So, I've seen amp builds do this, but not really pedals. On a standard volume pot would it be possible to take some wire and solder it from pin 1 to the body of the pot itself to ground it or would this not work/be unreliable?
One way or another, all ground connections in a pedal will have to be connected to the negative connection of your PSU or battery (assuming we're talking a negative ground). This can be done in a number of ways. What you are discribing should work if you ground the enclosure through one or both of the jacks, but I'd just connect the pot to the board with wires if I were you. I did see this method used on a 3PDT on a commercial pedal, so it might be a viable method.
Paul