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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