Basic physics can bite

[Mjolinor]

Was having to decant one spool of filament onto my Stratasys spools as the one it came on will not fit.

With the donor spool freely hanging on a steel rod and the Stratasys spool on a long bolt into my drill off I went.

All was good until maybe 100 ft in when my butt discharged through the chair to ground. I nearly hit the roof.

Note to self (and anyone else that may try it) use an earthed loop to guide the filament, not your fingers.

[3D OZ]

If you were simultaneously flatulent you could have launched yourself through the roof.

[Mjolinor]

If you were simultaneously flatulent you could have launched yourself through the roof.

Simultaneous flatulence isn't one of my strong skills. If it had been I would have formed a band.

[RobH2]

Are you saying that the filament built up a large static charge and you became the ground? Glad you are ok. Yikes... If so, is there a completely new use for filament...generators? I'm not making a joke. If you can generate more energy then it takes to create it, you have a generator. If you can generate significantly more, then you have a millionaire.

[Mjolinor]

It wouldn't work. This filament was newly opened from a dry vacuum. I suspect that if I had left it an hour or two then the shock would not have happened. If you looped the filament round two insulated pulleys then you would indeed have a generator but it's already been invented, Van de Graaf did it some time ago but he used better stuff for the belt.

The shock was big enough to hurt but hardly life threatening.

[RobH2]

Right you are but you never know. It's my job to think way, way outside the box and then come back to earth. You'd be surprised what's been invented by making seemingly wacky connections and assumptions.