Grounding the Glowforge?

Will the Glowforge need to be used with a grounded outlet? (Three prong) I’m assuming yes, but knowing this will help determine where my Glowforge will live. :slight_smile:

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I hope it will! I don’t want to use a system pulling that much power without it being grounded. I would assume it will and plan accordingly.

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I agree. I’m assuming it will. My apartment has some outlets with ground and some without ha-ha.

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be safe assume its grounded, GFI most likely not needed unless your using it in the bathroom or kitchen

bathroom is a joke* don’t do that

kitchen fully legitimate place to use esp if you have a air filter, but ya I wouldn’t recommend it on have it on the same counter as the sink (that and they tend to only be 24~ inch deep so it would be a clumsy fit to use and you could break something that and cabinets) but sure if you have a island or breakfast bar etc…

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Work in progress…
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Our house was built in '52. I’ve been debating the best way to drop a ground plug sine I recently found out none of my 3prong plugs are actually hooked up right.
The window I want to run my exhaust tube out of is right by the breaker box, so it might be easy to get someone to put it on a dedicated fuse while running the ground to a new plug.

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Yes, it will come with the standard three-pronged cord like you have for a computer. Yes, you could get one of those cheater adapter plugs for old school outlets, but given the amount of power running through this machine, you’d definitely the grounded outlet. And you might just double check that your ground slots are actually grounded and have a GFCI either at the panel or as part of the recepatacle (and I’m opening this up to all kinds of comments and weigh-ins speaking as a non-electrician.)

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Careful, in older buildings it may only appear grounded because they replaced the old outlet. This doesn’t mean that there is actually a ground wire in the wall.

EDIT: Also, I hear a lot about issues with the Chinese k40’s if they aren’t grounded properly.

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Oh, I didn’t think about that! Thanks!!

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You can get a cheap grounding tester here: https://www.amazon.com/Electrical-Receptacle-Outlet-Ground-Tester/dp/B0012DHVQ0

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Oh awesome! Thank you! I didnt know that was a thing. :stuck_out_tongue:

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Walmart sells a nice cheap kit for $20. Circuit tester(this is what we’re talking about), live test probe, and something else I’m blanking on. Oh. A digital multimeter. I also stuffed a battery tester in the case too.

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Be very careful with the cheap kits from Wal-Mart, etc. Some of them aren’t safe to use. There are several examples online, mostly YouTube videos, of what happens when you use an unsafe DMM for testing live AC circuits. Most of them are really exciting!

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I have one of these. Works great. :slight_smile:

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“…and it definitely was not safe.”

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Definitely.

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Yes, that simple tester will tell you if the outlet is wired correctly including ground/ground fault. Combination of the three LED’s tell at a glance, simple and inexpensive.

These voltage testers are handy to have if you need to troubleshoot wiring. It’s hard to go wrong with Fluke.

https://www.amazon.com/Fluke-1AC-A1-II-VoltAlert-Non-Contact-Voltage/dp/B000EJ332O/ref=sr_1_1?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1474989748&sr=1-1&keywords=fluke+voltage+tester

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If you have access to the breakers, you can shut of the outlet and pull out the receptacle to see if there’s 3 wires attached (the green wire is ground).

Some older systems used metal conduit as the ground.

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