On Tue, 28 Dec 2004 19:04:04 -0500, "Jim Leder"
wrote:

Odd thing to use, but it works: Worcestershire Sauce.
Easy to find at the groceries. I've used it on copper pennies for years, and
old copper wire. But if you solder the wire after cleaning, it smells like
you are cooking something, but solders just fine.

Did a Google on cleaning copper, and the most common cleaner for
copper pots appears to be vinegar and salt, or lemon juice and salt.
Maybe Worcestershire sauce has same ingredients?

Or, maybe I'll just have to drive a new ground rod :-)

Bob
k5qwg




"Bob Miller" wrote in message
.. .
I have a ground rod that has become corroded. My VOM measures no
continuity between the rod and the ground wire.

Is there and easy spray-on cleaner of some kind that would make the
ground rod shiney and conductive again, where I attach the ground
wire? (I don't think I can pull the rod out to replace it; it'd be
easier to fix what I have.)

Tnx,

Bob
k5qwg

In article ,
Bob Miller wrote:

Did a Google on cleaning copper, and the most common cleaner for
copper pots appears to be vinegar and salt, or lemon juice and salt.
Maybe Worcestershire sauce has same ingredients?

The magic 8-ball known as Google seems to agree that you're right.
Most of the Worcestershire sauce recipies contain anchovies (quite
salty), and either vinegar or lemon or orange juice or some
combination thereof.

As to copper cleaners - one I remember favorably from my boyhood
puttering-with-chemistry days is a mix of sodium bicarbonate (baking
soda) and dilute ammonium hydroxide ("5% household ammonia water",
either clear or sudzy). The resulting slurry takes tarnish off of
copper or silver almost instantly (although I don't know how much of
the metal in the tarnish is returned to the surface and how much ends
up in the slurry).

Use with appropriate caution, gloves, and ventilation, of course.

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Hosting the Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!

"Bob Miller" wrote
Did a Google on cleaning copper, and the most common cleaner for
copper pots appears to be vinegar and salt, or lemon juice and salt.
Maybe Worcestershire sauce has same ingredients?

Or, maybe I'll just have to drive a new ground rod :-)

Bob
k5qwg

Yessir my friend, the latter is your best move, and at about $12 it just
isn't worth the worry about longevity of a compromised electrode! Do resist
the temptation to push a new one back in the same hole, o.k.? ;-)

While you're at Home Depot, pick up a few, and add those extra ones you were
meaning to do. It might be Lowe's that carries the pre-cut 25' lengths of #4
copper grounding wire for about $8. These are such cheap solutions to
sleepless nights during thunderstorms!

73,
Jack Painter
Virginia Beach, VA

On Tue, 28 Dec 2004 21:23:04 -0500, "Jack Painter"
wrote:


"Bob Miller" wrote
Did a Google on cleaning copper, and the most common cleaner for
copper pots appears to be vinegar and salt, or lemon juice and salt.
Maybe Worcestershire sauce has same ingredients?

Or, maybe I'll just have to drive a new ground rod :-)

Bob
k5qwg

Yessir my friend, the latter is your best move, and at about $12 it just
isn't worth the worry about longevity of a compromised electrode! Do resist
the temptation to push a new one back in the same hole, o.k.? ;-)

While you're at Home Depot, pick up a few, and add those extra ones you were
meaning to do. It might be Lowe's that carries the pre-cut 25' lengths of #4
copper grounding wire for about $8. These are such cheap solutions to
sleepless nights during thunderstorms!

My main problem is there is solid rock/limestone about a foot down. I
can't even penetrate it with my Glen Martin ground rod driver. So
putting down a new rod probably means digging a shallow ditch and
laying it down horizontally -- or laying some radial wire, or both.

bob
k5qwg



73,
Jack Painter
Virginia Beach, VA

"Bob Miller" wrote
My main problem is there is solid rock/limestone about a foot down. I
can't even penetrate it with my Glen Martin ground rod driver. So
putting down a new rod probably means digging a shallow ditch and
laying it down horizontally -- or laying some radial wire, or both.

bob
k5qwg

Hi Bob, the horizontal burying of ground rod is fine, although a minimum
depth of 3' is recommended in NFPA-780. Follow the same plan as for vertical
ground rods by burying two additional (min.#4 wire) conductors for another
20' in a "Y" direction and repeating a horizontal rod at each of those
locations.

horizontal horizontal
----------- --------------
\ /
\ /
\ 20' 20' / buried #4 (min) bare
copper
\ /
\ /
\ /
\ -------------- / horizontal
|
|
|

Even in dry soil this will be a much more effective ground than a single 8'
vertical ground rod.

73,
Jack