Old school wire fishing. - Electrician Talk - Professional Electrical Contractors Forum

**MDShunk** · 06-27-2012, 10:28 PM

Ran across this passage in an old wiring book tonight:

FISHING AND FISHING DEVICES
247a. Animals as Assistants in Fishing.
In certain cases where other methods were not feasible, small animals have been used to draw pulling-in lines through wireways. Trained weasels have been used in threading underground conduit subways. In finished-building wiring, a cat can often be made to draw a cord through a raceway between floor and ceiling that is so obstructed by braces and bridges that it cannot be readily fished by the ordinary means. A length of cord is tied to a harness on the cat or to the animals tail. The cat is then placed in one end of the wireway and that end darkened. The far end of the wireway is illuminated with a candle if necessary. The cat will usually walk toward and out of the illuminated end of the wireway bringing the pulling-in cord with her.

thoenew · 06-27-2012, 10:47 PM

Cats would make sense, we've tried with dogs and they just didn't seem to get it done.

I guess our choice of full grown 8 year old labs wasn't the best either.

stuiec · 06-27-2012, 11:25 PM

Yeah right. Has anyone ever seen what a cat with a string tied to any part of its body will do?

Roger123 · 06-27-2012, 11:31 PM

Hmm, a cat on a string, yeah Marc, I like that idea!

erics37 · 06-28-2012, 01:13 AM

I have pet ferrets. We have a couple lengths of dryer vent tube and they love climbing through it. It's certainly plausible but the issue with underground PVC is that it's full of PVC glue fumes, even long after it's been buried. It'd be enough to suffocate a small animal.

Anything smaller than 3" would be tough for them, as would getting traction on stub-ups. But someday I'll try it

chewy · 06-28-2012, 01:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by erics37

I have pet ferrets. We have a couple lengths of dryer vent tube and they love climbing through it. It's certainly plausible but the issue with underground PVC is that it's full of PVC glue fumes, even long after it's been buried. It'd be enough to suffocate a small animal.

Anything smaller than 3" would be tough for them, as would getting traction on stub-ups. But someday I'll try it

I read an article in a National Geographic about a lady using ferrets to pull cable in a data centre under the computer floors.

erics37 · 06-28-2012, 01:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chewy

I read an article in a National Geographic about a lady using ferrets to pull cable in a data centre under the computer floors.

We have a couple little ferret harnesses so we can take them for walks (which is an amusing affair, I assure you). But fitting a ferret with a harness and tying a lightweight pull string is the way to go. They wouldn't be able to pull heavier stuff very well.

LARMGUY · 06-28-2012, 01:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roger123

Hmm, a cat on a string, yeah Marc, I like that idea!

I Have seen a cat with Scotch Tape on its paws.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUzte9e3kZ4

ohmega · 06-28-2012, 01:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by erics37

We have a couple little ferret harnesses so we can take them for walks (which is an amusing affair, I assure you). But fitting a ferret with a harness and tying a lightweight pull string is the way to go. They wouldn't be able to pull heavier stuff very well.

Have you ever seen "Beastmaster"? His ferrets save his life! I could use a couple beastmaster ferrets and a midget... for the tight spots.

chewy · 06-28-2012, 02:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by erics37

We have a couple little ferret harnesses so we can take them for walks (which is an amusing affair, I assure you). But fitting a ferret with a harness and tying a lightweight pull string is the way to go. They wouldn't be able to pull heavier stuff very well.

I dont know about a dude walking ferrets... Have you seen the big lebowski? I would attach an RJ45 jack to the harness and you can plug in the patch lead to that and off they go.

macmikeman · 06-28-2012, 03:13 AM

I've seen both cats and dogs that were trained to locate moving vehicles.

The final exam is a doozy however.

Shockdoc · 06-28-2012, 06:26 AM

Circus Electric, we use trained animals.

I can see the protesters outside my front door.

Now all we need is drilling bees to help lace out new builds.

wildleg · 06-28-2012, 08:27 AM

I've often thought that the only difference between the guys I work with and trained monkeys, is that the customers would probably be happier with the monkeys, even if they were tossing their feces at them.

I've had cats since I moved in with the bag, going on 30 centons ago, but I don't think we've had more that one that I would've been able to train to do that. I'd love to see some video of these old school guys.

LJSMITH1 · 06-28-2012, 10:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MDShunk

Ran across this passage in an old wiring book tonight:

FISHING AND FISHING DEVICES
247a. Animals as Assistants in Fishing.
In certain cases where other methods were not feasible, small animals have been used to draw pulling-in lines through wireways. Trained weasels have been used in threading underground conduit subways. In finished-building wiring, a cat can often be made to draw a cord through a raceway between floor and ceiling that is so obstructed by braces and bridges that it cannot be readily fished by the ordinary means. A length of cord is tied to a harness on the cat or to the animals tail. The cat is then placed in one end of the wireway and that end darkened. The far end of the wireway is illuminated with a candle if necessary. The cat will usually walk toward and out of the illuminated end of the wireway bringing the pulling-in cord with her.

HAHAA...He said "Trained Weasels"

Roger123 · 06-28-2012, 10:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LARMGUY

I Have seen a cat with Scotch Tape on its paws.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUzte9e3kZ4

Yeah, that would be funny is see!

user4818 · 06-28-2012, 10:36 AM

"I have to go out to the truck to get my weasel."

**480sparky** · 06-28-2012, 10:38 AM

I once used a small R/C car to pull the jetline into a 6" pipe for the phone company's line into a hotel.

I also did some work in a huge warehouse where we needed to get some CAT5 cables across a drop ceiling. My helper showed up the next day with a crossbow. He had an arrow stuck into a rubber ball..... tie on the jetline to the arrow, load it up, and shoot it across the ceiling. Bingo.... within 10 seconds we're pulling across 150' of tile!

kaboler · 06-28-2012, 08:12 PM

These are all fun and interesting

BBQ · 06-29-2012, 05:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LJSMITH1

HAHAA...He said "Trained Weasels"

He must be talking about salespeople.

BBQ · 06-29-2012, 05:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 480sparky

I also did some work in a huge warehouse where we needed to get some CAT5 cables across a drop ceiling. My helper showed up the next day with a crossbow. He had an arrow stuck into a rubber ball..... tie on the jetline to the arrow, load it up, and shoot it across the ceiling. Bingo.... within 10 seconds we're pulling across 150' of tile!

Hack data run.