to the grounding
terminal in your electric service panel.
Always guard against static electrical
build up by grounding all dust collec-
tion lines.
Plastic
Blast
Gate
Copper
Ground Wire
Metal Duct
Ground Screw
External
Ground Wire
Flex
Hose
Internal
Ground
Wire