Ground rod question

Usually done right on the job with a 1/2" "hickey bender". That is a manual bender for 1/2" rigid conduit. Most construction electricians will have one on their truck somewhere.

Vaughn

You would need a Solution 20-25% of Hydrofluoric acid (Nasty Stuff) 50% Nitric acid, and 20-40 Volt, 1 Amp power supply. Depending on time and current, you can get a nice copper coating on any surface. Google Hydrofluoric acid before you even try it. Not something you want to get on any part of your body. As Simon says, go with cold forming.

Jim

It is trivial to get a strike coating of copper on steel. Just put the steel into some copper sulfate (sulphate if you're British).

Grant

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Problem is the colors aren't permanent. Here's a thread on heat painting copper- [and attempts at preserving the colors]

Jim

Rather than attempting the improbable you can get the iridescence by passivating the copper deposited on your material.This involves a short dip in a dilute chromic solution Potassium Dichromate is a good candidate and you can get a similar effect on bright zinc it is a process used to reduce the reactivity of the surface layer of electroplated materials. If my memory serves we used to derust electrolitically using a sodium hydroxide solution with a small quantity of surfactant to wet the job. That was a long time ago approx 30 years so the details are not that fresh when I was a lab technician at GKN Hilton and Tuck Electroplating Division in the UK Derek

Why do you need copper plating? The electrical conduction through a steel rod is plenty for a ground, and a thin layer of copper on the surface isn;t going to make a significant difference.

Is it for preventing rust? Galvanizing would probably be better. I say just bend it. If you need heat, then you will damage the copper in those areas, but the thing will still make a usable ground which should last for years. You could paint the damaged parts with some zinc primer, or smear on some roofing cement.

Copper in solution can be super saturated and dip deposited. That is normally a thin layer at best. Plating is the best way - take a copper pipe/sheet/wire.... and the sheet you want as the other electrode.

There are reasonable web sites that show electro-plating and offer chemicals to aid and do the whole job.

Often large crow feet are used with the object suspended above the foot.

Mart> Today, a friend called me who was doing a project. They had a copper coated

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The copper clad can carry hundreds of amps when asked upon. The steel can't. Electrons flow on the skin. A clamp on the outside puts or gets electrons to or from the ground.

The ground is the important point that the electric company uses at your house.

When you have a power line hit and you have a protective circuit dump the garbage signal (noise) onto the ground line, you don't want it to float. Floating puts it on all of the other ground lines in the house. You save the PC on phase 1, but kill the Plasma TV on Phase 2 - both sharing the common line in the box and common ground connected to the common line.

Martin

Mart> Why do you need copper plating? The electrical conduction through a steel

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Just a quick question here. If the extremely thin electroplated coating on a steel ground rod will carry hundreds of amps, as you say, hows come my 250 amp welder has them big thick cables coming out the front, there?

Bruce-in-Bangkok (correct Address is bpaige125atgmaildotcom)

I think Martin is generalizing incorrectly about the skin effect, which applies only to high frequency AC. It's a phenomenon that becomes important at radio frequencies. At DC, or at low frequencies, conduction is uniform, or nearly so, across the whole section of a conductor.

Of course, copper has something like 10 times the conductivity of steel, so you have to take the thickness of the copper cladding into account, too.

-- Ed Huntress

Saw a used one today at the pawn shop for $10. Is that a good price? Looked new.

Steve

Most of the copper coated ground rods I see are electroplated and the plating is maybe 0.0005 thick. I don't believe it carries much current.

Bruce-in-Bangkok (correct Address is bpaige125atgmaildotcom)

That ground rod is only needed to carry that hundreds of amps for a split second*, until the breaker trips or the lighting strike is over.

Thank You, Randy

Remove 333 from email address to reply.

If you have ever seen the results of an actual lightening strike you wouldn't be quite so casual about the amount of current the ground circuit is required to carry.

Now, if you are talking about "static grounds" as used on airfields or around fuel storage systems that is a totally different proposition.

Bruce-in-Bangkok (correct Address is bpaige125atgmaildotcom)

I informed them when I did the work that it may not pass. I have no idea why they didn't just come out from the concrete and pound them in.

Steve

In my brain, a ground rod is for emergency path of current, and not a constant flow.

What do I win?

Am I right?

Steve

Skin effect is important at 60 hz. too. I forget the exact figure but as I remember at 60 hz it is not worth making conductors over 4 inch in diameter.

Recently saw a house with lightning rods where the wire to ground was Litz wire.

Dan

The problem with the discussion is that there are a number of different types of "grounds". One, for example, the "static ground" is designed to dissipate static electricity to avoid igniting fuel during a re-fueling operation. It has been many years since I worked on that type of system but if I remember correctly the resistance can be in the 1,000's of ohms.

Then we have the grounds used with lightening rod systems that may be required to carry Mega, or Giga-amps of current.

Then there are the ground systems for radio antenna systems and grounds for safety (and maybe even grounds for grounds :-).

What kind of ground are we talking about.

Bruce-in-Bangkok (correct Address is bpaige125atgmaildotcom)