Re: driving copper pipe

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

Original poster: "Dave Leddon by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <dave-at-leddon-dot-com>

At 05:18 PM 8/6/03 -0600, you wrote:
>Original poster: "Terry Fritz" <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>
>
>Hi,
>
>There is "real" ground rod!  Thick copper coated 1/2" hard steel.  I like 
>to sharpen the end far sharper than it comes from the store.  Any 
>electrical supply house will have it as do many big home stores.  Don't 
>use soft copper pipe unless your ground is like peat moss or you have a 
>house boat ;o))  Just call around for ground rod.  I think Radio Shack 
>also has it.
>
>I pound it into the Colorado clay as far as possible and cut off what is 
>left sticking up.  They are six feet long and I have been known to cut off 
>four feet :o))
>
>Las Vegas has some kind of cement like soil called kalika (sp) that makes 
>clay look like butter!!

Worse than concrete.  It doesn't break when you hit it.  Pool contractors 
in the area offer caliche insurance for about $2000 since a large patch of 
the stuff can add thousands to the cost of digging the hole.


>Cheers,
>
>         Terry
>
>
>At 04:54 PM 6/1/2003 -0400, you wrote:
>>I'm sure many of you know how hard it is to drive long pieces of copper 
>>pipe into hard ground to make an RF ground, such as my yard which has a 
>>lot of clay in it.  I was wondering if it would be alright to fill a 5' 
>>piece of .5" or .75" copper pipe with quick cement to make it sturdy 
>>enough to pound into the ground.  If not what other method could I use to 
>>get the pipe into the ground?
Former Vegas resident,
Dave