When sanding with vacuum in cold, dry, low humidity climates, some users have found they are experiencing a small shock to the hand. This is caused by static electricity building up in the vacuum hose. This happens from a combination of two things: the sanding dust moving rapidly through the exhaust hose connected to your sander and by the sanding hose being dragged across the ground repeatedly when going through the motions of sanding. This problem can be solved in one of two ways…
You will need a piece of flexible wire about 4 feet long. Unscrew your 1” black highly flexible, wire re-enforced, hose from the exhaust port on your sander. Take one end of the wire and hook it over the end of your hose and reverse screw it back into the blue female threaded swivel off the rear of the sander. This will hold the wire in place on that end where the static starts to build. Next, wrap the remaining wire around the outside of you sanding hose away from the sander using several wraps and extending a few feet down the hose, you can use some black electrical tape to secure it in a couple spots if necessary. Doing this will allow the static buildup to be discharged through the end of the wire instead of you.
Recommendations
- You can also use static free hoses to remedy this problem if the vacuum you are using is completely static conductive.
- Invest in a vacuum with fully integrated static conductive properties.
- Protect yourself with a comfortable low-profile glove.
