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Why I'm the rod driver - clean version.

3K views 38 replies 16 participants last post by  CMP 
#1 ·
#8 ·
#27 ·
I've got a ground rod to put in today. The tool I will be using is my apprentice. Heavier weight and I plan to leave him unattended as well. That said, I like the idea of the weighted hammer. Less so the unattended part.

Exposed service entrance cables would be a big fail up here. Crazy what they let fly in some places.
 
#34 ·
Many years ago, I was driving my second 8' grounding electrode up in the mountains, on very hard terrain one day and using a 12 lb. sledgehammer and was getting only about 1/4" per hit after the first two feet, After, a good 3 hours, I was soaked with sweat and in another couple of feet, but I was finally getting nearly 3/4" per hard wack. I was almost all the way flush and pleased as punch as I wasn't going to let it beat me. I stopped to take a breath, then raise the hammer to give it the few last swings and as I stepped back, I stepped on something that hadn't been there before. It was the point of the grounding electrode. It had come up about 4' from where I had started hammering it in. Then later years, when I became an electrical inspector, I told this story to electricians in the field. One day, these two guys, who were contractors came in and said, "You know Vic, when you told us about that ground rod story, about it coming back up on you, years ago, we figured you were full of $hit but yesterday, we were using our portable electric jackhammer to put in the ground rods up at the house you're going out to inspect today and guess what, the same thing happened to us. We're sorry we ever doubted you. It was just so hard to believe something like that could really happen.

Oh, to the guy that is cutting off grounding electrodes, I carried a grounding electrode tester as an inspector, that could register the grounding effect of the grounding electrodes and it would tell me their length as I had been a contractor and at times had to cut off a little bit of the end of the rod to get the clamp on but I always left the piece in the panel for the inspector to see with a note, explaining my action. They never gave me any trouble over that. The intentional shortening of a grounding electrode in Washington State can and usually does, result in the loss of one's Administrator's (contractor's) license, just so you know. I'm not sure about other areas. What was dumb, was when I found the metal cuttings by the garage or side of the building where their truck had been parked where they had cut the rod or finding the cut off piece out in the weeds if I walked the area when I could see the cut marks in the top of the metal. It's very hard to hide, hacksaw blade marks plus driving galvanization or copper into the head of the rod, definitely leaves a different mark that one that has been cut doesn't have It's just tricks you learn over the years.

Vic
 
#35 ·
Many years ago, I was driving my second 8' grounding electrode up in the mountains, on very hard terrain one day and using a 12 lb. sledgehammer and was getting only about 1/4" per hit after the first two feet, After, a good 3 hours, I was soaked with sweat and in another couple of feet, but I was finally getting nearly 3/4" per hard wack. I was almost all the way flush and pleased as punch as I wasn't going to let it beat me. I stopped to take a breath, then raise the hammer to give it the few last swings and as I stepped back, I stepped on something that hadn't been there before. It was the point of the grounding electrode. It had come up about 4' from where I had started hammering it in. Then later years, when I became an electrical inspector, I told this story to electricians in the field. One day, these two guys, who were contractors came in and said, "You know Vic, when you told us about that ground rod story, about it coming back up on you, years ago, we figured you were full of $hit but yesterday, we were using our portable electric jackhammer to put in the ground rods up at the house you're going out to inspect today and guess what, the same thing happened to us. We're sorry we ever doubted you. It was just so hard to believe something like that could really happen.

Oh, to the guy that is cutting off grounding electrodes, I carried a grounding electrode tester as an inspector, that could register the grounding effect of the grounding electrodes and it would tell me their length as I had been a contractor and at times had to cut off a little bit of the end of the rod to get the clamp on but I always left the piece in the panel for the inspector to see with a note, explaining my action. They never gave me any trouble over that. The intentional shortening of a grounding electrode in Washington State can and usually does, result in the loss of one's Administrator's (contractor's) license, just so you know. I'm not sure about other areas. What was dumb, was when I found the metal cuttings by the garage or side of the building where their truck had been parked where they had cut the rod or finding the cut off piece out in the weeds if I walked the area when I could see the cut marks in the top of the metal. It's very hard to hide, hacksaw blade marks plus driving galvanization or copper into the head of the rod, definitely leaves a different mark that one that has been cut doesn't have It's just tricks you learn over the years.

Vic
is the grounding electrode tester showing resistance to earth? if so, how would it show length of ground rod?
 
#38 ·
drove a ground rod today thru hard red clay but didn't hit any rock. took longer to unload and set up driver and reload than to drive rod. glad I didn't have to mess with strapping on barbell weights, would have had significant impact on time the task took

ground looked less than 25 ohm so I just drove one
 
#39 ·
The real reason rod driver made that unattended weighted rig driver is because of his choice of rotary hammer. With that 1980's red handle tool you might be there for an hour holding it trying to drive a rod. Trying to use it to drill a 1-1/2" in a 12" hard brick wall? forget about it. It's much faster to carry a pop bottle of water and use that to lube the hole as you poke the hole with your rod, remove and repeat. In SE Michigan the ground is mostly clean sand once you get below the topsoil and buried construction debris.

I purchased one of those rotary hammers new and it was the biggest POS I ever owned, it went to the factory service center six times before they could make it half way work on the hammer function. They finally redesigned all of the internal components to get it to function. By that time I had purchase a Hilti that gets the job done pronto, and relegated the repaired unit to a backup chipping hammer or a loaner to friends.

I own many red handle tools and like them, but that one was nothing but a frustrating, time wasting joke.
 
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