Thank you all. I'm not your basic DIY guy. I work as a maintenance supervisor in the powerhouse of a large papermill. My electrical partners deal with 4160 and 480 everyday and I do have guidance, information and use of equipment through them. I have many machines in place that use the 480 with motors up to 25hp. I have not seen a ground like this attached to a gas line, I thought it was strange and figured members of this group may have seen an issue like this before. The POCO here is very good professional but charge accordingly and for a simple job I cannot see paying 100's of dollars for a quick answer as it would need few tiers of people involved to give me an answer though them. As far as hiring a electrician there are not many if any local electricians that would know much about a 480 service of this size. This is a small town and have little small industry, anyone who deals with this stuff is working for one of the larger companies and is not really "for hire".
This building was a steel tubing roller/ metal products manufacturer. They went under in the late 70s and the building was bought for its location a busy road close to the center of town. The front office portion of was remolded and transformed into retail space and still is today. You can see the crane rails and supports in the attic space above the store fronts. The large warehouse space as striped and mothballed for use as storage, all the was left is the 2T bridge crane and a lighting transformer. I have been looking for a new home with a barn/building for 2-3 years but nothing has been found that fit our needs. Now this came up for sale close to our current family business, with tenants installed and the warehouse was empty after the passing of the owners husband. Who wouldn't want an 80x120x16 building with a truck dock, house crane, 8" floor, 480 power and tenants that are paying for it for you? Hell even one of the tenants is a nail/beauty salon so even the wife is happy as she gets complimentary service! So now yall know my story.
Ill post some pictures soon, been a busy weekend. Its taken me 2 months of cleaning to remove all the "treasures" of the past. I was the first to do a real cleaning in 30+ years as there are still receipts and paperwork from the original owners dating to 78-79 on the steel building girts. I wish old places could talk.
