There are a couple of leads on the powder-coat unit.
One goes to the gun, one goes to a ground clip, and one goes to a foot pedal.
When the pedal is pressed, it charges the gun and the ground clip negative and positive. That clip was connected to the metal wire that we hung the pieces from.
So what happens when you TOUCH a positive gun to a negative-grounded hunk of metal? Pretty much the same thing that happens in your car when you touch positive to the frame!
OK, not quite the same - it's more of a high-voltage/low amperage kind of a spark. Much more like a really bad shock from walking across carpet in the winter and touching the light switch ground screw.
Still, it scared the heck out of me.
The air pressure wasn't real well regulated, so I was holding the gun kinda close. I think I jumped every time I made a spark. Tim was laughing at me....