What sense does it make to use a plug (especially one for shielded cable) THEN hard wire the drain wire? Anybody really think this was intended to be done this way?
There are shielded jacks that will make contact with the outside of the shielded plug to provide a ground path. If your equipment doesn't incorporate shielded RJ-45 jacks that should be a pretty good indication that shielded cable isn't needed and is going to be pretty tough to use if you do.
If you are bent on doing this what I would do is put regular RJ-45 plugs at the PLC ends. I too recommend that you only connect the shield at one end so cut the foil and drain wire back and forget it.
At the controller end I would terminate the runs on a regular patch panel, not a shielded one. Leave the drain wires long from each run and terminate the pairs in the normal manner. Again trim the foil back flush with the jacket. (The drain wire makes contact with the foil for the length of the cable so don't worry about the foil.)
Now you are going to have all these drain wires, neatly twist them all together and connect them to a ground wire (wirenut is fine) which goes back to the case of the controller or the electrical ground the controller case is connected to. That's it for the grounds.
Now simply use regular patch cords to connect the patch panel jacks to the controller jacks. The length should be so short that shielding is unnecessary.
-Hal
