anti-static bench mats

[wb5mmb]

Hi Mike, I use a light blue mat with at least 2 layers made by I 
think 3M. We got them years ago from somewhere. The wrist strap has a 
1 Meg resister in it and from the ground snap to a 3x5 Al plate 
pressed on the mat is about 10Meg. Testing with the traces of the pcb 
resting on the mat can cause problems. I keep a few small strips of 
plywood around as spacers. They are also good to keep what ever you 
are soldering from melting the mat. You can also get conductive 
laminate and conductive floor tiles but they are pricey.
For carpet I use ACL Staticide #2005. It is about $18.00 a quart but 
it will last for years spraying every 1 or 2 mouths. It works 
great,  but start at the side of the room away from the door and work 
your way out and stay out for 5 min or so as it is a bit gross to breathe.
techni-tool.com has mats and the spray but I would shop around as 
they can be a bit high.
Lack of ESD control can cause problems that do not show up for a 
while. I became a believer after being involved in an incident where 
the damages ran into at least 5 figures in 1980s dollars.
      Sandy
      WB5MMB


At 06:42 AM 6/11/2012, Mike ODELL wrote:
>equipping new bench and was astonished by the dynamic range
>in price of benchtop ESD mats. I understand wanting a dispersive
>top (layer) but there are numerous claim of voodoo an magic fairy dust
>to justify a 10x range in price. feels a bit like the nosebleed 
>audio world where
>where objective impact on performance focuses more on wallet extraction
>than signal extraction. (grin)
>
>so what do people use for ESD mat and where did you buy it?
>
>        -mo
>
>
>
>
>
>Sent from my iPad so please excuse the jammy fingers.
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