Hey Bob, My brother mentioned using a hammer drill to drive the copper rod into the ground. I own one of these tools but have never used it. Sounds like a good time to break it in. I think I'm going to drive the rod into the ground right along the cinderblock foundation of the house. Doing this should help me avoid most of the rocks in my yard. Also, if the ground is frozen, the rod should still go into the ground without much trouble. Take care, Ed
_____ From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Bob Kennedy Sent: Monday, December 17, 2007 5:14 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] Generator Grounding Follow-UP My good man Ed, There are tools designed for such a task! I had to have a new service installed from the pole to the house last summer. The town I live in is full of government officials that take pleasure in making life difficult for people of the town that want to do things on their own. We had an electrician hook the wiring up. Of course this meant he also had to install the copper rod. But they used some sort of hammer drill set up. I wasn't outside with them but I will find out what they used. You can rent one and make life much nicer for all the ladies in your neighborhood. Unfortunately you'll need to do this in a hurry so the ground doesn't freeze first... Sorry, another poke at the weather. Let me do some checking as I will also have to drive one of them in shortly for my shop I am running power to. ----- Original Message ----- From: Edward Przybylek To: BlindHandyMan Sent: Sunday, December 16, 2007 10:13 PM Subject: [BlindHandyMan] Generator Grounding Follow-UP Hi all, After all your replies, I decided to ground my new generator. Better safe then sorry. When the manual said that not grounding the generator could pose the threat of electricution, it made me decide it was the best course of action. I went to Home Depot to purchase the necessary supplies. I picked up a lenght of 10 gauge stranded copper wire and then went to search for the copper grounding rod. The thing you guys forgot to mention is that the freaking rod is 8 feet long. I asked the associate how much of the rod I should cut off the 8 foot length to pound into the ground. That's when he said "All 8 feet." My first response was "Are you for real!" My soil is 5% dirt and 95% rock. Getting 8 feet of anything that deep in my yard is going to be a task meant for the Gods and not a mere mortal like myself. The last time I pounded any kind of rod into my yard was a galvanized pipe to support a newly planted evergreen to help it make it through the winter. It went down approximately 3 feet and stopped dead. I mushroomed the top of the pipe with a four pound mallet but the pipe went no further. Now you expect me to pound an 8 foot copper rod into the ground! Yeah, right. What I'm anticipating is a very bent rod and a flurry of filthy words that till make the ladies in the neighbor hood blush wildly and hurry their children indoors. From now on, gentlemen, make sure you mention the finer points of a task before making recommendations. <big smile> Let you know how it goes. Take care, Ed [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
