SOLVED: Substitute for an anti-static bag? - Electronics

I just had to read through this post to finish chuckling over how argumentative the discussion became over anti-static bags!

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I've been working with computers for over 30 yrs now and hardly ever use any anti-static protection for anything. Why? Because the chance of static discharge that would cause such an event is SOOOOO freakin' rare. Unless of course you like to rub your feet on the carpet and poke someone's nose before you start working with your boards or chips.

I've had hundreds of units (mobo's, video cards, memory chips, etc.) laying in drawers, cabinets, shelves, etc. I can pick them up 10 years later, after they've been in 3 or 4 machines even, and they still work just fine. I've shipped umpteen times in bubble-wrap that was discharged by my own hand before packaging. I've stored and shipped items sandwiched between plain foam with no problems, EVER.

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Sure, spend the money on overpriced ESD protection if you like, and I would as well, if I needed to protect a very sensitive or pricey item like a high-end motherboard, otherwise.... pfff don't worry so much about something that's probably less common to happen than getting struck by lightning. Yes, I know 10v of electricity are enough to zap a poor 'ol microchip and that we can't even see it ourselves unless it hits around 10k v, but regardless, I've learned that discharging yourself prior to handling and working in an environment that is not conducive to building up static is all you need to concern yourselves with.

I'd love to hear any horror stories of people losing any equipment to static, cuz I have yet to hear one myself.

Originally posted by: Mark R
Anti-static bags are designed to protect against static build up, and transfer of static in from the outside.

Newspaper won't do. Neither will plastic bags.

The best thing is to use a proper anti-static bag. If you really do want to bodge it, then aluminimum foil is an excellent protector (but make damn sure there aren't any batteries on the device you are wrapping up - otherwise it will short out and you'll get some nice fireworks).

The aluminimum foil trick was told to me by an ex-military EE, who always used to keep his static sensitive parts in foil lined boxes.

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