How do I ground a recepticle in an old house with old wiring?
Running a new 3 conductor romex is really the only way to get a secure ground. Your home is probably an older home that was build before newer housing codes were in place. If you have access to the wire all the way back to the breaker panel, it's not real difficult to do.
If there's not a grounding wire, you're NOT going to get a GOOD ground. Period. You'll need to run new romex with a grounding wire. You can ground it to the box, but it's risky and not safe, on head load draws. DO yourself the favor and run new wire. It could save you a LOT of misery in the long run.
To install a ground wire you need to install a ground rod. This is a copper covered steel rod 10' long that you drive into the ground near your electric service box. A copper wire is attached to it by a clamp and run into your electic box and attached to a bus bar (this is what all future ground wires are attached to). Once you have this then you can pull a bare copper wire to what ever recepticals you want to ground.
