Getting static shocked during buffing...

this has never happened to me before. Can you explain the process or why you think you may be getting shocked? is your buffer on carpet or are you standing on carpet while buffing?

Mine is on a stand which sits on a piece of wood i put castors on so i can roll it around. has never caused me to get shocked. You might try that.

why type of wheel do you have on the buffer and what compound are you using?
 
A search on the topic will reveal a lot of old threads on this.

When you grind, the grinder,blade, and you become a Van de Graaff generator. You end up being the reservoir for the charge because you are the most ungrounded object. When your hand gets close to the grinder ( or any earth grounded object), the charge neutralizes with a mini lightning bolt. As the weather gets colder and/or dryer, this becomes more of a problem.

The solutions are all different ways to do the same thing.....ground yourself better. The simplest and safest way is to change your shoes, and maybe put down an anti-static floor mat. This will allow the charge to drain away as it builds, making the sparks stop. Leather soles are the best, rubber the worst. The static strips worn by people in the operating room and other places where sparks are a bad thing do the same thing. In the worst of winter,I now stick a small piece of chain ( pull cord chain, but any thin chain will work) in one shoe, with just enough out to drag on the floor about an inch. I used to use a ground clip that was a 3 foot piece of the same type of pull chain with an small alligator clip on it. I would tuck the chain in my belt, ,and clip the end to the grinder table. There was a 1 megohm resistor in the line for safety. This worked well, but became unnecessary once I started using the ground strap in one shoe.

Stacy
 
Static shock will always occur in your shop when the humidity falls below 40%. Here in Montana we generally have very low humidity during the winter. My solution....when I start getting a lot of static shocks, I turn on a small humidifier. Once I get the shop humidity to around 50+%, the static shocks cease.
 
I've found that it seems to help with what shoes I wear as some seem to make it easier to get shocked than others. Putting a rubber boot over your off switch can help for when you shut off the grinder but the static shock is very common in shops using belts to grind metal or even woods and synthetics. Just goes with the territory. The main thing to do is keep the shocking limited to your hands. I have heard some stories of guys getting floored right quick from shocks to their privates when getting too close to the machine. That'll put lead in your pencil now believe me! :D

STR
 
Been there and done that :). My old Grizzly is set up so that I can move the work rest down and out of the way. It just so happens that it resides about the area of the crotch when pushed down. I've been grinding blades and gotten some nasty little surprises here and there.

--nathan
 
I stick a piece of copper speaker wire in my waistband and wrap the other end around a bolt on my grinder.
It's always dry in Colorado, wicked static buildup.
 
I'm a jeweler, and this happens to me regularly. I just make sure to keep a part of bare skin touching some metal. Just be careful, I had a buffer short out on me once, and I got shocked from it. Not to bad, but it made me wake up.

I really like to copper wire in waistband trick. I'll have to remember that one.
 
If anyone is going to wire themselves to the tool, Please put a 1 megohm resistor in the line.
If there is a short in the motor or other electrical malfunction, you will get one hell of a shock....prehaps fatal. The ground cord I used was an alligator clip, with the resistor attached to it and the wire/chain attached to the other end of the resistor. I put a piece of heat shrink over the resistor and the ends of the clip and wire. The other end I tucked in my pocket or waistband. This was fairly safe, and if I walked away without disconnecting the ground wire, the clip just pulled off the equipment . In the event of an electrical short, the resistor would prevent any amount of current from injuring you (True, this is unlikely, but Hey, Murphy never sleeps). Since I went to putting a short piece of chain in my shoe (only when the static is a problem) I don't need to use the ground wire any more.

Stacy
 
I had been holding on to an improperly grounded and/or shorted, aluminum cased hand held straight grinder and got the surprise of my life when I grabbed the parts I was grinding, which were clamped in a grounded apparatus. Man, you do not want 120V flowing through you!
 
Here in Vegas where the humidity is below 5% most of the time , I could darn near jump start a Prius without some type of grounding for myself. Like Stacy , the shoe chain works well ( and then once back in the house , the wife can easily attach the ball back to it ;) ).
 
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