carpe passing current

[hammerin]

finished rebuild of a dynaco st-70 yesterday,and while testing bias for the umpteenth time just to make sure everything was o.k. happend to glance down at my D.V.M. and saw that the pos. end of the meter was lightly stuck into the carpet, while the neg. end was still attached to the amp and was reading a fluctuating current thru the my meter?splain this to me please?[8-|]

[DRBILL]

That's tough. Here goes. I read somewhere that certain brands of carpet have conductive fibres to prevent static discharges. This was useful in rooms housing sensitive electronic equipment. Perhaps your test lead contacted one of these and established a path from your chasis to ground.

Was this AC or DC?

If it was DC I'll have to make up a different answer.

[] DRBILL

[3dzapper]

In addition to what Dr Bill said, the Dynaco has a non-polarized plug and a grounded chassis. This can set up a potentially lethal situation. It might behoove you to take a voltage reading from your chassis to the ground lug on a three prong outlet. Perfectly it will be essentially zero volts. Even a few millivolts can, under the right circumstances, be dangerous.

A properly orientated three prong plug may be in order, especially if there are little kids around. They are the most likely to have wet bottoms in contact with a ground.

Rick

[Duke Spinner]

I read somewhere that certain brands of carpet have conductive fibres to prevent static discharges. This was useful in rooms housing sensitive electronic equipment. Perhaps your test lead contacted one of these and established a path to ground

.

[] DRBILL

and PERHAPS given that scenario .......

THE CHASSIS WAS HOT .............[]......[].......[]