assmbling a co2 laser for my shop

Can i hook a 8 guage wire to the building's ground normally a cold water pipe?

As long as the water pipe is continuous metal, yes. Some buildings cheaped out and use sections of PVC pipe to bridge points or make repairs and this will invalidate the cold water line as a grounding source.

Ill find the copper stake by the powermeter
. I laid much of the pipe myself and yes most of it IS pvc , still some old copper pipe in old section of house

So what's the best way to determine if your pipes go to Earth ground? Is there a good electrical test one can perform?

Meggar

best wishes

Dave

Meatball said:

So what's the best way to determine if your pipes go to Earth ground? Is there a good electrical test one can perform?

Click to expand...

Look for the grounding clamp near or on the cold side of your eaterheater or where the service first comes into the house. there should be a thick wire from there going to your electrical panel.

You can also just test between a pipe and an earth in your mains socket (Assuming you have one, that is). Sometimes a houses piping is directly connected to the earth stake for safety.

While a 40W laser PSU probably wouldn't kill you unless you really tried, I wouldn't want to risk it by any means. I've been hit across the hand by a 15kV 30mA neon sign transformer and it was incredibly painful. The PSU's are also rated by the output of the tube they're meant to drive, so a 40W PSU could still easily deliver over 300W into your body if you became it's return path.