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Posted by Leo Lichtman on May 1, 2008, 1:46 pm
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Why do you need copper plating? The electrical conduction through a steel
rod is plenty for a ground, and a thin layer of copper on the surface isn;t
going to make a significant difference.
Is it for preventing rust? Galvanizing would probably be better. I say
just bend it. If you need heat, then you will damage the copper in those
areas, but the thing will still make a usable ground which should last for
years. You could paint the damaged parts with some zinc primer, or smear on
some roofing cement.
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Posted by Martin H. Eastburn on May 1, 2008, 9:42 pm
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The copper clad can carry hundreds of amps when asked upon. The steel can't.
Electrons flow on the skin. A clamp on the outside puts or gets electrons
to or from the ground.
The ground is the important point that the electric company uses at your house.
When you have a power line hit and you have a protective circuit dump the
garbage signal (noise) onto the ground line, you don't want it to float.
Floating puts it on all of the other ground lines in the house.
You save the PC on phase 1, but kill the Plasma TV on Phase 2 - both sharing
the common line in the box and common ground connected to the common line.
Martin
Martin H. Eastburn
@ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net
TSRA, Endowed; NRA LOH & Patron Member, Golden Eagle, Patriot's Medal.
NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder
IHMSA and NRA Metallic Silhouette maker & member.
http://lufkinced.com/
Leo Lichtman wrote:
> Why do you need copper plating? The electrical conduction through a steel
> rod is plenty for a ground, and a thin layer of copper on the surface isn;t
> going to make a significant difference.
>
> Is it for preventing rust? Galvanizing would probably be better. I say
> just bend it. If you need heat, then you will damage the copper in those
> areas, but the thing will still make a usable ground which should last for
> years. You could paint the damaged parts with some zinc primer, or smear on
> some roofing cement.
>
>
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Posted by Bruce in Bangkok on May 2, 2008, 2:03 am
Please log in for more thread options On Thu, 01 May 2008 20:42:06 -0500, "Martin H. Eastburn"
>The copper clad can carry hundreds of amps when asked upon. The steel can't.
>Electrons flow on the skin. A clamp on the outside puts or gets electrons
>to or from the ground.
Just a quick question here. If the extremely thin electroplated
coating on a steel ground rod will carry hundreds of amps, as you say,
hows come my 250 amp welder has them big thick cables coming out the
front, there?
Bruce-in-Bangkok
(correct Address is bpaige125atgmaildotcom)
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Posted by Ed Huntress on May 2, 2008, 2:38 am
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> On Thu, 01 May 2008 20:42:06 -0500, "Martin H. Eastburn"
>
>>The copper clad can carry hundreds of amps when asked upon. The steel
>>can't.
>>Electrons flow on the skin. A clamp on the outside puts or gets electrons
>>to or from the ground.
>
> Just a quick question here. If the extremely thin electroplated
> coating on a steel ground rod will carry hundreds of amps, as you say,
> hows come my 250 amp welder has them big thick cables coming out the
> front, there?
>
>
> Bruce-in-Bangkok
> (correct Address is bpaige125atgmaildotcom)
I think Martin is generalizing incorrectly about the skin effect, which
applies only to high frequency AC. It's a phenomenon that becomes important
at radio frequencies. At DC, or at low frequencies, conduction is uniform,
or nearly so, across the whole section of a conductor.
Of course, copper has something like 10 times the conductivity of steel, so
you have to take the thickness of the copper cladding into account, too.
--
Ed Huntress
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Posted by Bruce in Bangkok on May 2, 2008, 5:56 am
Please log in for more thread options On Fri, 2 May 2008 02:38:13 -0400, "Ed Huntress"
>
>> On Thu, 01 May 2008 20:42:06 -0500, "Martin H. Eastburn"
>>
>>>The copper clad can carry hundreds of amps when asked upon. The steel
>>>can't.
>>>Electrons flow on the skin. A clamp on the outside puts or gets electrons
>>>to or from the ground.
>>
>> Just a quick question here. If the extremely thin electroplated
>> coating on a steel ground rod will carry hundreds of amps, as you say,
>> hows come my 250 amp welder has them big thick cables coming out the
>> front, there?
>>
>>
>> Bruce-in-Bangkok
>> (correct Address is bpaige125atgmaildotcom)
>
>I think Martin is generalizing incorrectly about the skin effect, which
>applies only to high frequency AC. It's a phenomenon that becomes important
>at radio frequencies. At DC, or at low frequencies, conduction is uniform,
>or nearly so, across the whole section of a conductor.
>
>Of course, copper has something like 10 times the conductivity of steel, so
>you have to take the thickness of the copper cladding into account, too.
Most of the copper coated ground rods I see are electroplated and the
plating is maybe 0.0005 thick. I don't believe it carries much
current.
Bruce-in-Bangkok
(correct Address is bpaige125atgmaildotcom)
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> rod is plenty for a ground, and a thin layer of copper on the surface isn;t
> going to make a significant difference.
>
> Is it for preventing rust? Galvanizing would probably be better. I say
> just bend it. If you need heat, then you will damage the copper in those
> areas, but the thing will still make a usable ground which should last for
> years. You could paint the damaged parts with some zinc primer, or smear on
> some roofing cement.
>
>