"Rick (W-A-one-R-K-T)" wrote in message
news

How about a 10-foot length of copper water pipe, connected to a garden
hose with an adapter fitting (as simple as a short length of another
garden hose, clamped to the pipe with radiator hose clamps). Run water
down the pipe and stick the pipe in the ground, pulling it up and pushing
it down so that the water helps drill the hole in a manner just like you
described. Keep it up until it has gone in as far as it will go, then (if
it hasn't gone in the whole 10 feet) cut it off and solder a copper cap on
the end.

You end up with a hollow pipe in the ground instead of a solid steel rod,
but everything I read about lightning strikes says that the vast majority
of the current flows in skin effect anyway.


Copper clad steel rods are made precisely because the copper cladding on the
outside skin is what conducts the current anyhow. So it makes no difference
whether you utilize copper pipe or copper clad steek rods. To drive copper
pipe down I use a length of about 1 foot of aluminum tubing connected to a
garden hose (tubing fits in garden hose and is clamped tightly, Aluminum
tubing slides into copper pipe. The rubber hose goes up against the copper
tubing rather tightly to make a quasi seal, it'll be enough although some
little bit of spray from backpressure will come out. Turn on the faucet and
the copper pipe will very quickly begin to drive itself into the ground.
Enough slurried wet soil mix will compact around the pipe to make a good
earth ground contact but I usually let the hose saturate the ground area
around it for about a half hour after so the voids fill in.

Bill KC9CS
http://home1.gte.net/res0958z/