Ground rod material, stainless?

[Erick Davidson]

I am looking into what I need to do for a ground rod or spike for my plasma table. Most seem to call out copper or copper clad 6 to 8 feet long (the one outside my house seems to be plain rebar). This doesn't have to be vertical does it? Could two 4 foot rods do the same function? Lastly, could stainless rod be used? I ask as I have great access to cheap stainless, not so much copper or copper clad. Thanks for your input!
Cheers, Erick

[Hommersimpson]

I did a search for ground rod on google shoping.. and they sell stainless grounding rods... sooooooooooo ID have to say yes.. ?

[jimcolt]

You can get a 10' copper clad ground rod in the electrical department of Home Depot for about $10. In most soils it is fairly easy to drive it in using a hammer.....if not, shorter lengths may work as long as the soil is moist.

[Ark1]

As an electrician I will provide you with the following,

Grounding is normally required to deliver a low impedance path to drain off spikes and allow over current devices to trip.

On the conductivity scale

Copper is 100%
Alumium is 84%
Steel is 15%
and Stainless Steel is 8% or less.

Low impedance means low resistance and reluctance to allow a quick discharge of current. The higher the resistance the more the spike will linger and the longer it will take for over current devices to trip or clear a fault. ( circuit breakers and fuses) Personally I would go for the copper clad ground Rods. When I worked the Ford's electronic assembly plant we would drill a 1" hole through the concrete 8" floor and drive down a 10 x 3/4" foot copper clad ground rod, this would be attached to the frame of the equipment to drain off static. A #6 copper wire and bronze clamp would be used. The reason for the long length of the rod was to assure that the rod hit wet soil to better drain off the spike.
Dry sandy soils do little to aid in grounding.

TonyK.

[Erick Davidson]

Thank you all for the concise information. I think I will go down to Home Depot this weekend to pick up some copper clad. I am still a bit unsure how well I will do driving a ten foot spike into the ground. A three foot concrete form stake is a bit of a push to drive in the soil around here. But it has been raining lately, wish me luck. Thanks again!
Cheers, Erick

[jimcolt]

Make a driver with a piece of iron pipe with a cap welded on one end...slide it over the rod and hammer away. We have about as many rocks here in NH as anyone....and I usually can drive one in 10" without an issue...other than a little sweat.

Jim

[Erick Davidson]

Like a fence post driver!

Wow, I feel dumb, I made one of those years ago to help put up some barb wire fence. I think I still have it in my shed, it appears I do have the right tool for the job already.

Thanks, Jim!

[jimcolt]

I have a really big heavy driver that I use to drive the pipes in that supports my boat dock on the lake......for a ground rod make it out of maybe 1-1/4" heavy wall pipe so it has some weight.....works great!

Good luck. Jim

[Andre' B]

I made one with about 3' of 3/4 pipe, the "CAP" I welded on was solid bar stock 3" diameter and 12" long.

A larger hammer drill with a solid impact socket will vibrate them down without breaking a sweat.

[MA$TER_E]

Hey guys this thread was interesting. My K2 Router is currently ungrounded and sits 4 feet in the air on a wooden work bench and I think I'm starting to pay the price for that. Its been doing "weird" things lately so I asked a buddy that runs a machine shop and the first thing he asked was how good is the ground I have going to the machine...

Are Plasma machines different from any other machines? I'd imagine that mills, lathes, routers and the like should all be grounded this way; right?

[millman52]

Although I can't really imagine driving a length of copper pipe into the ground. Someone once told me that CU pipe drilled full of small holes then filled with Cu sulfate would enhance the grounding ability of the ground spike once the Cu sulfate had a bit of time to leach out into the soil.

Myth or Real?? Anyone know??

[Al_The_Man]

Someone once told me that CU pipe drilled full of small holes then filled with Cu sulfate would enhance the grounding ability of the ground spike once the Cu sulfate had a bit of time to leach out into the soil.

Game over for any trees close by.
Al.