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Poor Man's ESD Mat?

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k4tmc

Poor Man's ESD Mat?

First, don't worry, I have not started to remove anything from the ESD
bags.

There is quite a lot of that pink antistatic bubblewrap protecting the
pieces of the K3 kit. Is is possible that those could be used as a
static dissipating work mat?

73,
Henry - K4TMC
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Gary Hvizdak

RE: Poor Man's ESD Mat?

Henry (K4TMC) wrote ...

There is quite a lot of that pink antistatic bubble wrap protecting the
pieces of the K3 kit. Is it possible that those could be used as a
static dissipating work mat?

--

Henry,

No.

73,
Gary KI4GGX

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Don Wilhelm-4

Re: Poor Man's ESD Mat?

In reply to this post by k4tmc

Ahhh, come on Henry - Surely, you can spare $20 for an anti-static mat
to protect your $1300+++ investment in the K3 kit!

TigerDirect (www.tigerdirect.com) has their stock number ULT33122 priced
at $19.99. I don't know if they are available in the local store, but a
phone call might give you that info. I have no relationship with
TigerDirect except as a customer - I'm just passing information along.

If you really want to go inexpensive, roll out some aluminum foil to
keep everything at the same potential - you can even ground the foil
with a 1 megohm resistor to the AC equipment ground that is likely found
on every receptacle in the house.

Congratulations on receiving your K3, and Happy Building.

73,
Don W3FPR

[hidden email] wrote:

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Mike B-12

Re: Poor Man's ESD Mat?

Hit up Radio Shack in the morning - they have a kit with mat & strap.

73,

Mike
KW1ND
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k4tmc

Re: Poor Man's ESD Mat? End of Thread

In reply to this post by Don Wilhelm-4

OK, thanks for all the responses. I got the message!

It's like this - the package was not scheduled to arrive until
tomorrow. I leave tomorrow morning for a business trip, and had
planned to pick up a mat while on the trip. You know what a kid is
like with a new toy! I was trying to decide whether it was OK to use
the pink stuff temporarily.

So, to play it safe, I just did some of the basic mechanical assembly
(carry handle, rubber feet, SO239). That will suffice until I get a
mat this week. It will be the weekend before things can get started
anyhow.

73,
Henry - K4TMC

-----Original Message-----
From: Don Wilhelm <[hidden email]>
To: [hidden email]
Cc: [hidden email]
Sent: Mon, Nov 26 9:47 PM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Poor Man's ESD Mat?

Ahhh, come on Henry - Surely, you can spare $20 for an anti-static mat
to protect your $1300+++ investment in the K3 kit!

TigerDirect (www.tigerdirect.com) has their stock number ULT33122
priced
at $19.99. I don't know if they are available in the local store, but
a
phone call might give you that info. I have no relationship with
TigerDirect except as a customer - I'm just passing information along.

If you really want to go inexpensive, roll out some aluminum foil to
keep everything at the same potential - you can even ground the foil
with a 1 megohm resistor to the AC equipment ground that is likely
found
on every receptacle in the house.

Congratulations on receiving your K3, and Happy Building.

73,
Don W3FPR

[hidden email] wrote:
> First, don't worry, I have not started to remove anything from the
ESD
> bags.
>
> There is quite a lot of that pink antistatic bubblewrap protecting
the
> pieces of the K3 kit. Is is possible that those could be used as a
> static dissipating work mat?
>
> 73,
> Henry - K4TMC
>

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k4tmc

Re: Poor Man's ESD Mat? End of Thread

In reply to this post by Don Wilhelm-4

Gary Hvizdak

RE: Poor Man's ESD Mat?

In reply to this post by k4tmc

Don (W3FPR) wrote ...

If you really want to go inexpensive, roll out some aluminum foil to
keep everything at the same potential - you can even ground the foil
with a 1 M resistor to the AC equipment ground that is likely found
on every receptacle in the house.

--

Henry,

If you use something like aluminum foil for your ESD work surface, AND
you directly ground it (i.e. without a 1M series resistor), AND you don't
use a wrist strap, AND you take a circuit board out of an ESD bag AND place
it on the foil, then you might rapidly discharge tens of thousands of volts
of static charge that's on your body through the circuit card to ground!

Even if you routinely wear a wrist strap, a 1M series resistor between
the foil and ground (as Don suggests) would be a very good idea, for the
times when you forget to put it on, or in case someone else comes along who
doesn't know proper ESD procedures.

BTW, it would be a BAD IDEA to put the bubble wrap on top of the foil
whether or not you have a 1 M resistor in series with it.

FYI, there's a wealth of information about ESD at online. Check out ...
http://www.midwestesd.org/aboutesd.html for much more than you are likely to
ever want to know on the subject.

73,
Gary KI4GGX

P.S. On a related subject, the IPC expert (where I work) didn't have an
answer to the recent "directly grounded soldering iron tip" question.
However, she did said she would get back to me with an answer.

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Don Ehrlich

Re: Poor Man's ESD Mat?

In reply to this post by k4tmc

Generally, the color pink denotes a material that will not *create* static.
i.e. it does not shed electrons easily. However, it will *not* dissipate an
existing static charge because it is non-conductive and is therefore useless
as a static mat.

Packing material that is at least slightly conductive is usually colored
black and it is used where items must be shielded. It could be used as a
mat in theory but, practically, it would probably not work very well. As
others have suggested .. invest in a real static mat.

Don K7FJ

----- Original Message -----
From: <[hidden email]>
To: <[hidden email]>
Sent: Monday, November 26, 2007 6:19 PM
Subject: [Elecraft] Poor Man's ESD Mat?

> First, don't worry, I have not started to remove anything from the ESD
> bags.
>
> There is quite a lot of that pink antistatic bubblewrap protecting the
> pieces of the K3 kit. Is is possible that those could be used as a static
> dissipating work mat?
>
> 73,
> Henry - K4TMC
> ________________________________________________________________________
> Email and AIM finally together. You've gotta check out free AOL Mail! -
> http://mail.aol.com
> _______________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Post to: [hidden email]
> You must be a subscriber to post to the list.
> Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.):
> http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm
> Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
>