I'll try to keep this as "family appropriate" as possible... - Page 2

There is a couple of good idea's as far as discharging the tv's further up in this thread. Make or buy a ground strap, or use a screwdriver or insulated sidecutters and discharge the bigger capacitors one at a time. The big ones are what stores the dangerous levels of juice. Keep in mind that there is bleed-off resistors built in that are supposed to safely remove the voltage but it sometimes takes a while to accomplish. Hope this helps,,, Mike
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=WRISTSTRAP

Why reinvent the wheel? Look what I found! I have done this in class while repairing tvs... a looong time ago. I haven't taken a computer monitor apart for a while. I forget... do they have a suction cup on the glass also?

http://forum.arcadeotaku.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1072

I don't know why the author used a probe. I would just get a double sided alligator clip cord.

Clip one end to the metal parts inside the monitor... the chassis or braided ribbon cable. I don't agree with clipping it on the truck... there will be no way to close the circuit clipping it on the truck. You have to close the circuit by grounding it to something inside the monitor.

Be careful with these. I don't know if the shock will kill you, but falling into your rebar pile, tools or concrete will.

5 years of electronics training and this is all I remember...

That... and hooking up a capacitor backwards will make it go off like a firecracker. The class clown was in my electronics class wanted to be funny. He grabbed a Cap from the parts bin, hooked it up backwards to a bench power supply and cranked it up. BANG, smoke, little pieces of capacitor everywhere. Instructor knew who did it, it was the only one of us white as a ghost and shaking a little bit.

I was wondering if it would work to install a wall socket in my shop that isn't actually connected to an electrical box? The socket would have wires that were grounded to something like a metal pole, or whatever. It would be easy to just "plug in" an electronic device and let any stored electricity discharge. Would something like that work?

Scrapside actually had a really good idea, that I have seen used before in TV repair shops. You could put up a wall box and ground it to a 4 foot ground rod outside the shop where you tear down "stuff". You could use a plug in BUT so as not to confuse it with an electric plug in I would use a 1/4" mono plug in and install the female into the wall box. Add the male half to some 12-10 gauge wire long enough to go to your work bench and then add a ground clamp to the end of it. Clamp that to your long screwdriver to discharge with, and any voltage would go outside to the earth ground. Here's the female that could be installed in a wall box. And here is the male to add to the ground wire. And here would be the Clamp for the other end. I hope I didn't confuse anyone, I tried to keep it simple.

Electric will head towards an earth ground before anything else. You are just giving it a path of least resistance, being that copper wire is a good conductor. I seen the after effects of a bolt of lightning coming in a power outlet in a guys living room and shooting across the room(thru the couch) and exiting out another power outlet. Sure trashed the electric lines in that house.
That's why lightning will hit a tree, it's well grounded and very wet inside from the sap, and very tall.

run it under the suction cup... That's how they teach it in school.

The voltage does not stay hidden under the suction cup but in the can capacitors mounted on the circuit board. There is a video on YouTube that shows 4 or 5 can capacitors piggybacked together and supplied with voltage. When they flip a switch the can caps' will smash an aluminum can with the voltage surge, it's cool.

Originally Posted by Mechanic688

Electric will head towards an earth ground before anything else.

I agree for items plugged in. (Or 30,000 amps from a bolt of lightning). Lightning is static elictricy on a huge level. We are talking about electricity stored in capacitors This item isn't plugged in and ground has been taken out of the circuit. To complete the circuit you need to involve the other side of the capacitance, which is not connected in any way to ground.

Originally Posted by Mechanic688

The voltage does not stay hidden under the suction cup but in the can capacitors mounted on the circuit board.

That is true also, these caps will hold a charge, but a huge charge is held inside the glass. The entire CRT tube is a huge capacitor and that's where a large shock is hiding.

Really, don't take my word for it. Google this for yourself. There are lots of documets out there. People have been dealing with this ever since the days of black and white. Here's another link for you to consider.

http://lowendmac.com/tech/crt_danger.html

In all actuality, unless these units have been plugged in recently you would have very little to worry about. I would discharge them anyway just to be safe. An ounce of prevention is worth something... something... something.

I work on stuff on my dining room table. Right outside the window I have a piece of rebar stuck in the ground. I have a wire connected from that to a flathead screwdriver inside. Always double check the connection beforehand. I've never heard that "pop" sound when discharging em though and I've done about 20 TV's. I wear gloves when messing with it even after discharging just incase.