Ditto on eye protection. I had a tech who flung hot solder in her eye, believe me it wakes you up. Fortunately, no permanent damage. After that, everyone who sits at the bench must have safety glasses on at all times. Other times I have had: Electrolytic capacitors suddenly explode like a bullet and put a hole in the cieling Arcs pulling 50 amps or so causing things to explode Melted solder splashed all over creation with solder removal tools Nasty chemicals splashed all over creation Place screwdriver across 120VAC, resulting in new, improved screwdriver shape Place soldering iron tip across 120VAC, resulting in new, improved soldering iron tip shape Place (name that tool) across 120VAc, resulting in (name that tool) being similarly improved All of these things can poke out an eye in a hurry. -- Lawrence Lile Senior Project Engineer Toastmaster, Inc. Division of Salton, Inc. 573-446-5661 voice 573-446-5676 fax Nate Duehr Sent by: pic microcontroller discussion list 03/05/2004 02:49 AM Please respond to pic microcontroller discussion list To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU cc: Subject: Re: RE [OT:] Vacuum cleaner static? On Mar 4, 2004, at 8:56 PM, Robert Ussery wrote: > Messy basement workshop (you should hear my parents complain! :O) )... > I'm > frequently working on more than one project at a time, and my dremel > tool > flings stuff everywhere. Actually more of what I get is plastic > shavings > when I'm modifying a project box to fit my home-made PCB's or making > connector holes, etc. I hope at least you're wearing eye protection during these flurries of Dremel-tool fun. Since you're mentioning your parents, I'm assuming you're a young person -- and hearing about young people going to emergency rooms with bits of PCB or plastic project box shavings in their eyes is not something we who've seen such unfortunate accidents relish much. WEAR EYE PROTECTION. With that little old fart word of wisdom from someone who's not old enough by far yet to be acting like and old fart... (GRIN)... As far as messing up the PCB's... accurate measurements allow you to do the project box work away from the PCB completely -- cover it up or put it away when working on the plastic box. Measure and THEN cut. ;-) And connector holes wouldn't be throwing out nearly as much crud, so that's probably not a very big deal. Unfortunately it sounds like you have the same problem many of us do -- messius workus-benchus. (See thread about two years ago -- people posted pictures of their workbenches somewhere on the server... pretty entertaining and also educational for anyone struggling with the above affliction. Don't worry, you're not alone -- you should see both of my benches right now...!) Clean up the workbench before you do messy stuff, and cover things in plastic, cloth, a twenty-foot long piece of anti-static foam, whatever floats your boat -- BEFORE flinging stuff all over the place. Keep it off the PCB in the first place! Make cleanup easier on yourself. And keep the PCB's away from the messy jobs or at least in a box with a lid when you're doing that stuff. Easier/safer than having to vacuum it constantly. Pretend you're a manufacturer -- would you put the dude grinding the plastic project box in the same place as the guy working on the circuit board? Nope... Nate Duehr, nate@natetech.com -- http://www.piclist.com#nomail Going offline? Don't AutoReply us! email listserv@mitvma.mit.edu with SET PICList DIGEST in the body -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The list server can filter out subtopics (like ads or off topics) for you. See http://www.piclist.com/#topics