Get a spay bottle......set to mist......squirt your feet and shoes.....thru-out day.

 

Hi,

Buy a steel desk.

 

Hi,

Buy a steel desk.

... that's definitely not a bad idea... it would have to be stainless, though... and made out of a thick material, and not just thin gauge sheet.

 

it would have to be stainless, though

Restaurant grade SS table. I cut one up for a heat shield. Worked perfectly. Still installed since 1989.

 

Hi,

Buy a steel desk.

It's a good idea unless you are working inside high voltage or mains powered equipment.

 

It's a good idea unless you are working inside high voltage or mains powered equipment.

I've always tried to keep my desk on the outside of high voltage or mains powered equipment, regardless of what it's made of.

 

I've always tried to keep my desk on the outside of high voltage or mains powered equipment, regardless of what it's made of.

<snigger>

 

Embrace the shock. It shows that you are still alive! After many years of fixing the older tube TVs, baby shocks like these don't even faze me any more.

 

Embrace the shock. It shows that you are still alive! After many years of fixing the older tube TVs, baby shocks like these don't even faze me any more.

Perhaps because the nerves are dead?

 

Embrace the shock. It shows that you are still alive! After many years of fixing the older tube TVs, baby shocks like these don't even faze me any more.

My first 40 hour job was on 27KV TV's but those chronic static shocks are irritating to the point that you become angry with yourself every time you forget to ground out the charge properly. It's just a darn nuisance, and it comes and goes with the weather, so you have to keep changing your habits from day to day.

It was easier in Southern California where static is a constant. You develop behavior patterns and they work consistently.

 

Put your chair under a source of alpha particles to neutralize the charge.

https://nrdstaticcontrol.com/industry-whitepapers/safety/safety-facts-of-alpha-ionizer

What source do they use in ionisation chamber smoke alarms?

 

What source do they use in ionisation chamber smoke alarms?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoke_detector#Ionization

 

What source do they use in ionisation chamber smoke alarms?

There may be more than one, but the one that I'm familiar with is Am-241. IIRC (from 25 years ago) it's a pretty hot source at about 1 μCi

 

An old solution is to touch things with a key. The energy transfer is the same, but the key acts as a contact surface area multiplier.

You can buy certified ($$$) anti-static coating in a bottle; you wipe it on the work surface with a rag. Diluted Downy works just as well (people actually tested this in the 70's). There still has to be a contact point for a wire or path to earth ground, but that is a constant in all surface management.

ak

 

I will order some smoke detectors to be sent to my brother's house in the U.S. to the carried to me next month as a source of Americium so I can play with ionization chamber ideas. Without ionizing radiation, it will be difficult to tell whether it is working or just leaky.

 

Get a spay bottle......set to mist......squirt your feet and shoes.....thru-out day.

Leather soled shoes are pretty effective - I found that out working on live chassis TVs without an isolating transformer.

 

I will order some smoke detectors to be sent to my brother's house in the U.S. to the carried to me next month as a source of Americium so I can play with ionization chamber ideas. Without ionizing radiation, it will be difficult to tell whether it is working or just leaky.

A few years back - a local pharmacy shop was offloading ionisation smoke detectors at £1.99. They weren't much good, but the battery was worth what I paid, and I got a red LED + PP3 battery snap into the bargain.

 

An old solution is to touch things with a key. The energy transfer is the same, but the key acts as a contact surface area multiplier.

You can buy certified ($$$) anti-static coating in a bottle; you wipe it on the work surface with a rag. Diluted Downy works just as well (people actually tested this in the 70's). There still has to be a contact point for a wire or path to earth ground, but that is a constant in all surface management.

ak

An anecdote about a service engineer repeatedly called out to a copy machine that kept giving people shocks;

It was on a table in the middle of a large carpeted office..................

 

There may be more than one, but the one that I'm familiar with is Am-241. IIRC (from 25 years ago) it's a pretty hot source at about 1 μCi

Seems most of its radiation is Alpha - which was the type suggested.

There's a clue in the name - "ionisation chamber".

 

The nice thing about Alpha particles is that they rarely penetrate a sheet of paper, let along your skin. It may be the tamest ionization radiation source available.