Grounding Your Panel

[JoshuaW]

Do you need to have a ground post on both your panel and the panel door, or is just the panel fine?

 

[Rockn_M]

You'll want to do both. Most electrical enclosures already have the grounding posts that you can use.

 

[JoshuaW]

You'll want to do both. Most electrical enclosures already have the grounding posts that you can use.

If one doesnt, lets hypothetically say someone wasnt paying attention and carelessly cut it out while installing their volt/amp meter, what should that person do?

 

[armedcor]

Checkout the electric brewery... He talks about putting in a new grounding post.

 

[michaeltrego]

Checkout the electric brewery... He talks about putting in a new grounding post.

Yep, use JB Weld to mount a new bolt on the door:
http://theelectricbrewery.com/control-panel-part-1?page=7

 

[Rockn_M]

Yep, use JB Weld to mount a new bolt on the door:
http://theelectricbrewery.com/control-panel-part-1?page=7

LOL, yup check out the Electric Brewery. He provides step by step instructions on how to move\add the grounding post.

 

[bbohanon]

You'll want to do both. Most electrical enclosures already have the grounding posts that you can use.

+1 on this. Do both and from the posts, you can go to a set of DIN rail terminal blocks(connected) designated as a ground block for your devices if you dont want to have a bunch of connectors from your elements and pumps attached to your door posts.

 

[JoshuaW]

+1 on this. Do both and from the posts, you can go to a set of DIN rail terminal blocks(connected) designated as a ground block for your devices if you dont want to have a bunch of connectors from your elements and pumps attached to your door posts.

Yup, I have one of those. I guess that hypothetical person who cut the post out of their door is going to have to install a new one. It definitely sucks to be "that guy". Thankfully this is just a hypothetical

 

[thekraken]

It looks to me like Kal uses the JB Weld just so that he could grind down the bolt's head off the exterior so it's flush, then paint over it to make it invisible. If that doesn't matter to you could just use a nut and a bolt... couldn't you? (I was going to do this)

 

[Rockn_M]

It looks to me like Kal uses the JB Weld just so that he could grind down the bolt's head off the exterior so it's flush, then paint over it to make it invisible. If that doesn't matter to you could just use a nut and a bolt... couldn't you? (I was going to do this)

Yes you can do that. The way that Kal did it was strictly for aesthetics.

 

[jsmsmk]

You should not be able to loosen it from the out side. Nut it from the inside and make sure to remove any paint under the nut.

 

[JoshuaW]

It looks to me like Kal uses the JB Weld just so that he could grind down the bolt's head off the exterior so it's flush, then paint over it to make it invisible. If that doesn't matter to you could just use a nut and a bolt... couldn't you? (I was going to do this)

I dont even want to grind it down, I have a stainless panel that otherwise looks gorgeous.

I think Im going to solder a new post to the door, then put JB over top of the joint and check continuity to be certain. I mean, thats what I would do, hypothetically speaking of course. Just to be clear, if my wife asks, I didnt make a mistake on a $300 enclosure she said I shouldnt buy in the first place.

Anyways, does that sound like it should work and be safe? That is my first concern. My second is aesthetics. Inside can look lik sh

 

[thekraken]

Hypothetically, that might do it.

 

[LandoLincoln]

Just to be clear, if my wife asks, I didnt make a mistake on a $300 enclosure she said I shouldnt buy in the first place.

We never had this conversation.

 

[kal]

It looks to me like Kal uses the JB Weld just so that he could grind down the bolt's head off the exterior so it's flush, then paint over it to make it invisible. If that doesn't matter to you could just use a nut and a bolt... couldn't you? (I was going to do this)

Yup. Strictly for aesthetics as Rockn_M mentioned.

In retrospect, an easier way (less work) for me on my design would have been to use the back of one of the 4 screws that holds the aluminum plate in place (which is also only for aesthetics):

This is in fact what we did for a while with our pre-built panels that over a certain timeframe used enclosures that didn't come with a grounding bolt on the door (now our enclosures are all custom folded for us so we can choose the exact bolt location).

You can just make out the green wire that goes to one of the 4 screws on the inside here:

So if you have something or some place that needs a bolt anyway, use that.

Kal