Ground Rods

[genlock]

Has anyone ever used a big rotary hammer (electric) to drive ground rods?
I would be interested in your comments if you have done this.
I am looking at one of the heavier duty Bosch units or a Hilti.
(Bosch 11247 or 11248evs)
I would like to do 3/4 inch rods to 10 feet down.
I don't think a demolition hammer is usable by one person on a stepladder.
Bits are available for these rotary hammers in SDS and hex.

[fearpeddler]

you could use a hand-held pile driver, they weigh anywhere from 30 pounds up...

theres a pic of what i'm talkin about

[genlock]

That thing looks like a lot of work.
I just bought a 'lectric one.

[Tom Taggart]

Cut them in half, then double the number of rods, and tie them all together with heavy gauge copper wire. You can't drive the ground rod in very far because you are hitting rock, which we have plenty of in these here hills. But even if you managed to get the ground rod all the way into the rock it wouldn't help very much because the bottom half of the rod is sitting in this not very conductive rock

Since the point of the exercise is to provide a good return path for those electrons to earth (or visa-versa, if you prefer), what you really want is a lot of copper spread over and through the the top 15 to 20 inches of soil which--at least part of the time-- is fairly moist and conductive. I.E.--a ground system.

We take care of the "moist" part by running a 00 cable from the base of our tower into several ground rods pounded into the leach bed for the septic system.

[genlock]

I have been researching cad-weld one shot exothermic welding to attach wire to ground rods.
I see some for $7.50 but I will have to verify the type I need.
I bought a Bosch hammer/drill/driver and an sds-max ground rod driver bit for it.
Now I will look for a nema-4 cabinet for the protectors to reside in.
I will have coaxes, rotor cables, antenna control cable for SteppIR and probably other things.
I have four towers so far. Plan a ring ground around the house. Augment all present grounds.

Anybody have a big nema box?

[Cameron]

Grounds - *ussy*.

[Dave Harman]

The most important part of the installation is the internet camera, so you can see who hooks their 4-wheel drive to the whole thing and tries to pull it up a week after you put it in.

[cgarison]

I have been researching cad-weld one shot exothermic welding to attach wire to ground rods.
I see some for $7.50 but I will have to verify the type I need.

I have seen volcanoes erupt with less violence than some of those CADweld systems. Are you sure that you can find a lug to make the connection?