# How to make an anti-static bag



## Killer_Rubber_Ducky (Oct 20, 2011)

Hey guys, I need to ship some RAM and I dont have an anti-static bag. the closest place that I could buy some anti-static stuff is 20-30 miles away and not cost effective. 
That being said, how can I make an anti-static bag i can send through USPS? Or, do i even need one?


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## Zhriver (Oct 20, 2011)

Memory usually isn't shipped in antistatic bags, so I guess you could skip that part.


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## ShiBDiB (Oct 20, 2011)

Put it in a ziploc bag (Incase it gets stuck in the rain at some point) with some cushioning and mail it in a flat rate envelope.. No need for an anti static bag, the only point where he'd have to worry about static is when he takes it out of the envelope.. And weve beaten this to death somewhere on this forum how minimal the risk is for static as long as ur not being a tard when ur handleing ur stuff.


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## JrRacinFan (Oct 20, 2011)

Wrap the ram in a brown paper bag, add bubble wrap then tape it all together and there you are. Anti static.


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## sneekypeet (Oct 20, 2011)

Corsair and crucial ship ram to to your door in a cardboard box, no plastic They just sit in grooves in the box. I would say make sure you box them, and pad the box well around the ram and you will be good to go. Hell Newegg ships the Gskills ripjaws in plastic boxes inside of a padded envelope. Those come with package damage most times, so that's why I advise the box


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## hhumas (Oct 20, 2011)

*i got my rams 12 gb corsair dominator via ziploc bag ... its good *


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## micropage7 (Oct 20, 2011)

JrRacinFan said:


> Wrap the ram in a brown paper bag, add bubble wrap then tape it all together and there you are. Anti static.


umm i usually wrap it with paper then tape it and done
i guess its pretty safe, but if you kinda worried you could put it in the box then ship it


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## qubit (Oct 20, 2011)

sneekypeet said:


> Corsair and crucial ship ram to to your door in a cardboard box, no plastic They just sit in grooves in the box. I would say make sure you box them, and pad the box well around the ram and you will be good to go. Hell Newegg ships the Gskills ripjaws in plastic boxes inside of a padded envelope. Those come with package damage most times, so that's why I advise the box



I've always wondered if these sorts of boxes have an antistatic coating on them or have it mixed in with the compound making them. I really don't know.

All I can say, is that I've handled lots of computer parts with no static precautions and they've never died on me, so I don't think it's a huge issue and I'll second your suggestion for packing the RAM.


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## erocker (Oct 20, 2011)

qubit said:


> I've always wondered if these sorts of boxes have an antistatic coating on them or have it mixed in with the compound making them. I really don't know



No they don't.


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## Derek12 (Oct 20, 2011)

micropage7 said:


> umm i usually wrap it with paper then tape it and done
> i guess its pretty safe, but if you kinda worried you could put it in the box then ship it



I too, using newspapers, cardboard or simply blank paper to fully wrap it, then put it in a zip bag or something, therefore somewhat protecting the component from the plastic ESD, if there is not choice. But is prefered using ESD dark or pink bubble wrap ones. Throwing a component directly without protection in a regular plastic bag or box is generally bad idea. 

On the other hand, before I knew the ESD, once I put a video card (8400 GS) in a regular plastic shop, without any protection, and handled "carelessly" without discharging me, wearing synthetic clothes, touching everything, and it worked perfectly a couple of years before upgrading it. But more modern and higher end components may be more sensitive anyway.


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## Ferrum Master (Oct 20, 2011)

You cannot make an anti static bag... it depends of the physical parameters of the certain polymer used in the plastic...

So you can be quite lucky buying a simple plastic bag and it is ESD compilant in a coincidance.... but it cloud be otherwise, it acts as a capacitator and charges up... and could kill the device.

Wanna a simple test?

If you have a capacitative touchscreen phone... the more ESD the material it is the better it conducts... with good material you can control the phone in a distance over 10mm holding the plastic in your fingers like a brush... and touch works... if not... the material is bad...


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## Derek12 (Oct 20, 2011)

Ferrum Master said:


> You cannot make an anti static bag... it depends of the physical parameters of the certain polymer used in the plastic...
> 
> So you can be quite lucky buying a simple plastic bag and it is ESD compilant in a coincidance.... but it cloud be otherwise, it acts as a capacitator and charges up... and could kill the device.
> 
> ...



Interesting test  Could use a laptop touchpad (which is capacitive) to do the test? because I tried some elements but the pointer doesn't move


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## BarbaricSoul (Oct 20, 2011)

I've never seen a CPU packed in a anti-static bag, just plastic tray type boxes. If anything is susceptible to static electricity, I would think it would be a cpu with it's millions to billions of parts all packed so tight together.


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## Derek12 (Oct 20, 2011)

BarbaricSoul said:


> I've never seen a CPU packed in a anti-static bag, just plastic tray type boxes. If anything is susceptible to static electricity, I would think it would be a cpu with it's millions to billions of parts all packed so tight together.



I always saw RAM in a rectangular plastic package without any ESD protection.


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## Neuromancer (Oct 20, 2011)

Box would not need an antistatic coating, only plastic bags do.  this is because plastic will allow a static charge to carry over the surface (not through it though) 

Paper or card board is the safest bet, you can then put all that into a plastic bag for weather proofing.


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## scaminatrix (Oct 21, 2011)

Newspaper. I've shipped mobo's, RAM, GPU's, etc. all wrapped in newspaper.
Don't forget that you've got to account for people that are extra-sensitive to static. I used to work with a woman who used to break all the computers at work just by using them, until a new techie joined the company and said he knew what it was straight away and put a plastic sheet-thing under her desk. It stopped from then on and the techie said it was to do with static. 
I understand that the static-killing-hardware subject has been done to death and almost debunked but I've found some people are more likely to blow components than others.
IMO you should keep that in mind and protect it against static just in case.

Oh, and hi everyone, I'm back as you can see


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## Wrigleyvillain (Oct 21, 2011)

What up scam! Yep this is for real. Work IT and we had one too. Their biochemistry is like really conductive or something. Dude could touch the keyboard and the machine just would power off. Anti-static mat under his feet and problem solved. Blew my mind at first.

Though I guess it's a lot less likely than someone into buying computer components wouldn't already have really learned the hard way that they have this issue, but still...

All that said, most people aren't this way at all and I've certainly not always handled parts with utmost care and have never lost one to static that I know of. Operative phrase being the latter tho I guess. Just use common sense...walking around in socks on carpeting then grabbing a DIMM is probably a really bad idea.


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## scaminatrix (Oct 21, 2011)

I'm the same mate, never taken a single precaution. I've walked around in socks on carpet playing with components etc. my mate nearly threw a fit when he saw me hoovering a motherboard with a brush attachment  but yea, never killed anything AFAIK.

There was a thread here somewhere that actually run the numbers - how much current or w/e it takes to create a spark from static etc. and it was very interesting *goes searching*


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## Frick (Oct 21, 2011)

In production static is dangerous, but otherwise I'm with everyone else here: I have not had a single thing killed with static. And I have carried around RAM sticks jackets entirely made of fleece.

With that said, it looks better to ship it in proper anti static bags. Looks a bit more professional and serious. Some people will bitch endlessly about it if it's not shiped in them, and they're not very expensive either (on Ebay) so I usually have a bunch of them lying around.


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## Killer_Rubber_Ducky (Oct 21, 2011)

well, I went to my local "we overcharge everything" computer shop and they were kind enough to give an anti-static HDD bag that i used. I think I will just but in bulk online for like $5


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## Killer_Rubber_Ducky (Oct 21, 2011)

I found a 100 pack for 15 on ebay. It is 25cm x 31cm. What would that fit?


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## Frick (Oct 21, 2011)

Killer_Rubber_Ducky said:


> I found a 100 pack for 15 on ebay. It is 25cm x 31cm. What would that fit?



Standard ATX, almost.


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## Killer_Rubber_Ducky (Oct 21, 2011)

Frick said:


> Standard ATX, almost.



good deal yay or nay


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## TheLaughingMan (Oct 21, 2011)

Go to a store that sells packing material such as bubble wrap. Then buy the bubble wrap that is pink. The pink color actually indicates it is made of the anti-static material.

As for RAM. RAM, CPUs, and other large devices that are designed to control current flow cannot be damaged by static. This is why they are shipped with no static protections. Static bags protect small circuits, chips, relay paths, small caps, etc. on PCBs as they can be overloaded when directly charged. This is why the things you get in static bags like GPUs, motherboards, audio cards, etc. need that protection.

At least that is what I gather from experience and Circuits class.


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## Killer_Rubber_Ducky (Oct 21, 2011)

TheLaughingMan said:


> Go to a store that sells packing material such as bubble wrap. Then buy the bubble wrap that is pink. The pink color actually indicates it is made of the anti-static material.
> 
> As for RAM. RAM, CPUs, and other large devices that are designed to control current flow cannot be damaged by static. This is why they are shipped with no static protections. Static bags protect small circuits, chips, relay paths, small caps, etc. on PCBs as they can be overloaded when directly charged. This is why the things you get in static bags like GPUs, motherboards, audio cards, etc. need that protection.
> 
> At least that is what I gather from experience and Circuits class.



So, buying pink bubble wrap is going to be cheaper than the 100 pack?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/100-Pack-25cm-x-31cm-Anti-Static-Shield-Bags-/370536682232?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5645b512f8


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## TheLaughingMan (Oct 21, 2011)

Killer_Rubber_Ducky said:


> So, buying pink bubble wrap is going to be cheaper than the 100 pack?
> 
> http://www.ebay.com/itm/100-Pack-25cm-x-31cm-Anti-Static-Shield-Bags-/370536682232?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5645b512f8



Buying nothing as you are only shipping RAM is free. If you want to waste money on a gross of 100 static bags of which you will use at most 12 of, send me 5.


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## Killer_Rubber_Ducky (Oct 21, 2011)

TheLaughingMan said:


> Buying nothing as you are only shipping RAM is free. If you want to waste money on a gross of 100 static bags of which you will use at most 12 of, send me 5.



well, I am only interested for planning for the future.


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## Neuromancer (Oct 22, 2011)

Frick said:


> In production static is dangerous, but otherwise I'm with everyone else here: I have not had a single thing killed with static. And I have carried around RAM sticks jackets entirely made of fleece.
> 
> With that said, it looks better to ship it in proper anti static bags. Looks a bit more professional and serious. Some people will bitch endlessly about it if it's not shiped in them, and they're not very expensive either (on Ebay) so I usually have a bunch of them lying around.



Same here.  Last time I got a shock from a door knob I was like 10 years old. 

With one exception. 

Working in manufacturing, building handheld computers were ESD was a real threat, whenever I walked into the building (after going outside to smoke) I was charged up. Got in the habit of just touching all the metal racks all the time as I walked around, and of course we had ESD mats at most every workstation.


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## sneekypeet (Oct 22, 2011)

seriously, if you need anti-static bags, any mom and pop PC store will give them away! If you aren't close enough, have one of your dudes go get some and send you an envelope full of them for the 40 cents the stamp costs.


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## TheLaughingMan (Oct 22, 2011)

sneekypeet said:


> seriously, if you need anti-static bags, any mom and pop PC store will give them away! If you aren't close enough, have one of your dudes go get some and send you an envelope full of them for the 40 cents the stamp costs.



Starkville doesn't have a mom and pops PC store. And what are his dudes?


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## OneMoar (Oct 22, 2011)

use a mylar balloon :_


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## Killer_Rubber_Ducky (Oct 22, 2011)

TheLaughingMan said:


> Starkville doesn't have a mom and pops PC store. And what are his dudes?



unless you count shitville ( er Starkville) computers. As far as 'dudes'; I think he means you. I'm pretty sure he does not mean Wesley.


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## TheLaughingMan (Oct 22, 2011)

Killer_Rubber_Ducky said:


> unless you count shitville ( er Starkville) computers. As far as 'dudes'; I think he means you. I'm pretty sure he does not mean Wesley.



Touché I believe you are correct. I do have like 2 anti-static bags and several yards of anti-static wrap, but I need it more than you do.


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## Killer_Rubber_Ducky (Oct 22, 2011)

TheLaughingMan said:


> Touché I believe you are correct. I do have like 2 anti-static bags and several yards of anti-static wrap, but I need it more than you do.



My thoughts exactly.


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