At the workplace, I recently placed in a ground system for our brand-new antenna system, which needs an excellent ground system. An important part of that is appropriately bonding the copper ground wires to the ground rod. The best way to do that is exothermic welding.

Using this method of bonding ground cables to your ground rods, avoids rust, and also high resistance links to your ground rods. If you make use of a clamp, or other compression approach to bond your ground system, it will call for cleaning the connections on a regular basis, and also still will not guarantee a good ground connection.

In this article, I will certainly reveal you just how to make use of a CADweld uni-shot to exothermically bond your ground poles. The photo listed below shows every one of the elements of the CADweld uni-shot.

From delegated right, you have the adhering to products:

1. Uni-shot mold and mildew

2. Ceramic Disk

3. Metal Disk

4. Beginning powder

5. Ceramic Cover

Actions to bonding a ground rod:

1. This action is really crucial. Do not avoid this step, or your exothermic weld will not take. Buff the ground pole, and also completions of each copper cord to be connected to the ground pole with steel wool. Often if the ground pole is too rusty, its much easier to take a hack saw as well as cut of the leading inch of the ground pole.

2. Roll the mold and mildew on the ground rod. Its crucial to roll it on, and also not simply move it on. This keeps the rubber seal in good shape.

3. Place the copper grounding cable right into the holes on the side of the uni-shot mold. The end of the copper wire requires to be over the center of the ground rod. The image below is looking down from the top of the mold:

4. Press the mold down to ensure that the ends of the copper cables are right against the top of the ground rod.

5. Location the metal disk on top of the ceramic disk. After that and also delicately drop them into the mold and mildew. Make sure they both are properly seated, as well as the cone-shaped shape of each item is down (concave side up). The image below shows these 2 disks effectively seated in the mold and mildew:

6. Carefully open the beginning powder. Beware not to splash it. Likewise beware not to drink it up, as in all-time low of the container, the powder is different than the remainder. Right stuff at the extremely bottom is needed to stir up the powder. Pour the starting powder into the mold. Examine the container to see to it you have actually poured in all of the starting powder.

7. Location the Ceramic Cover in addition to the mold.

8. To aid guarantee the molten metal doesn't leak out, or impact via the bottom gasket, I include plumbing technician's putty to the bottom of the mold and mildew, and around where the copper cables get in the mold and mildew. Right here is a picture of the mold with the plumbing professional's putty, filled and also ready to go:

9. Ignite the Starting powder via the opening on top of the mold. You can purchase a separate flint weapon, however in my point of view, they are limited. I have actually attempted to light the beginning powder with a lp lantern, which does not work either. The very best way I have found is to utilize an ordinary old 4th of July type sparkler.Be mindful when lighting your Cadweld Uni-shot, as it is fairly firey! Be ready to swiftly step back. You are accountable for your own security.

10. After a couple of mins, and also every little thing cools, just break off the mold and mildew, as well as you need to have a good connection to your ground poles.

Here is a photo of a completed ground rod connection using the exothermic weld approach: