Grounding spike. Necessary in the US?

[Fernando Cucci]

I got a Shenhui 360 and it comes with the grounding wire (no spike). My shop is fully grounded at the outlet. Do I need to use this wire as well?

I imagine a few people out there aren't drilling holes in their concrete shop floors for a grounding spike. If it's required, I was just going to ground it to the air compressor distribution system... a few hundred feet of iron ending at a 80 gallon compressor.

thoughts?

[ray hampton]

most grounding rod are steel with a copper-coating, I not sure that steel pipe will be permitted as a outside ground due to the rust

[Mike Lassiter]

You should already have a ground rod at the service entrance at the whole system grounds through. Your outlet SHOULD have a ground that will ground the laser through it. You should make sure that the ground is there. Older houses did not have grounded outlets and didn't have a ground wire either as they only used 2 wires. Having an outlet with the ground DOES NOT mean you have an actual ground circuit, you could just have the receptacle with 3 openings but not actually have a ground wire.
You can get a tester that will check or remove receptacle and make sure it has 3 wires, typically one white (neutral), one black (hot) and bare copper that will be attached to the metal part of the receptacle which is the ground.
There isn't a need to ground the laser to it's own ground rod.

[matthew knott]

Nope, use the proper ground at your distribution point! The ground you have is going to be way better than any crazy spike provided by the Chinese! I can't understand why the still provide these to US and European customers how all have proper earthed electrical connection points already!

[AL Ursich]

IF you installed the Ground spike into the ground rather than bonding it to your Electrical Ground you run the risk of a thing called Ground Loop. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_loop_(electricity)

Like posted above, your Electrical System Ground goes back to your first power panel and meter ground.

AL