Is static electricity dangerous w/ reloading?

I've heard of/seen a lot of primer tube blow ups from a number of causes. It's probably a lot easier to do it than I ever believed it could be. One thing I don't buy into is the talk I have heard about "primer dust"explosions. Primng compound, like smokeless, isn't really prone to dusting, and a bit of primer dust has very little energy. It's kind of unlikely that a serious explosion or burn will occur just by the debris from a day's work, but a sloppy room with loose primers rolling around and spills here and there present risks from lots of things.

Dust explosions are very similar to fuel explosions. Propane, for example, divides a highly reactive product into a molecular size. Grain dust or coal dust are also highly flammable and the products are easily ignited.

Smokeless isn't really easily ignited. Unlike a dust. It's not g gasoline or another volatile product. If all you have is a scattering of powder granules, there is a thing to remember. Powder is also a low intensity "explosive". I've tested several times, and many, many times, those little sparks will not release enough energy to ignite anything that isn't indirect contact, mostly just scattering it. A sprinkle of rifle powder on a hot plate resembles popcorn.

I think that what's been said is that a burst of static electricity can be hot, but i personally believe that smokeless in small quantities, but it of course any bulky amount changes everything.

Bp is a totally different thing, and a bit spooky to me.
 
Temperature can be very high without starting a fire. It just has to be brief. In the case of the spark, the thermal conductivity and specific heat capacity of the ionized gas is much lower than that of the solid powder. So, at first contact with the powder, what little heat is present at the contact point diffuses into the powder, dropping its temperature and creating a temperature gradient between it and the hot part of the ionized gas. This acts as an insulating gas barrier between the powder and the hot part of the gas. Unless enough time passes to move enough heat through that layer to bring the powder surface temperature up, it won't reach the ignition point. It's akin to being able to swipe your finger through a candle flame without getting burned. You have to hold it there longer for that to happen, giving the heat time to transfer, even though the flame temperature is well above scalding temperature.
 
ABSOLUTELY. You have several concerns regarding all of the things discussed in this thread, and the simplest way that I can put it is that the actual measure of the energy and the intensity of the energy and the duration of contact are all going to affect a subject material in different ways.

Low energy waves of trillions of tons of water can wash away an entire city in minutes, or dig a mile long trench over a few days without even pushing aside the bigger rocks. Then, a guy with a high pressure waterjet system car saw through steel sheets in a matter of a few seconds using only a gallon or so.

Being able to have a good, solid understanding and working knowledge of energy and materials is why God put tech people on the earth. If there was anything I would wish for when the genie popped out of the lamp, I'd want to be smarter.
 
There is an old dynamite factory over the mountain from me. I know quite a few people that are retired from there. The women working there were not even allowed to wear silk underwear because of the static possibility. I know, not the same because civilian dynamite uses nitro and is more dicey to work with than standard gunpowder. Just thought I would toss it in.
 
In jobs where there are electronics and quality systems, those around the electronic must wear static proof smocks. In dealing with 2,000 amp diodes, if my static blew up on of those, I would be a pile of dust. But rules are rules.

I was at a tiny company less than 0.1% of the parent corporation in big trouble for defaulting on a contract schedule. The heads from corporate flew out in their company private jets to observe. I needed a signature for a requisition from the guy at the head of a long conference table. Away from the table were the corporate execs, just watching. I walked the length of the long room with all the eyes on me. When I got to the head of the table I plunked down the form and got my signature. I then noticed my static smock was one snap off all the way down.

The next day all the corporates flew out of there and sold the $50M company for $14M, nothing down, no liability for the default, but keep the corporation name out of the paper.

The company that bought us was smaller than we were. I felt it was a good time to invest in my new client. I can't help but feel my sloppy antistatic smock cost someone $36M and I got a piece of that.
 
"Another somewhat ridiculous looking method is to make the proverbial tin foil hat and stick a bunch of straight pins through it from the inside until it looks like a mad sculptor's idea of a porcupine. Wearing that will bleed the charge off your body. What happens is your charge tends to repel itself and it can't accumulate enough unit charges on the sharp pin points to avoid repelling itself into the air. You can make the foil more durable by first attaching it to a construction paper backing with a spray adhesive, and then folding that into the hat. Aluminum tape can be used to back the pin heads so they don't slip out. Just don't let anyone photograph you reloading like this."

I ain't doin' that!

Reminds me of the time I told a buddy of mine that eating charcoal dog biscuits would get rid of his bad breath...:eek:

Don't worry about the static setting off powder, but it can and will affect scales.
 
Unclenic,

I wasn't speaking of the storage in the cap, I was speaking of the charge potential of static electricity.
No one roams around with a cap bank in their pocket,
But everyone has a static discharge 'Potential'...

I wasn't talking switching banks of capacitors producing a nearly continuous (Time) arc in the gap at Amperage (heat) a common static discharge could never reach...
I just found the video interesting...
Not that it has much to do with common static discharges, since every single arc produced in the video was several thousand times stronger than any common static discharge would make.

The rules for the arc are the same,
If the power is a direct link, or artificial charge, it doesn't matter one way or the other,
Which is why I didn't get into what a cap can, or can't do or how a cap stores potential energy.

----------

Way off target for the OPs question also...

The fact of the matter is, with 'gun powders' are large enough 'Granules' they are fairly hard to set fire to with a common static discharge,
BUT NOT IMPOSSIBLE...

I don't take dramatic measures to keep static from setting anything off,
But I am cautious enough to 'Ground' the equipment on the table top, keep synthetic cloths/chair coverings out of the equation when I'm loading.

I don't believe there is enough Amperage (heat) in the basic static discharge,
Or enough duration (Time) to set the common powders off,
And I make an effort to keep DUST to a minimum, not let it stand in the wood grain of the bench top, or collect.

Simple housekeeping!!! Keep it clean and you should be fine...
I don't know of a single hand loader that has set off powder just plain reloading.

I know idiots that have been smoking, dropped spilled powder in the ashtray, then dropped a cigarette on top the powder,
I know people that have use the same bench for stuff like open flame soldering when they hadn't cleaned the bench top off...

And yes, they are IDIOTS when they over look common, simple housekeeping...
 
I smoke my pipe sometimes at the far end of the same room I load in, but the fact that my floor is sweep, desk is clean, no open containers or measures, simply put, no free roaming powder in anything but single grains, it should practically impossible to cause an event. My stained glass glass studio since soldering equipped is in another room. Any steel grinding g or cutting is at another bench.

Once, I had a pad of steel wool on a bench near my grinder, Nd managed to ignite the pad, and it smoldered for maybe. Five minutes uses.

Now I'm curious as to whether the blow by grinding steel could ignite powder. I'm going to try that.

4831, #2,and black ffg.
 
One of the many explosions at the Goes Station, Ohio powder plant was determined to have been caused by an employee who forgot to remove his boots before entering one of the magazines. A hobnail met floor nail with the resulting spark turning the hapless fellow and the building to splinters.

I've seen several admonitions over time not to smoke around lead casting activities. I don't know why that would be any worse than breathing flux fumes. Perhaps the nicotine and resins bind to lead dust and make it absorbable or some such unexpected thing. I really don't know, but thought I would mention it.
 
new reloader

Welcome aboard the reloading train.

Way back when I started to reload the only space available was a nice size closet with wooden floor.
This worked for me and my wife was happy as well with this set up.
 
Static electricity is an issue with primers. They can be set off by the discharge from your body to a lower potential. You don't have to ground the press, but you should make a habit of touching a metal part of the press before releasing the hitch pin that drops the primers into the press magazine tube.
 
Got an example to post? I know you can't set a primer off by hitting the cup with a stun gun or other static type spark. There've been videos of the attempt failing.
 
If static electricity could ignite powder or primers it would seem to reason that any time you touched a loaded round you would be risking setting it off.
 
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