[TowerTalk] Tower Grounding Questions

[K8RI]

On 12/22/2011 12:16 AM, Mickey Baker wrote:
> RF Connection will sell Cadwelds at a reasonable price and RENT the
> electrical gadget used to ignite them safely without singing your eyebrows
> and far enough away to not breathe the smoke.
CadWelds (TM) come with an ignitor  charge.  I wear leather gloves and 
use plain old kitchen matches to fire them. Please note, this is not a 
recommendation!<:-))
Last time I just used my oxyacetylene torch.

NOTE: Do not look at the charge as it ignites. You will be seeing after 
images for a very long time. They are much brighter than the torch.
Don't bother with a propane torch. If the frustration doesn't get you 
and you actually did manage to fire one(the igniter charge lays on top 
of the ceramic container) it would be quite dangerous.

Do not wear synthetic shirts or pants around this stuff. Long sleeve 
work shirts and gauntlet gloves (as used in welding) would be my choice.
>
> They're in a breakaway thermal foam enclosure that leaves a nice weld - a
> nice knob in the case of wires to ground rods.
The CadWelds(TM) I had, and still have a few are in ceramic containers 
that breakaway.
Come to think of it, I had a full carton and sold them to the ham down 
the road who also reads Tower Talk.

http://www.rogerhalstead.com/ham_files/ground.htm

73

Roger (K8RI)
> Be prudent - be safe.
>
> RF Connection is a good vendor for ham radio.
>
> (No affiliation except a customer!)
>
> 73,
>
> Mickey N4MB
>
> On Wed, Dec 21, 2011 at 1:35 PM, Larry<lknain at nc.rr.com>  wrote:
>
>> The RF Connection also sells CadWeld.
>>
>> 73, Larry  W6NWS
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Jim Lux"<jimlux at earthlink.net>
>> To:<towertalk at contesting.com>
>> Sent: Wednesday, December 21, 2011 12:06 PM
>> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Tower Grounding Questions
>>
>>
>>> On 12/21/11 8:00 AM, Richard Solomon wrote:
>>>> A friend is putting up an LM-470 and asked about grounding it. Who
>>>> makes the Ground Kit for
>>>> the tower ? I have a couple of DX Engineering PPC-UNI-KIT-2CT kits,
>>>> will they do ?
>>>>
>>>> Also, what's the name of those one-shot chemical "bombs" used to weld
>>>> the ground cable to
>>>> the ground rod ?
>>> Exothermic Welding, generically..
>>>
>>> Erico Cad-Weld is a very popular brand (OneShot is one of their models)
>>> Thermoweld is another
>>> UniShot is another
>>>
>>> If you go to a electrical supply place, they'll carry one or more
>>> brands.  They'll also have the stuff you need to use it (some kinds have
>>> a reusable mold and you load the charge in each time from a little
>>> container).  There are fancy igniters and such, as well.  Do some
>>> research (there's been stuff on this list over the years). I've used a
>>> small torch to light them off, but I'm not sure that's actually
>>> recommended.
>>>
>>> I've never seen this stuff at Home Depot or Lowes.. at least at the ones
>>> I go to, but that doesn't mean that some don't carry them.  You need to
>>> go to somewhere that really caters to "trade".
>>>
>>> You *could* make the stuff yourself, in the fine ham radio improvising
>>> way. It's just thermite...  Copper oxide and aluminum powder, piece of
>>> magnesium ribbon as fuse works nicely.
>>>
>>> What you are paying for with the commercial product is a nicely designed
>>> mold and consistent mixing of the weld material. The commercial ones
>>> also have a different mix at the ignition point to make it easier to
>>> start (I'm going to guess some sort of black powder type mix.. a good
>>> oxidizer and some fuel which gets good and hot, to get the metal
>>> oxide-aluminum reaction going).
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>
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