Once you’ve gone to the effort to install a six metre high Lightning Conductor in the middle of a paddock, you probably want to give it a good earth connection before wiring it into your home network.

I have a very handy source of steel framing, so a 2.4m (8 foot) length of Galvanised steel Cee section was used.

I initially thought I would be able to cut a point on the piece of steel and drive it into the ground – We’d had lots of rain recently so I figured they would drive in easy. The theory was sound down to about 30cm (1 foot) where it just wouldn’t budge. I wanted to drive it to just below ground level so ended up having to dig a 2.5m (8 foot, 4 inches) deep hole with my hand auger and then compress the soil back around the steel.

The earth stake is 2.4m (8 foot) long

Once the earth stake was in place, it was a simple task of running a very thick piece of copper wire to the pole – Unfortunately I never took photos of this, but I took about ten lengths of think copper flex, stripped off the insulation and then effectively plaited them into a “Super Macrame Wire(TM)”. This was attached to the steel stake using a number of bolts and to the pole using a big washer attached to the bolts that hold the pole up.

My assistant just stood there and ate dirt

Once you've gone to the effort to install a six metre high Lightning Conductor in the middle of a paddock, you probably want to give it a good earth connection before wiring it into your home network. I have a very handy source of steel framing, so a 2.4m (8 foot) length of Galvanised steel ...