My First MDF - Electrician Talk - Professional Electrical Contractors Forum

Safety-Guy · 05-08-2009, 06:35 PM

Just finished with my first MDF in an addition at a School, Phone, Data, and CATV. Being an Electrician this was a task, I did not do it all, and did have the Systems PM overseeing. Just wanted to post a few pics for comments. Good or Bad.

mikeh32 · 05-08-2009, 06:46 PM

do you have labels on any of the wires?

Safety-Guy · 05-08-2009, 06:54 PM

All are marked in the MDF, you just cannot see the markings, Fine point sharpie did the trick. At the other end all wires are labeled with "Stickers" that wrap around and cover themself with a clear plastic.
All were tested and passed.

mikeh32 · 05-08-2009, 07:05 PM

ahh, ok. ive used both sharpie, and labels. looks good though... and only one t1 line?

drsparky · 05-08-2009, 09:05 PM

I hate to say it but....it looks like you cable ladder maybe upside down. Of course it could be just the shadows in the photos.

monitormix · 05-08-2009, 09:17 PM

Typically I always add a horizontal lacer bar or two per patchbay. The video cable really should have a bit of support to take the stress off the connections.
I usually use the Brady labelers. They make a size to fit most patchbay label slots and a great selection of cable markers for various types/gauges. I usually try to leave a service loop to allow for any updates that may require moving the patchbays. Pretty good for your first room

LawnGuyLandSparky · 05-09-2009, 05:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by monitormix

Typically I always add a horizontal lacer bar or two per patchbay. The video cable really should have a bit of support to take the stress off the connections.
I usually use the Brady labelers. They make a size to fit most patchbay label slots and a great selection of cable markers for various types/gauges. I usually try to leave a service loop to allow for any updates that may require moving the patchbays. Pretty good for your first room

Updates? It's a school. What he did today should have been done 20 years ago. That installation will get updated when pigs fly.

Rockyd · 05-09-2009, 03:49 PM

Quote:

Updates? It's a school. What he did today should have been done 20 years ago. That installation will get updated when pigs fly.

What's a mattuh? You never heard of the Swine flu???

Safety-Guy · 05-09-2009, 07:25 PM

MikeH32- If you are refering to the one white cable, it is plenum rated, was added after all conduit was run. It is fed with Fiber.

DrSparky- Cable tray was installed per School board specs, it's the government and all you know.

Monitormix- there are 10 foot service loops on top of the cable tray.

LawnGuyLandSparky- We start the upgrade on the old part of the school in 3 weeks.

Thanks for the comments guys.

drsparky · 05-09-2009, 07:35 PM

[quote=Safety-Guy;78584]MikeH32- If you are refering
DrSparky- Cable tray was installed per School board specs,

That is not cable tray, it is cable ladder, the rungs go up. In the photos it looks like the rungs are on the bottom.

Chuck

ElectricalMAN · 06-21-2009, 02:04 AM

Nice pictures! Thanks for the share!

william1978 · 06-21-2009, 11:06 AM

Looks good to me.

nick · 06-21-2009, 07:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Safety-Guy

Just finished with my first MDF in an addition at a School, Phone, Data, and CATV. Being an Electrician this was a task, I did not do it all, and did have the Systems PM overseeing. Just wanted to post a few pics for comments. Good or Bad.

Well it looks like a nice job to me !!!! funny when you put a picture up everyone has a different point to pick on but nice job !!!! We are doing a high school now also .

That ladder tray looks fine also .

Safety-Guy · 07-15-2009, 12:29 PM

Working in another school now, Electrical and Systems. Sad thing about this school, when built 10 years ago they put in CAT-V and Fiber, Well the fiber was never utilized and the CAT-V is still in use, but we are adding CAT-VI, and the demo has us abandoning the Fiber. Will have some pics when the project gets farther along.

Lighting Retro · 08-16-2009, 10:49 PM

Looks pretty good for working with what you were spec'd. I personally like vertical and horizontal wire management to hide the wires. Just hanging big bundles of wire like that straight from the ladder rack doesn't work for me too well. Much easier to make it look nicer with something like this:

There are some good pics on my cabling site of jobs done right and jobs done wrong.

Woo, some of the wrong ones are

.

The velcro straps don't make it look quite as nice in my opinion, but it makes it immensely easier to add cables later and make it look decent.

Good job. Looks good.

And it does appear the ladder might be upside down. You want the depth on top to hold and hide the cable. First time around you'll do all kinds of things you'll find ways to do easier and more efficiently the next time.

Lighting Retro · 08-16-2009, 10:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Safety-Guy

Working in another school now, Electrical and Systems. Sad thing about this school, when built 10 years ago they put in CAT-V and Fiber, Well the fiber was never utilized and the CAT-V is still in use, but we are adding CAT-VI, and the demo has us abandoning the Fiber. Will have some pics when the project gets farther along.

Wow. That is just crazy. Cat5 still specs out for most traffic applications, especially Cat5e. Depending on the fiber, that's unfortunate. It's such an investment that it's a shame it wasn't put to use. Our course, everything about fiber backbones cost more, so depending on the application, I suppose it's not too surprising.