# Ground it. Stick it in the ground



## pete87 (Oct 22, 2012)

Those spikes look like only 6 inches or so go into the ground . How old is it ?






Pete


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## fdew (Mar 26, 2009)

Its about 1955

Frank


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## pete87 (Oct 22, 2012)

The old metal cased drills , not Double Insulated , probably put the fear of God 

in men . They also had no clutch .




Pete


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## Big John (May 23, 2010)

I guess that's before UL and anyone else came into the mix. I'd be tempted to try that out: Connect the hot to the frame, reel the stupid thing all the way out and put an ammeter on the cord end: Plug it in and see how much is actually flowing through the hot to the earth.

Betting it would never trip the breaker.


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## HackWork (Oct 2, 2009)

It's the same as that little 3 prong to 2 prong adapter that has the little tail that you are supposed to put under the cover plate screw. Will that ground thru the BX's coiled up sheath (without bonding strip) have too much resistance to trip the breakers? Their answer seems to have always been: Who knows and who cares!


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## pete87 (Oct 22, 2012)

Out of business because of Law Suit ?





Pete


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## uconduit (Jun 6, 2012)

My personal favorite are the metal-framed vintage hi-fi gear where the instructions tell you that you might have to flip the non-polarized plug over to avoid energizing the housing.


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## fdew (Mar 26, 2009)

pete87 said:


> Out of business because of Law Suit ?
> 
> Pete


No, Rototiller has a long successful history and was sold to Troy Built.
http://www.troybilt.com/equipment/troybilt/tillers/horse-garden-tiller


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## mbednarik (Oct 10, 2011)

I wonder if the neutral is bonded to the frame.


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## retiredsparktech (Mar 8, 2011)

uconduit said:


> My personal favorite are the metal-framed vintage hi-fi gear where the instructions tell you that you might have to flip the non-polarized plug over to avoid energizing the housing.


The instruction manual would tell you to reverse the plug to minimize hum and interference.
Most of the vintage hi-fi gear was transformer powered and isolated from the power line.


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## IslandWire (Aug 3, 2013)

Well, it does look like the ground rod spacing is double the length of the ground rod, thereby cutting the ground resistance in half of what one rod would be. Maybe there was some thought put into those 6" spikes...


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## fdew (Mar 26, 2009)

The neutral was bonded to the real, The real was sort of connected to the frame. Metal to metal bearing surface. There were 4 rods going into the ground.

Frank


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## McClary’s Electrical (Feb 21, 2009)

IslandWire said:


> Well, it does look like the ground rod spacing is double the length of the ground rod, thereby cutting the ground resistance in half of what one rod would be. Maybe there was some thought put into those 6" spikes...


A six inch spike in soil around here would be about 175 ohms resistance. Not much good.


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