frozen ground - driving tool

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Dave Halliday by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <dh-at-synthstuff-dot-com>

Two options present themselves...

Use 1/2" copper water pipe for your ground rod.  Use a length of
garden hose clamped to the top and feed a trickle of hot water
through as you are pushing the pipe into the ground.  This not
only melts the frozen part but also serves to loosen the rest of
the earth as well.  I did this during the summer for some ground
rods a number of years ago and it worked great - leave a couple
inches sticking out and put a flower pot on top of it when you
aren't using it.

There is a tool for driving metal "garden" fence posts - it's a
2" diameter metal pipe with a 10-pound weight on the end.  The
post fits inside of the pipe for two feet or so - you can lift
the pipe up and drop it onto the post and it will hit the post
solidly with zero fear of missing ( and hitting your foot ) since
it is captive.  You can build something like this for $3 worth of
PVC pipe and some ready mix cement.  Cheap and it works well...

 > > -----Original Message-----
 > > From: Tesla list [mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com]
 > > Sent: Saturday, December 07, 2002 9:19 PM
 > > To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
 > > Subject: Re: frozen ground ground
 > >
 > >
 > > Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
 > > <dhmccauley-at-spacecatlighting-dot-com>
 > >
 > > Don't give up.  The frozen ground only extends maybe a foot.
 > > After that the
 > > temperature of the ground is about a good 55 degF year round.
 > > You should try a bit harder.  I could drive my ground rod through the
 > > sidewalk if I wanted to.  Just need someone (to use something)
 > to support
 > > the
 > > rod while the other person uses the end of a very heavy sledgehammer to
 > > slowly pound it in.  Believe me, do it like this, and the rod will go
 > > through
 > > that frozen ground like butter.
 > >
 > > Dan
 > >
 > >
 > >
 > >  > I'm wanting to ground my tesla coil but because of the time of
 > > year, there
 > > is
 > >  > no way of driving a stake into the ground or even turning
 > some earth to
 > > put a
 > >  > piece of flashing in. Also I don't know if the frozen ground
 > > would act too
 > >  > well
 > >  > of a ground anyway. How would you guys suggest I ground my
 > coil? I was
 > >  > thinking
 > >  > about driving 20 or 30 really long nails into a piece of plywood then
 > >  > connecting them all on the top of the board. I would then
 > place that on
 > > the
 > >  > ground and jump on it or something to push into into the
 > earth at least
 > > some.
 > >  > Does anyone think that might work? If not, do any of you have
 > > a suggestion
 > > of
 > >  > how I might ground the coil?
 > >  >
 > >  > Matt Morrissette
 > >  >
 > >  >