My New House & Workshop

[85_Ranger4x4]

I'd just plant a tree to protect the conduit.

Hedge is a nice durable tree.

 

[Jim Oaks]

Fricken tree. I need to get more of that stump cut out and fill it in with gravel. I have this dream (cue inspirational music) that some day I'll remove all the busted and loose concrete and go over this with 2-inches of new concrete.

I dread opening this box up. My electrical experience has been limited to replacing switches, outlets, and fixtures. But if I pull this off, I should have gained the knowledge and confidence to fix that flexible conduit mess. I know I can, I just don't feel comfortable getting onto breaker panels. I don't want to end up like the cat from Christmas Vacation.

I'm happy to report that I broke out the Jimmy Hammer (step aside Jack) and finished driving the ground rod. Good thing I slid the clamp on when I started. The top is all mushroomed out. The ground rod is all covered up with dirt now. No, it's not a mound.

I feel like I earned my Electricians Ground Rod Badge. In my mind it's a copper bar with a lightning bolt in the middle.

I also started filling the trench in.

Fun times.

 

[Curious Hound]

I dislike, despise, loathe, hate, detest and abhor driving ground rods. I never bought a good hammer drill with "hammer only" mode. So I never had an easy ground rod exceot one time. That was in sandy soil and I had to drive 2 of them. I pushed the first one almost 3 feet into the ground with my hands before picking up the hammer.

 

[scotts90ranger]

Electricity isn't rocket surgery, and most electricians say 110v just tickles... as long as you are smart about it you can do work on live circuits (I turn the breaker off but don't go crazy about turning all power off). When I wired up the loft on my shop I did the whole thing with the power on since I needed light. I mean yeah, turn stuff off if possible but on my house panel I didn't even know it had two mains until I had electricians rework it to move the meter to my shop... it's some old standard where the main breakers are in the middle not at the top...

 

[Curious Hound]

electricians say 110v just tickles

"Tickles" is not a great description- born more out of bravado by guys who want to sound tough or macho. I've felt many voltages and frequencies from DC up to at least 400hz.

as long as you are smart about it you can do work on live circuits

It can be done and you need to be knowledgeable to do it if it's absoluteky necessary. But those cases are extremely rare, such as emergency repairs to life support equipment. But it is much, much smarter to always de-energize what you're working on.

When I wired up the loft on my shop I did the whole thing with the power on since I needed light. I mean yeah, turn stuff off if possible

Turning off the main breaker is rarely needed. But should always turn off the circuit you're working on. If you don't know which breaker that is, take the time to find out. That little bit of time spent investigating is much better than time spent in the hospital burn unit or the morgue.

You'll rarely ever meet an old stupid electrician. The stupid ones die taking unnecessary risks. I've worked on more live circuits than I should have. Hopefully I grew out of that many years ago. So far, I have a 43 year career as an electrician and industrial maintenance tech with no serious injuries.

 

[pjtoledo]

Electricity isn't rocket surgery, and most electricians say 110v just tickles... as long as you are smart about it you can do work on live circuits (I turn the breaker off but don't go crazy about turning all power off). When I wired up the loft on my shop I did the whole thing with the power on since I needed light. I mean yeah, turn stuff off if possible but on my house panel I didn't even know it had two mains until I had electricians rework it to move the meter to my shop... it's some old standard where the main breakers are in the middle not at the top...

"tickles" depends on how sweaty your shoes are, and what you're leaning against.

if you insist on getting tickled, pre- position yourself so you'll fall away from the panel when collapsing.

 

[scotts90ranger]

Ok, I know... There's a fair amount of jest in that , like I said I turn off the juice when I can, on my house panel there's 1-3 marked breakers so not always an option... going through that has been on the list but haven't gotten there... which reminds me I need to mark the shop box before I get things too complicated...

 

[Robertmangrum.rm]

Here in TN we can just throw the ground rod in the ditch haha. While the ditch is dug we would run our ground line and attach it to the rod then lay it in the ditch. Inspector never said a word. Actually one of them laughed and said " well code dont say horizontal or vertical." Just say 6 ft rod buried.

 

[Jim Oaks]

Here in TN we can just throw the ground rod in the ditch haha. While the ditch is dug we would run our ground line and attach it to the rod then lay it in the ditch. Inspector never said a word. Actually one of them laughed and said " well code dont say horizontal or vertical." Just say 6 ft rod buried.

That's genius. Where were you two days ago???

 

[Curious Hound]

That's genius. Where were you two days ago???

It's not allowed everywhere. Getting the rod deep into undisturbed soil gets a better "connection" to ground. Think of ot as a tighter, cleaner connection wuth less resistance.

 

[franklin2]

While you are having fun digging, put yourself a decorative post out there and install a motion light on it so it lights up when you pull up at night. You can feed it right out of the box with 3/4 conduit. Or use that flex that you are planning to take down and use it to feed the new pole light/protector.

I definitely would not plant a tree or bushes that will get bigger and be another headache if you want to do some more work later on.