Grounding Rod Placement for Optimum RF Mitigation

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Endless_Plasma
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Grounding Rod Placement for Optimum RF Mitigation

Post by Endless_Plasma »

Hi All,

Newly registered, but have been referencing and learning from the forum for some time now. I have looked over this subject, but tend to take things to an "overkill" level, and wanted to gather some opinion on Ground Rod Placement, RF mitigation and overall grounding.

JIM COLT, PLEASE CHIME IN AS I AM USING A 45XP AND YOU INFO HAS BEEN MOST HELPFUL UP TO NOW!!!
A bunch of you guys are super helpful in fact, Jim has just stuck out to me for some reason is all

1) Single copper plated rod, right near the table, not far away, 8FT long, driven into the earth
2) Plasma Cutter Ground lead should go to the Rod Star Ground (Main GND on top of rod), proper wire length w/ no coils
3) Additional run from the Star GND to the table bed.
4) An additional work GND lead can run from the Star GND to a work clamp (optional, doesn't really seem needed)

Now here is the overkill part.
1) Does the placement of the Rod with relation to it being centered on the table matter? I see a lot of people put it on the Corner of the table at the leg. Would the rod be better placed in the center of the table? Or with relation to electronics (#2)
- I base this on a comment read about the Rod cleaning up someones noise issue, except for the part of their table that was farthest from the ground rod where the noise issue was still present. They ran the "optional work clamp" in that corner to help eliminate crashes and issues that seemed to happen more commonly in that corner of the table.

2) Is there a benefit to the Ground Rod be placed as close to the cutter as possible reducing the work ground length (while also keeping in mind being centered on the table)? I understand RF travels on the outside of conductors, and I believe the reason for eliminating Coils in the ground wire is because they can act like little amplifiers or antennas for the RF. So does keeping the shortest paths from all points of your system make the most sense for this setup?

3) If centering the Ground Rod does indeed seem to make logical sense, would also grounding each corner of the table benefit the outcome? The Floating Head, THC, and Gantry will also be grounded with a braided grounding strap (most strands possible), and my theory here is that no matter the placement of the cutting head on the table, the RF path to earth ground can take the shortest path possible.

Thoughts? Complete insanity? Rational?

Your Pal,
Overkill
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