So the x-controller itself of course has a power-supply ground, but the issue is dust hosing ground since I don’t want a dust explosion from static charge (and those sparks generate huge amounts of RFI -a la marconi spark gap transmitter). So originally I took a ground off the steel wire inside the hose to a plumbing ground (the HVAC system is right next to the x-carve. My father who is an electrical engineer (who specializes in EMI/RFI) felt he clearly failed me as a parent as he noted that the machine and the hose were on different grounds (yeah, I get we are all in the same quantum universe so ultimately all grounds tie together at some level, but that’s a great way to get a ground loop; he then proceeded to tell me some horrifying (and fatal) ground loop stories in manufacturing. So OK, I then ran a 14ga silicone (super flexible) insulated copper ground line up to the Z-axis and attached the clip on the end to the coil in the hose (the hose supposedly is conductive? the wire is a recommended technique by the manufacturer of the hose) the other end of the silicone wire goes to a “real” ground wire (the green 12ga stranded grounding wire you’d use for equipment by code) and that goes to a regular 3-prong plug that only uses the ground pin (looks a little weird like that - see below) that goes into the same power strip as the x-controller. i measured the resistance from the alligator clip to the x-controller ground on the power supply and it was a very, very tiny amount (I mean it is like 10’ of wire after all). Also if you use any sort of “earth” ground like a pipe or structure you had damned well better verify that that is actually earthed. I almost got killed by working on a friend’s house where the prior owner had used a plumbing ground but then due to pipe corrosion had put a dielectric union (disconnects the plumbing from ground to prevent corrosion) so the pipe ended up being live at 220V. Blew my linesman pliers to pieces (and they were a nice set of Klein tools!)
(and while I am sure someone is going to point out “OMG that will totally fall off, and you will die” it has lasted through a lot of carves!) and the clip has been handy to have when I’ve needed to move stuff around. I just used an x-acto to slit the vinyl outside and get the alligator onto the sire [I sanded the wire as it seems to have some coating on it]). Oh and it’s wire-tied to the outside of the drag chain, as I have the original 2015 drag chain which doesn’t open, so yeah… Note that wire is silicone covered stranded (which makes it super flexible) and since this is static dissipation there had better not be any current so gauge doesn’t matter as much.
While mechanically this appears kind of janky, it actually works surprisingly well. and it did (with a little electrical tape to thicken it at the stress-relief point) clamp the wire into place well enough. There is zero-strain on this cable (and to be honest as just static dissipation if it did disconnected it’s not dangerous like a power-supply ground could be. Wire and plug just from Home Depot. Obviously only wire that to the ground pin.