RE: driving copper pipe

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

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

Or use 5/8" OD water pipe (it's the standard 1/2" ID sold everywhere)
and cut the end off a 5/8" ID garden hose (remember to get a repair kit
at Home Depot), mount the hose on one end of the water pipe and use a
trickle of water to ease its way into the ground.

When you cut the end off the garden hose, do it six feet back from the
end so you don't have to handle the splice all the time when watering.
Don't use a huge amount of water, it's slow starting at first but once
you get the dirt and clay wet, it goes really easy.  Sometimes you will
hit larger rocks, lift up and angle over a few degrees.  Try rotating
the pipe as you are doing this so the end of the pipe 'walks' over the
top of the obstruction.

Finally, if you only get five feet into the ground, fine - cut it off
there and go with it.  For a really good ground, use three or four
spaced six feet apart and use braid or large wire to connect them.



 > -----Original Message-----
 > From: Tesla list [mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com]
 > Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2003 7:07 PM
 > To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
 > Subject: Re: driving copper pipe
 >
 >
 > Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz
 > <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <dhmccauley-at-spacecatlighting-dot-com>
 >
 >
 > They sell copper ground rods at any local Home Depot for
 > about $5.00 each. They are typically copper plated steel rods
 > or similar which work very well for low to high power tesla
 > coils.  No need to use actual copper pipe and fill with
 > cement.  Just buy one of those 6 to 8 foot long ground rods
 > and pound into ground with a sledge hammer.
 >
 > The Captain
 >
 >
 >  > 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?  >  >  >  >  >
 >
 >
 >