beseler 45 and ground fault interrupter

[Ralph Miyashiro]

Hi all, I'm getting my darkroom up and running. All electrical goes through a ground fault interrupter. When I plug in the motor for the Beseler the ground fault trips. This is without the motor running. I lifted the ground with a cheater plug and all is fine but I presume the enlarger chassis is not grounded ( I did get a little buzz touching an old time-o-lite timer and chassis at the same time, switched to a plastic digital timer). Anyone know of an obvious remedy? Anyone else experience the same thing? I thought about doing some type of dedicated wire from chassis to ground. Any thoughts or advice? Thanks.

Ralph

[Jim C.]

Sounds like a current leak in your enlarger setup maybe from a loose connection, frayed, burnt wiring somewhere.
The lamp housing or the timer may be the culprit, I'd check those first ( unplugged of course ).

[Ralph Miyashiro]

Jim, lamp housing on a two prong plug, timer is three prong. With lamp plugged into timer, timer into wall there is no problem, I can operate the lamp via the timer w/o tripping the GFI. The motor to raise and lower is on a three prong plug and that trips the GFI, thus the ground lift with the cheater plug.

[Kevin Crisp]

I'd say the motor part of the enlarger has a short and is leaking some current to ground. The GFI trips because it is very sensitive and detects that small amount of hot voltage going to ground. It takes mighty few AC 60 cycle milliamps to stop your heart by interrupting its normal electrical signals. This is extemely dangerous, especially in a darkroom where you have water, and pipes and stuff like that. Unplug the enlarger and get it fixed. I'd look for a frayed or cracked wire on the "hot" side of the wiring, making some contact with the chassis. Any "little buzzing" is further evidence of leakage. If it enters your body and goes across your chest you're a goner. Life is giving you a friendly warning sign, heed it.

[SMBooth]

Kevin's right the earth protection is tripping for a reason. Get it fixed.

[Brian C. Miller]

... I did get a little buzz ... Anyone know of an obvious remedy?

+1 to what Kevin wrote.
If you don't want to die of electrocution, get the wiring fixed. If you aren't adept at tinkering with things like this, take this to an appliance repair shop. Look for one that works with odd stuff, and you'll be set.

[Jim C.]

I agree with Kevin, I forgot that your Beseler has a motor ( I'm an Omega user ) and if that's plugged in and trips the breaker it's probably the culprit.
Doesn't hurt to check everything else too, especially if it's used equipment or was bought new and has been stored for a long time.

[Kevin Crisp]

Ralph, hope you got the message that this is life and death we're discussing here. Finding a fix like using plastic digital timer is not a fix. Until the point of contact between the hot wire in or on the enlarger and the chassis is located and appropriately replaced or insulated (i.e., not just wrapped in electrical tape) this is a fatal accident waiting to happen.

[Ralph Miyashiro]

yes got the message!

[Patrick13]

Every story you've ever read about a musician keeling over dead on stage when they plug in their guitar or grab the mic is because of this kind of electrical fault.