Shop Safety

[John Martin]

If you built your own shop, or just in general, should you still work during a thunderstorm with lighting, cuz your shop if it get's struck it gonna be a huge conductor with all of the metal. What are your thoughts. I figure if it's like a garage that professionals made and you turned it into a shop, you'd be safe. What are your thoughts?

[Blacksmith Jim]

if you are concerned, run up a lightning rod..

[matt87]

If your shop is a conductor, you're not. Ever seen a Faraday Cage? Tres cool.

[Dave Leppo]

OK... My shop is a wood structure. Will the lightning go thru the wood to get to my steel forge, which has legs sitting on the ground?

Actually, my flu is metal, and is attached to the forge table - but if it wasn't??

[civilwarblacksmith]

Worrying about working in a small metal is no different than working in a large metal shop. I work at Evapco. We make commercial refrigeration and heating units like water cooling towers; evaporators; forced draft unit that you see on office buildings, hospitals, etc.

Alot of metal in this place, more than in our smithies. The building is wood/metal construction. I work in the sheetmetal dept. running press brakes, shears and CNC punch machines. All we worry about is shutting the machines down in order to protect the computers.

Only thing to worry about in my smithy is protecting any high dollar machine from a power surge.

[John Martin]

So you don't have to worry about lightning and working in your shop?

[Frosty]

If you live where there're a lot of lightning storms a lightning rod is only prudent.

My grandmother used to tell a story from when she was young, pre 20thC. She and her sister were alone in the kitchen when lightning struck a tree some 100' from the house, jumped to the brick chimney, down it, out of the fireplace and flash fried everything in the parlor. EXCEPT my grandmother and her sister Hazel. Literally scorched the paint off the walls and singed the carpet and furniture.

No electric nor phone in the house at all.

Lightning rods are cheap insurance.

Frosty

[Bentiron1946]

Lightening is an unpredictable force of nature. I got struck while walking the dog with a metal leash to a metal choke chain. That was a thrill. The storm cloud was about three miles off. I try to stay away from metal during a raging thunder storm. Lightening rods are good, easy protection so why not use one is you can? Why turn yourself into one by working in a storm holding onto a length of steel?:o

[HWooldridge]

We get a lot of lightning down here - I've been through three house hits during my lifetime and have worked in large factories that took hits regularly. All of the house hits caused some structural damage but fortunately, we never had a fire. None of the shop hits caused damage beyond frying electrical or electronic equipment. I could tell you some more war stories about lightning but will refrain and keep to the thread...

A lightning rod isn't worth much unless it's properly grounded so what most people are doing these days for protection on homes is to install a short rod (1 foot tall) on each end of the house. The rods then are electrically connected with heavy gauge wire and that circuit is attached to a loop of plated copper buried in the earth below the normal moisture level. The loop often completely circles the house at a distance of several feet from the structure. This is about the only way to get the lightning strike to ground fast enough not to cause a fire. The problems begin when the arc can't do that and superheats whatever is in the path.

My old shop had a metal roof on a wooden structure. During construction, I drove a ground rod about 8 feet into the dirt and connected a #8 copper wire between the rod and the roof. While we were on vacation one summer, a storm passed over and a bolt must have hit the shop as the insulation had melted on the wire. However, the shop did not catch fire (the funny thing was that I didn't notice the difference in appearance until about a week later). I would not worry if you are in a pole barn with steel poles and/or steel walls as the lightning will go straight to ground but of course, I also would not stand against a metal wall during a storm - stay in the middle of the shop. On the other hand, a completely wooden structure will likely catch fire somewhere unless it is properly grounded.

[philip in china]

There was a thread somewhere when I asked about how to make lightning rods.

[Glenn]

Lightning conductors