Thanks to all for the replies, particularly for a Sunday morning.
The basic conclusion is "THAT'S NOT A GOOD IDEA!", with a few minor
variations.
I wasn't comfortable with it either. My shack & workshop are in an out
building that was wired 3 years ago and was done right. All I needed was a
ground rod for rigs and my tower & I was done. I was considering moving my
KX1 building area into my computer room, closer to the bathroom, at least
for the summer.
BX cable was mentioned- no BX cable here. And yes I do live in Texas.
My basic concern is grounding of my Weller soldering station, since I do not
have a grounded 3-wire outlet.
Looks like there is a trip to the attic to run a ground wire for rigs & my
soldering station in my future. (I think it will about 3 AM before Mother
Nature turns on the oven up there.)
My house was built in 1978 before my area was annexed 5 years ago. Bottom
line- No inspectors, no city code, I've got 3-wire plugs and 2-wire
wiring on every plug I've checked.
As I understand the situation, the power company runs 240V lines to the
house with a earth ground from the power line transformer and your house
to make to split the 240V into two 120V circuits. Hopefully, these 120V
circuits have balanced current flow and there is little current flow in
the ground, or neutral lead.
It appears that the neutral (white) wire and the ground (green) wire
eventually meet at the ground rod under your meter base. Assuming that
the above is true and that I can verify that the white wire REALLY IS
connected to neutral at the circuit breaker panel, can the green screw on
the duplex outlet be corrected directly to the neutral at the socket, to
ground both my anti-static mat and my Weller soldering station?
All opinions welcome.
(If this theory is a loser, then I've got a trip through two walls, a
closet ceiling, and a long attic to run a station ground that I need
anyway. It was almost 100 north of Dallas today and you could probably
roast a thanksgiving turkey in my attic. I would prefer that attic trip
be in late fall if possible......................)
NJ5A
<<snip>>
I saw a post a few days ago about this. I have a table mat with snap on
alligator clip. I do not have unpainted metal ground. How exactly do I
do
this using a resistor and 3 prong plug ??
73 de Jesse W6JMM
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