Back in my days as a linesman in the Airforce we had to drive them into
coral in Hawaii. VERY hard stuff.
The easy way to do it was with a jack hammer. One guy would stand on the
hood of a truck and walk the rod in till a guy on the ground could reach up
and take over. It does mess up the end of the rod but we'd just grind it
smooth or cut off an inch or so once we got it in.
You'd have to be careful about mushrooming the end so much that you couldn't
get it out of the jackhammer though. Eventually we took an old worn out
jackhammer bit and welded a really thick pipe type deal on the end. This
kept the end of the rod in good shape, as the bit took all of the abuse.
Hope this helps,
Marlon
(509) 982-2181 Equipment sales
(408) 907-6910 (Vonage) Consulting services
42846865 (icq) And I run my own wisp!
64.146.146.12 (net meeting)
www.odessaoffice.com/wireless
www.odessaoffice.com/marlon/cam
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom Anderson" <WW5L@gte.net>
To: "Bill Coleman" <aa4lr@arrl.net>
Cc: "'Tower Talk Reflector'" <towertalk@contesting.com>;
<britech@earthlink.net>
Sent: Wednesday, October 25, 2006 7:17 AM
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Sinking ground rods
> Another way is to use a fence post driver available at many Lowe's and
> Home Depot store or nearly any farm and ranch supply store. It is a 2-3
> foot piece of pipe sealed on one end with handles on the side. Also
> generally won't mess up the end of the ground rod like a sledge hammer
> that makes it hard to get a copper clamp over the end. You'll have to
> use a sledge hammer the last 2-3 feet.
>
> If you have a plant root feeder hooked up a hose and letting water run
> at a trickle or something maybe a little faster through the root feeder
> for a day or two really softens up the "black gumbo" heavy clay soil we
> have here in North Texas.
>
> I once discovered a minor drip in a faucet near where I was putting in
> an 8 foot ground rod in a flower bed and apparently the faucet had
> dripped so long that I was able to shove the ground rod in by hand 5-6
> feet (really) and just had to lightly pound the top a few times to get
> it to the point where less than a foot was out of the ground. Yes, I
> had wondered why my water bill had gone up the previous couple of months.
>
> Tom, WW5L
>
>
>
> Bill Coleman wrote:
>> On Aug 14, 2006, at 1:32 AM, Allen R. Brier wrote:
>>
>>
>>>What is the best/easiest method to sink ground rods? I know the
>>>trick of
>>>using water to fill the hole several times to make it easy, but I
>>>have also
>>>heard that the ground contact is not as good using this method vs.
>>>pounding
>>>the rod in the hard way, in dry ground. Which is best?
>>
>>
>> The best way is to pound them in. Doing that can be tricky. It all
>> depends on the soil. I put a couple of ground rods in at W4AN (SK)'s
>> superstation in Dahlonegah, GA. Soil there was undisturbed forest
>> floor. The ground rods could be pushed almost a foot, and hammered in
>> with a 20 oz hammer all but the last two feet. Really soft ground.
>>
>> Most of Georgia isn't like that -- around Atlanta it is hard clay.
>> Back in the mid-80s, I broke three sledgehammer handles trying to put
>> two ground rods in during a drought. After that, I built a tool.
>>
>> My ground rod driving tool consists of a 12" steel pipe nipple with
>> two couplers and a plug on one end. To this, I added a couple of
>> collars and 15 lbs from a set of dumbell weights. The result is a 15
>> lb hammer with about a 1 foot throw that cannot miss.
>>
>> It only takes about 10 minutes to put in a ground rod with this
>> device, even in the hardest clay soil.
>>
>> When I put up my tower five years ago, putting in the four ground
>> rods was a snap.
>>
>> Bill Coleman, AA4LR, PP-ASEL Mail: aa4lr@arrl.net
>> Quote: "Not within a thousand years will man ever fly!"
>> -- Wilbur Wright, 1901
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>>
>>
>>
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>>
>
>
>
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