[Fiero Addiction]

I have my plasma cutter, control cabinet, and table connected to an 8 foot ground rod about a foot away from the table. The PC is plugged into a surge suppressor outlet strip. Should the PC case be connected to the table ground?

The machine worked fine when I turned it off. Now I find the PC is fried (won't boot), the four buffer chips on my C10 breakout board are fried, and one of my stepper drivers is cooked. We had some severe lightening storms, and we also did some TIG welding in the shop. The TIG machine is only grounded through it's power cord. I don't know if it was the lightening or the TIG, but I'm betting it was the TIG.

And that brings me to another question. Can I use the same ground rod for the plasma and the TIG?

Jon

[plain ol Bill]

I was using my TIG a couple of years ago and noticed my little Lincoln 110 V wire welder was unspooling wire at a fast rate. The Lincoln was not turned on but was plugged in. The TIG had backfed somehow and fried the control board on the spool drive. I still haven't figured out how the *^&% it happened but now when I fire up the TIG I make sure everything else in my shop is unplugged!

[curlyweld]

Sounds familar,I had my control unit hit by lighting and fried two of the geko drives,I leave it all unplugged now unless I am go to do some cutting.Also I've had my plasma air turn on when I was tig welding.Now I unplug the plasma cutter when I'm tig welding.I think your computer should be fine just grounded through the plug in.Just my two cents,,,,,,good luck,,,,,CURLY