Aluminum foil for anti-static wrapping?

[jaesonk]

I was watching some videos by a guy that repairs old arcade games. In this video he recommends aluminum foil for anti-static wrapping:
[ Show youtube player ]


I've always used plastic anti-static bags. But sometimes I don't have one large enough or my bag supply is low. Aluminum foil would be a convenient alternative. Does anyone else do this with your Amiga boards/cards for shipping or storage? Pros & cons?

[pandy71]

Ages ago i've used styrofoam and aluminium foil to store IC's. It works fine. Cons may be way lower impedance - at some point this may be issue for charged capacitors - by connecting with foil large current may flow and potentially may even damage semiconductor parts. Antistatic bags are usually high impedance (at least few tens of kilo-ohms) - this prevent any significant current to flow. So it is recommended to discharge large, higher voltage caps first...

[Daedalus]

There shouldn't be any capacitors holding a significant charge on an Amiga board, so that won't be an issue. Any clock batteries installed would be a problem however so watch for them. On the whole, foil is probably better than nothing at all, but you want to make sure it's totally enclosed as any parts of the board that are exposed and touch something else can cause the same issues as bare handling.