Reloading and Static Electricity

[yqtszhj]

I'm not a reloader but I just saw this on another forum. Static electricity causing primers to go boom. Nasty stuff. Those who reload may be interested.

http://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=419073

[muggsy]

I'm not a reloader but I just saw this on another forum. Static electricity causing primers to go boom. Nasty stuff. Those who reload may be interested.

http://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=419073

I don't know if static electricity can cause primers to detonate and I've never heard of it happening. My father had a tube full of primers detonate, but the accident occurred when he was trying to clear a primer jamb. The primer tube was embedded a half inch into a floor joist in the basement ceiling. Had his head been over the tube when the primers detonated the tube would have been embedded in his skull. Extreme caution should be exercised during the priming process.

[OldLincoln]

Yes static electricity CAN cause primers to ignite. This becomes apparent with some reloading primer tubes that conduct static mounted on the progressive setups. Of course one primer discharging can also set off the adjacent primer. I don't have a setup like that but if I did I would have a discharge wire connected from the tube to a ground, like I do the large floor mat under my computer / reloading area.

What I do with my small reloading setup is only take out the primers I will use that session from their protected box. If I'm doing a lot of reloading I prime all the cases and store them in one of my jugs on a shelf.

BTW, this is also why "they" say to store primers separate from powder. Primers are much more susceptible to ignition than powder.

[CJB]

In my ten pls years of loading a quarter millionrounds per year.... Never an issue. Static can set things off....but the likelihood is very low. Primers are well shielded....metal cop and foil covering the compound. Other ...mechanical stuff...far more likely....but never say never.

[Bawanna]

In my ten pls years of loading a quarter millionrounds per year.... Never an issue. Static can set things off....but the likelihood is very low. Primers are well shielded....metal cop and foil covering the compound. Other ...mechanical stuff...far more likely....but never say never.

Even though I felt exactly what you said, I'm relieved to read somebody else say the same thing. I've been reloading for near 30 years and never gave it a thought but you can bet the next time I put the primer tube in the progressive I'm gonna be thinking of this poor guy probably wearing welding gloves, a face shield and maybe body armor.

I never seem to get a shock in my manual chair but my power chair, the in house one gets me all the time, and I hate getting shocked. Might be why it won't run a full day even with new batteries, maybe somethings not right?
I know I won't be reloading sitting in that power chair again regardless.

[OldLincoln]

It's very simple to ground. Take some lamp cord and strip the ends. Tape one on your tube down low, the other either to the ground screw on an outlet or another ground source (water pipe is best).

My desk mat is 9x5 (custom fit) and I grounded each end. I'm one of those that attract static and have to ground myself walking past things. It's better to get a half dozen little zaps than one big sparker when not expecting it.

[Bawanna]

My presses are mounted with bolts thru the bench and then into a piece of 1" square tubing that is then lagged into the concrete floor of my man cave which is slab on grade. That by itself should be a direct ground shouldn't it?
I hadn't thought of that before. I'm like on the rubber flip flops with rubber tires so I gotta think about that too.

[CJB]

Bawanna, I did hear of.... not experience first hand.... a commercial reloader who was disassembling military rounds, to use the brass and bullets. Primers were to be scrapped, as well as the powder. On decapping the cases, he simply let the (yet still live) primers fall into a can (or jar) on the floor under his single station press used for decapping He had a good many there - probably several thousand. They went off. He got hurt bad, blinded in both eyes as I recall, plus other less significant injuries.

That made me respect primers, and think he should have been dropping them into light oil rather than just into a container.

I have heard of mechanical problems setting off primer tubes - which is why all the new loaders all have safety tubes, so the blast goes up, rather than out. Primers are shipped in little plastic trays... plastic trays are prone to static, no? But I've never seen a primer "go off" unless it was set off.

But never say never.... which is why we put up lightning rods. The ratio of pain-in-the-butt to potential loss... very great. So we take measures for prevention, even though its not the easy thing to do.

In the case of military decapping - pressing out live primers... always a risk... because you drive the anvils into the pellet, and hyper-sensitize them by doing so... then it doesn't take much to have them go off. I dont know if they're more sensitive to static in that same manner.... but it could be. Dunno.

Hell yes! Safety glasses? You better believe it and live it.... gotta gotta. Just like using a brad or finishing nail gun... screw that... I got the specs on, or I dont use it. One time 2nd place Team Challenge winner Brad Wilson, lost most of the use of an eye when a cut nail came back and whacked him right thru the middle of his eye (and thru the back into his eye socket). Docs said it was like stitching wet toilet paper, but they saved what could be saved. Peripheral vision only says Brad. We worked at the same range together in his Team Challenge days.

[KMA]

Although it could happen it can easily be avoided; ground the press and ground yourself.

[yqtszhj]

My presses are mounted with bolts thru the bench and then into a piece of 1" square tubing that is then lagged into the concrete floor of my man cave which is slab on grade. That by itself should be a direct ground shouldn't it?
I hadn't thought of that before. I'm like on the rubber flip flops with rubber tires so I gotta think about that too.

To the slab should provide some amount of ground protection. If your man cave has a bare slab floor you're pretty good too as there is not as much to generate the static. But if you have your cave covered in that 1970's shag carpet :eek: you might get some static.:D

[Bawanna]

To the slab should provide some amount of ground protection. If your man cave has a bare slab floor you're pretty good too as there is not as much to generate the static. But if you have your cave covered in that 1970's shag carpet :eek: you might get some static.:D

It has very short nap glued down carpet. I had fully intended to leave it just cement but my dad who was still around at the time insisted it should have carpet. My stepbrother at the time was a carpet layer so it was cheap. I'm glad I did, I'm sure it's warmer and the sound is probably better. Easier to vacuum than sweep a concrete floor for me and little gun parts probably don't bounce and dissapear quite as easy although they still do a pretty good job sometimes.

[OldLincoln]

I worked on PC's for a couple decades and since I attracted so much static I wore those grounding wrist bands. They didn't have to go to a wall ground, just to the case in which I was inserting/removing components. I don't have any ground on my (Bawanna's) press but I am on the static mat, and my primers are already in the cases before the press.

Shiny!
We had to use a static ground on aircraft whenever refueling or working to avoid that deadly spark. In addition they had a ground wire affixed to the landing gear that dragged the ground. One stormy night when a flight line mechanic, I was working up in the rear compartment of a B-47, just under the vertical stabilizer (tail). A buddy came by and talked me into going for a cup so we left.

Returning about 20 min later I thought I was in trouble with all the fire vehicles and MP's around the aircraft. Somebody came up to me saying how glad they were to see me as everybody was afraid I'd been vaporized. Pointing up I saw the tail was neatly split open for 3 or 4 feet from a lightening strike. Looking for the ground wires I saw gray streaks where they had been. Nobody ever said a word about me going to coffee, except they were glad I did (me too!!).

[muggsy]

I worked on PC's for a couple decades and since I attracted so much static I wore those grounding wrist bands. They didn't have to go to a wall ground, just to the case in which I was inserting/removing components. I don't have any ground on my (Bawanna's) press but I am on the static mat, and my primers are already in the cases before the press.

Shiny!
We had to use a static ground on aircraft whenever refueling or working to avoid that deadly spark. In addition they had a ground wire affixed to the landing gear that dragged the ground. One stormy night when a flight line mechanic, I was working up in the rear compartment of a B-47, just under the vertical stabilizer (tail). A buddy came by and talked me into going for a cup so we left.

Returning about 20 min later I thought I was in trouble with all the fire vehicles and MP's around the aircraft. Somebody came up to me saying how glad they were to see me as everybody was afraid I'd been vaporized. Pointing up I saw the tail was neatly split open for 3 or 4 feet from a lightening strike. Looking for the ground wires I saw gray streaks where they had been. Nobody ever said a word about me going to coffee, except they were glad I did (me too!!).

USAir lost a line mechanic to a lightning strike in Fla during a push back. He was tethered to the plane by a headset.

[OldLincoln]

Lightening is unforgiving and my son is a photographer that does this:

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6125/5952587097_b666e8a9d6.jpg

Sometimes he scares me with his fun!

[yqtszhj]

Beautiful picture you son got there. I have tried to get a picture like that without success.

Years ago I was working and looking out the window at night when a bolt of lightning just like that hit a light pole across the street. That long wide bolt was swirling around the pole like one of those old spinning barber shop poles. Amazing.