shocking

Ive seen a thread on tips and tricks to make work easier. How to fish thru walls easier, tool tricks, and basically making difficult work easier.



Has anyone found any good websites or books that reveal some secrets of the trade?

thanks for sharing!

480sparky

Tips & Tricks

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shocking

Thanks...Yeah got that one already...searched here first.

Anything else?

480sparky

http://www.elec-toolbox.com/

I don't know if EC Mag has one, but you can search from here:
http://www.ecmag.com/

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brian john

Then there is nothing like OJT.

Mountain Electrician

I know one thing for sure...Greenlee's glo-stix and a 3' flexible drill bit make a winning combination for fishing walls. Beats the heck out of a piece of solid #6!!

Bkessler

I keep a a few short peices of fishtape with me , I keep them in a peice of 3/4 emt I bent around the bed of my truck for fishing up and down walls,I have 10' a couple around 6' and a couple shorter. You have much better control with a cut off piece of fish tape than the whole thing. I have even named them "Brad's", Thats after brad the first person who forgot a wire after i started keeping them with me permenently. Also you can do some neat stuff with a few earth magnets and a couple brads. bk

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randomkiller

I have a couple different types of the fiberglass sticks as well as a few pieces of fish tape and I carry a 10' piece of copper sash chain and a lead fishing weight, the weighted chain is like a plumb bob in that it drops straight in a wall cavity. The best new fishing tool is the Ridgid see snake micro.

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John

How would you “fish” this? The house was built on fieldstone footings with 12” x 12” beams on top of that. The problem was to fish a NM cable from the basement where the panel is to a receptacle on the first floor.

Attachment 268

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romexrocket

The only way John I see to make that happen is to drill straight through the 12 x 12 to exterior, set an LB then pipe up the wall on the outside and LB back in at receptacle height. Not if it was on the front of the house of course.

randomkiller

Layout the center of your box with a carpenters square on the floor and drill a pilot hole with a thin wire nail or coat hanger cut, then measure to inside the plate and mark the length on a ship auger and drill in as square as possible, drill a hole down from the top through the hole cut for the box. With a lot of measuring and squaring it isnt as bad as it sounds. Had done the same thing many times in the past on old balloon framed colonials. The hardest part is getting the wire to make the rather sharp bend at the intersection of the holes. Never had to resort to the LB and through hole scenario.

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gilbequick

You could do what random said and then use fish tape with a rounded end to bend the corner. That'd be a lot easier than trying to push the wire through

Mountain Electrician

Ditto Randomkiller and gilbequick. Done this many times and it works well. I use a 1 1/2" self feeding bit for the horizontal hole, and a flex bit down through the box hole vertically. I've used the flex bit to do some pretty creative drilling on some post and beam homes.

randomkiller

The bend is pretty sharp for a steel tape, you could never push it, I have used a spring type Klein fish cable and the guy that taught me used to drop a small chain from the top and pull it out to the basement with a piece of ceiling wire with a small hook on the end.

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frenchelectrican

there is few ways i done get in the stubborn spots without touching the floor [ both subfloor and main floor members ]

i useally take 1½' either self feeding augar or hole saw depending on the type of wood [ you have to mesure how far you have to go in to meet the interscetion and what i do is try to drill up a little few degress above the " horzontal line "kinda up climbing a little if you do this right you will not hit any floorboards at all i know it kinda like try to guide this in dark and from above get flexibit and bore down it will useally hit on the spot if you do it right 80 % of the time you will nail it right on target but the rest kinda like WAG time.

Merci, Marc

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John

Use a stud finder to scan the general area looking for studs and floor joists first, that way you know where NOT to drill. Start in the basement by drilling the 12 x 12 beam at a slight upward angle so that the transition from horizontal to vertical is less than 90 degrees that way there isn’t a real sharp bend. Then leave the drill bit in the hole and if you get lucky you will be able to use the stud finder to locate the exact place to drill the vertical hole with the flex bit. The next step would to cut out the box opening and use a flex bit to drill down and connect the two holes. Then use a brass ball chain on a string from the top and a short length of metal fish tape or a plastic rod with a small hook on it from the basement.

How many of these have you seen?

Attachment 270

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gilbequick

I haven't seen that before, but I have seen wires run behind it....

Jon Thunda

Ever try to get a MC connector int the back of a panel mounted on sheetrock? Course... we all have. The problem is getting the sheetrock out of the way to allow the width of the connector through after you hole saw it.

I have a "stubby" 1/2" allen wrench that I place in a drill... slip through the hole and while running slowly draw back into the sheetrock to enlarge the hole. Obviously be careful.