Grounding issues on Cut-50D

Today I noticed some strange behaviour with my installation of the cut50d. I have had trouble striking arcs in the past days (I just started using it) and today I didn't even get air. I looked into it. When placing the ground clamp on the work piece I noticed really small arcs just as the clamp was about to touch the workpiece. The first thing I wondered about is that I had not grounded the chassis only the ground wire on the power plug so I added a chassis ground wire to the power plug. The sparks were still there. there was still no air or arc. I then noticed if I held the ground clamp in my hand not touching anything else and held the torch right next to it I would get air and arc. I placed my workpiece on a pice of wood so it was insulated from my metal work bench, attached the clamp and presto I got a great cut. I am pretty sure this is not normal although at least I have a workaround. Can anyone advise me what the problem might be? I suspect insulating all my workpieces will become a hassle.

thanks
Ed

Ed,

You PM'd me as well as posted. Did you try what I mentioned in the PM. It sound like a ground problem either in your shop wiring or in the unit. Let me know.

Wow what great support!

Thank you Everlast for helping me through this. Turns out the CUT-50D was in perfect order and I had a problem with my workbench. It seems that even though a workbench is gronded to the cement floor it is not that same as if it is connected to electrical ground through a wire which is what was happening to me. I never would have figured this out witout some help from Mike in the support group.

I can't wait to do some projects this weekend!

Thanks Ed,

Yea, as an EE like yourself, I too was stumped.

But we figured it out. Great talking to you and enjoy the unit.

Thanks coming back and posting. This is good info and will be added to the online manual.