On Sun, 22 Jan 2006 20:36:33 -0700, Eric F. Richards
wrote:

wrote:

One detail I've never seen described is the attachment of the copper
(flashing) strap to a ground rod. Is it adequate to simply tie it in
place with wire or perhaps wrap it around about 270 degrees and clinch
it with a couple of bars and some sort of anti-oxident?

I've tried clamps, with less than great success.

The "official" way to do it is to use an exothermic weld -- a small
thermite burn contained within molded clay around the ground rod and
strap to melt the two into each other. This has the advantage of no
welding material to break, and it's actually cheap.

That is pretty slick. After a few moments hesitation googling
the word thermite, (but dammit, that would be letting the terrorists
win,) I found a couple of interesting video clips and the Cadweld
website http://www.erico.com/ which offered ceramic and graphite molds
for a variety of similar applications. What type of clay that would be
appropriate here?