copper clad ?????

Gary Max

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So I am standing in line at Lowes yesterday at the service counter check out and some guy walks in with a copper rod that he cut in half. Remember this is would be hard to make up---- he did not want a refund he just wanted to give it back to them. The gal tried telling him that she could not give a refund on items cut in half and he keep telling her he just wanted to give it back to them. Being a helpful kinda guy I told the guy that I would be happy to take it off his hands---------- you guessed right----- he handed both halves and I went on my way.
When I got home I read the tag--------- copper clad do not use as a ground rod----------- so what would you use it for-------- looks to be 3/4 round and was 8 foot long before being cut.
 
I've wondered that before too.
For ground rods I use copper water pipe.
I have a grid of them around my tower and IIRC they are spaced about 8' apart which was based on the soil type I have here.

I guess the lady at Lowes couldn't find the return for free button and was perplexed about what to do.
Kind of like some people looking for the "any" key on their keyboard.
 
It was getting to funny----- she was going to need some kind of help to solve the problem.
 
That's what they're selling at home depot for ground rod. I bought some about a year ago in the electrical dept. It's a steel core with a copper ribbon wound around it. It really said "do not use for ground rod"?

Marcel
 
That's what they're selling at home depot for ground rod. I bought some about a year ago in the electrical dept. It's a steel core with a copper ribbon wound around it. It really said "do not use for ground rod"?

Marcel
I've seen the clad ones before and the stores "imply" they are ground rods but the label says not for ground rod use.
With the clad ones the copper will most likely scrape off driving it into the ground.

For lightening protection there is a way to figure out how many Joules a grid field can take.
It's been a couple of decades but it involves the normal level of the water table, soil type and length of rod.
The ground rod will only dissipate the energy a certain distance from the rod and it varies with moisture level and length of the rod.
Then you space out the other rods so the patterns meet up with each other and keep adding until you have the protect level you can live with.

One strike here was a direct hit to the 150' tower and the feild was under size at the time and the excess energy came down the coax lines into the barn and blew out about $30k worth of radio gear.
I was in the barn at the time and when the sparks hit the fan I was running out the door as fast as I could move.........
Now the antennas are disconnected when the gear isn't in use.
 
You learn something new everyday. I just thought they were making them that way because of the high cost of copper.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk
 
I take copper water pipe beat one end til it is just about closed then grind a V point to it.
Then I hook a water hose to the open end and let the water pressure hydraulically drill the way down.

Well, my break is over I just came in from checking a field and it is dry enough from the rain to shell some corn.
So much fun driving 1.5mph across the field back and forth....
 
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