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Question: Faraday Box -vs- chest freezer

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emp faraday
16K views 15 replies 13 participants last post by  ConservaBill 
#1 ·
I have an Idea/Question, Can we convert an old chest freezer into a large faraday box, which would house a good bit of items depending on the size of the freezer. Can the power cord be used to ground the freezer by cutting off the positive and negative and just plug in the ground prong of the power cord?
Let me know if you can add to this IDEA
 
#2 ·
Freezers are made of metal, but they have rubber or vinyl gaskets on the doors. So unmodified they're not a faraday cage.

The entire enclosure has to be continuously conductive, so you'd have to replace the original gaskets with something electrically conductive.

Also, the back of most fridges/freezers is just cardboard. The rear wall of the cold compartment is plastic. So you'd have to replace the back panel of the outer cabinet with a sheet of metal, ensuring it's electrically connected to the rest of the metal cabinet.

If the EMP is powerful enough, even this wouldn't be enough. Every little crease and crevice in the sheet metal would have to be covered with conductive tape like copper.
 
#4 ·
I think that would be more than a little work but yea, after it is 100% enclosed in metal, I think that would be a great faraday box. The one I am thinking about building is a metal trash can. Crimp foil around the lid (ALOT OF FOIL) so that waves will not find their way threw. Even the smallest crack will allow waves in and could destroy or damage a portion of your devices inside.
 
#5 ·
I would not count on the little ground wire in the cord two ground rods and two 10ga wires to two different points like the lid and the box they do make specialized grounding tape (like the aluminum foil tape used for your dyer connections) except i believe the glue is conductive. and it is copper not aluminum. put every thing electronic inside, if it has power a cord put a piece of copper wire thru to connect the two conductors together remove before plugging in. close lid and electricly join the lid to the box with your conductive tape,dont forget to remove the paint first. then paint over the areas without paint to prevent rust. the only bad part about using tape to bond the ground is you would have to retape and paint just to add an item. they also make a copper braid that could be installed between lid and box also have to remove paint to get a good ground between the two good idea though.. seams of most appliances like freezers are spot welded but if concerned remove paint from seam and repaint with conductive microwave cavity paint.
 
#16 ·
I made one (I HOPE) A simple cardboard box open on one end (which will just set over whatever is to be protected), wrapped with aluminum foil and de-ox compound to improve and maintain continuity between sheets. I used duct tape to create pressure a HOPEFULLY maintain or increase shield continuity between sheets of foil.
Leaving some foil hanging over the open end, then twisted the corners and pig-tailed that with stands of aluminum wire salvaged from some residential service cable, which in turn is spliced back to a 6"x10" strip on foil, which was tri-folded into a 2" strip which will go through the exterior wall of the shop.. All I have left to do now is get a good earth ground outback.. I'm thinking a uffer (trenched bare conductor) ground buried in the path of drainage away from the shop as to keep contact with the most moist earth available, which again I'll probably use aluminum foil for this earth terminal.

I think the ground resistance (or reduction of it) is as much or more important than anything else. I do not believe just plugging it into the ground terminal of a local receptacle is sufficient... the pressure (voltage) we are talking about doesn't have much need for a conductor and in my mind must be coaxed into following your preferred path to ground.

I would refer you all to the IEEE Emerald book, a reference on grounding for engineer types!
 
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