dirty emf?

admin

I recently purchased a cut50 from ebay. The cutter itself works great. However when in use it interupts the fluorescent lighting. It makes the lights flicker to the point that they are off. If I attach a small piece of solid copper wire and ground the machine to the bench it no longer effects the lighting, but using a piece of stranded and an alligator clamp did not achieve the same results. Is this a sign of something bad inside my machine that I should be concerned about? I'm more concerned bad emf might be coming out and damaging and nearby electronics.Many thanks in advance, Chris.
Reply:This is a well known problem with equipment that uses hf start; be it a plasma or a tig, and the reason for the grounding bolt in the rear.  It was the alligator clip and possibly the effective gage of the stranded wire compared to the solid copper and more robust connection w/o the alligator clip.The machine is fine.  Keep it grounded so the lights don't flicker.  Keep electronics away.  These are the risks of using hf start equipment.  Even the most expensive Miller tigs will have this problem.  Some plasmas use blowback start, and that won't produce the same kind of emi output that an hf start model does."Great spirits have always encountered violent oppostion from mediocre minds."  --  Albert Einstein
Reply:Cool, thanks. That's what I wanted to hear.