So I read up on ESD and a few people stress that you do not actually want
conductive storage like those foil bags or black plastic boxes.
It makes sense. If I have an open box with a part inside, and I reach in
and touch a lead, any static charge on me can go through the chip, into
the box and ground out. A non-conductive box would not do that. Of
course grounding yourself before touching anything is better, but mistakes
happen.
One solution I found and wanted an opinion on was from this page:
http://wiki.xtronics.com/index.php/ESD (Hot tip: use an anti-static floor-wax on your plastics and you
shouldn't have to ever treat them again! Just dip your plastic bins and
trays in. Then let them drip drain and dry. Think of the antistatic
floor wax as an almost permanent spray.
see
http://www.rdmoney.com/floor_finish.htm).
Anyone tried this? I have a lot of storage boxes I use for resistors,
caps and other non transistor based parts, but chips and various bits
find their way into them. The storage containers rub against each other
and can form a nice static charge by themselves and reaching in for a part
can zap it. But ESD containers are hard to find and expensive.
If nobody has tried it, I might just grab some of the stuff mentioned in
that link and try it out on a box or two.
--
Ian Smith
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