How to Pull Electrical Wire Through a Pipe or Conduit 3x faster - How to wire a She Shed
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- Опубліковано 4 лют 2025
- How to Pull Electrical Wire Through a Pipe or Conduit 3x faster - How to wire a Shed
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Now you've done it! You revealed that electricians actualy know how to use a vacuum.
Literally the best comment and almost a year on this video!
Not vacuum, pressure. He pushe the vire
You know , watching anyone doing something that you never have done before and benefit the information, we all learn something new, isn't that what we are all about is learning from each other, great info.
Glad to help, thank you.
...hear...hear...
Ditto first thing I thought of. Screw the shop vac use a compressor. Blow that bag water and anything else in that pipe out the other end lol
This has the greatest value to one who has zero experience doing it. Thanks for sharing your skills and for the extra time to video it.
Glad it was useful for you
Nice vid! I worked with an electrician who used compressed air tank to shoot the string through 250', worked slick!
I have seen that but I figured more people have a shop vac. Thanks for the c comment
Vacuum buddy
Vacuum buddy
@@EveFrag My wife just paid $500 for a vacuum. It really sucks!
Okay, but hold up a second...is no one going to talk about how incredibly sharp that knife must be?!
I am so glad someone noticed the knife. It is very sharp, I love that thing!
@@TheJacks It was hard to miss. The cut on my middle finger (tried to make an obscene gesture to a vegetable cutter today) started aching when I watched this.
@@TheJacksthat a way a knife is suppose to be a dull knife is more dangerous than a sharp one
Saw that
Knife is definitely not what an electrician uses. We may have “fried” our brains but safety is still the most important factor
Practical advice like this is the real gold on UA-cam! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you
Carpenter here, was on a job awhile ago and saw another guy was really pushing this wallboard screw. Before I could saw stop the screw went home. I told him you better take that out hope you didn’t hit a pipe. He took it out and a big long tangle of string came out with it. He was a fourth year apprentice and I explained what happened and why we use just long enough screws and only enough force to grab metal or wood stud, if it fights stop move screw. I told sparky what happened he looked at print and said no wire in it yet and he’ll put in new string.
That's close I've had guys actually stick screws directly into large gauge wires like 200 amp service wires before they got turned on sketchy stuff
Glad to see a seasoned carpenter both watching the guys around him, correcting and teaching them, and communicating well with the other tradesmen. Wish all were truly professional like you! 👍
@@TheJacksI went to troubleshoot a bank with 1 phase down. Turns out a contractor was locating a roof cutout with an 8" spike and hammered it all the way through a 2" emt with the service to the bank in it. i just saw the tip of the spike coming through the pipe on thevdeck from the floor.
I had a similar situation recently. I hooked a bobber to the end of my fishing line. Opened up the bail on the rod/reel. Blew it through with my leaf blower. Hooked fishing line to string and then pulled the wire with the string. Worked great.
Interesting, leaf blower would push enough air for sure. Thanks for the idea
Genius!
Had a electrician on big long runs he had a pet mouse or gerbil and would tie a light weight string around its hips put it in the pipe with some food at other end then whistle for it and it would negotiate elbows tees ECT it was cute and worked great he kept it in an old lunch box with a screen lid
That's how I did it too.
Ok, by the time you're setting up all this, I've already pulled the wire through. Great video.
Sometimes that's true, but every once in awhile you get that one where something's in the way and you can't pull and this will be the time when you need this video. Thanks for the compliment though
I guess I've been extremely lucky, but you are right. This is in my memory forever, so thanks.
If you bend the first wire 180 degrees and tie the string to the bend so that the string is pulling from the folded part of wire the wire then keeps itself central in the conduit and passes obstructions such as joints and turns much easier.
That is a really good tip, that's how I always pull when I'm using a fish tape. And the other video that I posted about the Milwaukee electric fish tape that's exactly how I taped those wires
Thanks!
Wow that is amazing, thank you so much. If there's anything else I can do to help you through let me know
For shorter runs, I just use my hand to couple the vacuum and string to the pipe. No bottle needed. Thanks Jack!
That's a great idea, I had another guy comment that you should just put the small bottle of string in the vacuum I'm going to have to do a video on that.
I always put the vac on the other end and let the vac suck it through. Never fails.
Yeah like I was saying that's how I did it for years, until somebody showed me how to do it this way which makes it work better when there's water or dirt in the pipe.
Same this method blows lol 😂 it would have taken way less time to tie the bag on a nylon string, insert partially in the conduit, and suck from the other conduit.
@@TheJacks what size wire were u pulling?
The AC isn't going to suck the wire in. This video is on pulling the wire not putting the string in. Yes every contractor I ever worked for in my 45 years had a Greenlee Vac and a lot had CO2 tanks with birds ,
When you have a hard pull and PVC 90's a string will sometimes cut a slot in the last elbow stopping you from pulling through the last 90* bend . If that happens, pull your wire back, and use a larger diameter rope to pull, It will usually slide over the slot and let you complete the pull.
That is a great tip
When a heftier-than-easy wire pull was anticipated for PVC run, a contractor I worked for would use rigid elbows with PVC adapters to avoid that issue.
The flat nylon tape shaped string works well too because the flatness makes it much less likely to wear a hole in the plastic conduit.
i think this is a older electrician that thinks they are funny. so im gonna grab a bigger rope and pull it thru the same path cut by the smaller rope? quit teaching apprentices to start thinking and not be robots. critical or analytical thinking eventually comes to a young electrician after they screw enough things up
@@joshpaul7384 I am an older electrician and i can tell you i have seen that myself. That can give you a hard time if you are not careful.
Ingenious with a great wit. Love this guy!
Thanks, I didn't invent it though just was taught by some old school guys.
When I would stagger mine, I snipped all the tips on an angle, especially the 10, 8, 6 etc. My harnesses were mainly Exane 12awg and 14awg. stranded, but there may be 50 wires in the harness. I've pulled thousands of pulls and made up the harnesses for other people and other shops. (I was a burn-up and rewire tech for a major railroad.)
We also used an white emulsion for putting rubber parts together. Or if it was a large diameter we used "Owl Snot". A yellow gel made for pulling wire.
THANK YOU for what you are showing.
The problem. And I won't lie I usually do cut my larger wires, I was pulling four to engage wires through a one inch pipe so I didn't really have too much stress on it catching.
Good that you mentioned STRANDED wire, it makes a great difference Vs Solid, also the yellow 77 gel helps to pull the wires Thru effortlessly
Forty years in the trade and I've pulled miles of pipe. I am not a fan of blowing. It's been my experience that blowing will often lose enough pressure to not get all the way through the pipe run but if you're sucking and get the bird to go in the pipe it's unlikely to not get all the way to the end. Plus the added benefit if there's water in the pipe it ends up in the vac and not all over the guy at the other end.
I defentaly see your point. I have found myself a situations were sucking wouldn't work, and blowing it gets the string through. Thank you so much for taking the time to comment and watch the video.
If it is underground after you get the string in pull a ball of rags thru , sometimes you will get a bunch of crap if it has been sitting
AMEN Brother, I suck the pipe clear first, plus I know quickly when I'm done. Also, it's normally a simple matter to seal the vacuum hose to the pipe with your hands.
how about you do both. Start with blowing go to the other side then suck out or vise a verse.
@@tonylozano8574 I thought blowing is actually sucking!
Terrific video. Great method. I've pulled a lot of wire. I learned a lot (I could've used) from this video.
For that knot, look for the Magus Hitch (you can also use the Rolling Hitch). Both these hitches have a powerful aspect: When you pull on them they cinch down on the line or wire they're tied to. (Holly of Wind Hippie Sailing had the steel cable backstay on her mast snap in mid ocean. She tied it back down with a rolling hitch. A steel cable. >1000 lbs of force on it.) The advantage of the Magus Hitch is it's easier to untie later.
If you tie several knots you might also consider the multi wrap Fisherman's Knot (the one used on the Prusik not the fish hook one)
What's also important, (and obvious to most people, but not to me back in the day....) is when you wrap your electrical tape towards the front as Jacks does here, all the lips of the layers of tape are facing away from the pull. You won't do it the other way many times before those lips start catching.
I also like using wax, but I wasn't the guy who knew how to pull wire, I was the guy who learned from guys who knew how to pull wire. So I needed every advantage.
The last time I snaked anything was in June in the middle of the Pacific Ocean 160 miles south of the Aleutian Islands on top of a sailboat. We had to turn the third reef line (rope) around and run it back through the boom of the mast. No fish wire, just string, (no vacuum - wouldn't have worked anyway.) I used all my wire pulling mojo and a lot of luck. In the end I had to weedle out the para cord (messenger line) from in between a couple of crooked gaps I could not see. Used an aluminum coat hanger from a hotel in Vietnam. (When my laundry came back, I saw wire and put the hangers right in my sea bag.) When I cut the hanger wire I left it jagged - that's what I snagged the messenger line with. Had to do this on both ends, was surprised I could do it at all.
Thanks for all the great info.
Tie a piece of foam to a string put it in the tube, put a vacuum on the other end. It sucks it right through.
I use plastic grocery bags for this. For small pipes I've figured out that you don't need to blow up the rat. It just needs wings that fills the pipe. In larger pipes you do need to inflate the bag. In especially large pipes you need to put light filler in the bag to keep it expanded. You can get rats designed for the specific pipe that you're using. The knot he's using is called a Chinese finger knot. When I use them I do 3 or 4 half hitches with a base hitch that's locked with a square knot.
I agree
I have filled the bag loosely with some foam peanuts which worked well in 4" duct.
I’ve been a electrician for 35 years and never been hurt by a dangerous fish tape pulling wire . Seems like a lot of work, fish tape much easier.
By dangerous, I meant that when you're pulling it moving it it's spends around could get hit in the face, also I don't like putting metal fish tapes into live panels. But you're absolutely right a fish tape works great especially if you know the tricks on how grip them with your lineman pliers when the polls get tight
@@TheJacks There's fiberglass fish tapes for live panels.
Same here. An smart electrician would have put a draw wire in the conduit when it was laid in the ground.
@@BearsTrains A smart electrician uses wire pulling goop, too. I like more goop and less tape.
With fish tape you save time, no noise, no more equipment, no power consumption. I trust my f t
Tim, the fact that you took the time to get back to me was surprising. Also made me laugh this morning. Thank you, and I appreciate your videos and will continue to watch them because it sounds like you’ve been there, done that. You the man!
Seriously just here to help
The excavation contractor on my house project used a leaf blower to install the pull strings in our conduits. It has so much volume and velocity of air that it really doesn't take any taping or sealing on the blowing end.
That is a great Idea, thanks
Use condom to blow in. Works every time Saturday night.
This brought back a funny memory.
I started work in a shop that the owner had built himself. The first time I used the washroom, I look up at a shelf over the toilet and sitting there was a can of "Wire Pulling Lubricant". I almost peed on the floor laughing.
Ya everything electrical sounds dirty I swear.
I was working as an Operator at a large Refinery. Suddenly the ENTIRE facility shut down. Turns out a contractor ran a metal fish tape thru conduit straight into a main Load Center, shorting something out. Tripped the entire feed. Idiot was lucky to have survived.
I guess that's why they call a sparky's lol. I'm glad he was okay.
When I was an apprentice, my journeyman foreman had me pull steel fish tape through a conduit with wires...learned some were live when a 277-volt fireball blew in my face and melted off the head of the fish tape. He was silent the rest of the day as he knew he could have killed me!
I use the pull rather than push method. Same principle, really, but I think pulling relieves you of needing to build a contraption. You just form your hand around the throat of the pipe and turn the vacuum on. I also use a grocery bag. Works like a charm.
Great tip
Agree.
49 year telecommunications used the vacuum method with no problems safer and less work than the snake what ever gets the job done.
Pulled a lot of wire and cable in my working years, still do sometimes as a Handyman...This is a good idea and wire soap helps too.
You can use powdered and regular
I could see where the blow method work better with connectors and couplings at our non-sealed or non compression. Good video
Thank you
Great job EXPLAINING the "WHY" and the "HOW" you are doing it
Thanks,. I try to make my videos informitive
Depends on the run size of pipe/wires and how many elbows.
There is way to much tape on that leader it just makes it harder to pull round corners that long, a bit of cheap dish soap it flies in no stress or friction burns.
True
I remember using a kitten to run cables under the floorboards on an old house I was working on. It was the old lathe and plastered ceiling, so it wasn’t a smooth run to push the cables through. Trouble was I had to coax him through with some cat food at the other end, The first attempt, he just sat there 😂. On top of the floorboards were the furniture and carpet. 👍👍
Rack-A-Tier is sending me a new tool for this, it's a gun that shoots string across crawl space
@ that’s a good idea. The trouble with using that on old houses. You have the herring bones to keep the floor joists from twisting.
There's a place and time for either method, vacuum and mouse is great for a hot panel. I worked mostly big jobs, so a vacuum might already be in use by someone else. The main thing is to use your tools properly, safely, and not rushed.
Well said
😂
For inserting more wires in a live conduit and panel, I use insulated fish wire with the metal hook end taped over, it worked every time. I don’t think the vacuum method would work here.
Nice vid bud. Lots of good comments and you took the time to respond to all of them
Thank you. For me it is all about helping and building a community. I hope to put out more useful bids soon.
"Watch out this fish tape could be dangerous!"
*pulls out massive pocket knife*
🤣
Hahaha👍
Fish tape is the descendent of a barracuda..😂
I use the Greenlee mighty mouser kit and vacuum. It's the proper way. Good improvised method in any case. Cheers🎉
Is a good kit and thank you
Amazing video. Thanks for sharing.
No problem thanks for the comment!
Great video! I have seen this done with purpose designed equipment to blow fibre optic cable around a plant, but never thought about using this low tech approach...One thing for people to consider is that if they are struggling with the vacuum only getting the string so far, try switching ends and use the opposite technique...
Right
Retired electrician at 5am watching a guy blowing a line and pulling wire ☕️
Thank you for watching😉
Used to skin TW with a dull pocket knife by rolling the wire over the blade with my thumb so that pig sticker you have is just a tad to long and sharp for me but it could be handy if I ever need to stab a house or maybe an engine block 👍🏼
indeed, bet he loves that knife, he just needs to be careful with it, never forcing it, in order not to damage the edge, that hard steel is very brittle, almost like glass; straight razors were like that @@bagadonutz5717
Cut your wires at an angle I had a great tip from my partner while trying to fir a 3mm Shrint Tube all the in my cellphone charger while repairing it. He said,have you used a silicon notice how it smooth out your finger when working with it?,use some of that when pulling wire. It will smooth out the pulling. Now try that! :)
Actually that's a technique I use all the time but I forgot to mention it in this especially with larger wires anything that keeps it pulling the right way, the other thing I didn't mention is that you should always pull with the bells so you don't have anything to catch on
AWESOME Excellent instructional video. Thank you.
Thanks
Woah, that knife!!!! That's like....Samurai sushi chef cutting sharp!
Got to have a good knife
Blowing communication fiber has been blown for many ears. The Fiber runs freely, no plastic at the end. The air stream makes the fiber vibrate and the friction is reduced. We use a more heavy compressor and blows a km or more.
I have never actually done communication fiber before so that's interesting to know thanks
@@TheJacks typical diameter of a fiber tube is about 16 mm. The fiber cable itself about 3-4 mm and a bit stiff. At the starting end you mount a T with the compressor in from the side and a short feeding stub. Now you feed the fiber in as far as practical. Then open for the air. Air will partly run straight out the feeding end and partly down the tube. You help the fiber a little till the air gets a firm “grip”. Then the air drags the fiber. The fiber will normally vibrate in the tube so there is very little friction. Runs quick and easy when you know the details.
In our case the fiber cable contains 6-8 separate fiber strands and only one is in use running a GPON protocol. That resembles ethernet in a legacy coax but is a time division multiplex with all of my neighbours. The capacity in one fiber is enough for all of us with divided time-slots.
I appreciated the tip and liked your speaking and presentation style. Well done, will help me!
I am greatful, any other subjects I can help with?
Suggestion: Fishing bobbers. Once you've shot the string through connect a big red fishing bobber to the string. Make sure it's a good solid hold. That way the string won't accidentally fall into the hole while you're waiting to prep your wire.
It also acts like a lockout flag so people working nearby know it's a waiting wire pull and don't tinker with the dangling end.
That is a great Idea thanks
You might also use several small bobbers as "parachutes" to pull a small string through, since hard spheres are not going to get caught on pipe burrs the way a plastic bag can. Then the small string can be used to pull through the small rope shown in the video. And of course, cut all the pipe burrs out when building the conduit run... if that is up to you and not some careless lunkhead. @@TheJacks
Excellent video and at the precise moment I'm starting a pull.
How did it go?
excellent, I only ran 60' of 4 wire 6g through 3/4" pvc but was quite quick and can I say fun?@@TheJacks
Digging the long trench for the conduit is the hard part.
Yeah I had my buddy do it with his excavator, we hit a cable line that wasn't supposed to be there, the main power line going to the well that wasn't supposed to be there, but we did miss the propane line so there's that
@@TheJacks Glad you're still here! No 8-1-1 pre-dig phone line and/or requirements where you're at?
I literally did this more than 35 years ago. I didn't use a water bottle. I just took a paper towel and wadded it up and tied the string around the wad. Poked it into the hole and used out FilterQueen vacuum on the positive side and blew it through 50 feet of pipe and 2 elbows. No water bottle needed.
Totally agree The only reason I use a water bottle is to get a better seal sometimes but I have used wet rag in the end of the vacuum to get what I needed
I bet you could 3D print an attachment for your shop vac to do this. Might result in a more consistent seal, and the string inlet could be rounded over to prevent snags.
That is correct, to be honest what works the best is if you work with a smoker have them tap the bottle with a cigarette makes a perfect circle no catcing
A funnel works great !
Great video! Very, very thorough! Have never pulled wire, but think now I could do it. but really don't need the music. :(
Yes I think I'm going to remaster this video get rid of the heavy breathing and get rid of the music
Take care that you don't blow water into a hot panel through underground conduit. Safety first.
Ya , this isn't for going back to a panel for sure
I am retired now ..but a long time ago I made a reduction from pvc pipe of 45º with a small piece of soft sponge tied to the string....and I was using sucction part of shopvac.
That's awesome, basically a homemade pneumatic piston
That was worth watching. Thanks!
Thanks
Great video 📹 👍
I always stretch my black tape. Good to know I've been doing it right all these years. 🎉
Good instincts man
vacuuming can only ever get less than one atmosphere of pressure. Blowing air through can be more than just one atmosphere. This was the process I was told about for running draw string through ducts in the pavements except they used supermarket bags as the ducts were bigger.
I love the science.
Good...point. Because based in good science!
Posting the truth on Y/T will get you banned thou..
Suction is always works better than blowing as it points where the rope should come out. It's a very important in case of Y connection or damaged conduits. 2nd stage suction is to apply a can of wd40 into the conduit while keeping suction. Only that will lubricate harmlessly so the wires will not get stuck in the middle
That's interesting I've been done a lot of on the ground but I've never got to use a y in the underground before. So suction definitely would make more sense in that case
@@TheJacks I was thinking "what about Y junctions?" and then I wondered "does anyone ever use a Y junction for conduit?" Now I'm curious.
A good tip is always add a extra string so in the future you can pull more wire later if you need it aka Cat6 or something.
Cool, although in this case you're not allowed to run voltage with line voltage in the same conduit according to the NEC. But that trick would work great if you had to pull another circuit later
@@TheJackscorrect. I wouldn't even want to use a string with existing conductors because the string will burn through the insulation very easily.
This is pure, genius, step-by-step. Thank you.!
Thank you for watching
Put the string spool inside of the vacuum
That is a interesting idea
Good vid , will definitely give it a go when I get a shop vac .
I've used a hand pump in the past and it worked really well .
I think it was called cable buddy here in South Africa.
👍
Shop vac (?) we would use the customer's home vac to suck plastic mouse on throw-away thin nylon string. Zip, it would arrive in seconds.
Used the thin stuff to pull through a heavier string with coax-cable following behind. But your push method also looks very useful to know.
Right, that's what I did, however I never use a homeowner's tools, when I use them that's when they break lol.
@@TheJacks Too right. Left ourselves liable to replace even just a scratched vac. But in Luxembourg, Nah. Highest GDP in Europe.
Oh man
That’s so weird. I would’ve never have dreamt of that 👍👍👍
Glad I can help
It's impossible to pull 161 feet through pvc with several 90's without lubricant. The string and or wire will burn through the conduit. Always use wire pulling lubricant (like Ideal Yellow 77) on longer runs.
I would agree sometimes you do need lube, but in this case I was pulling small gauge wires to a very large pipe and there was only 3 90s
NEC code is 360 degrees allowed in one continuous conduit run.
excellent video and very detailed instructions.! BUT we don't need the music.
i found that sucking works better than blowing. if there is not enough vacuum, cover the feed-in hole until the vacuum builds enough then let it go. the longer the run, the longer you need to hold for the vacuum to build. even a piss-weak vacuum cleaner can do the job if you let the vacuum build. also, the first knot i tie is a hitch then lots of timber hitches (on that job you did i would have done about 10) through to the end. also, i have a go with pliers squashing down any snag points as well as more tape.
Yes the pliers were really well, as far as sucking versus blowing it's all about having different skills for different situations.
@@TheJacks , yes.
@@TheJacks , i'll tell you about a job the boss and me did one saturday when no-one else was around. it was a huge brand new bus factory. all conduits were installed in the slab without draw-wires. he's at one end with the vac and i'm at the other end feeding the rope in. nothing's happening. the rope moved about a metre then no more. weve done this before on smaller jobs and everything was fine. not today. this was a big site. 200m x 400m. these conduits are large and long. then we got the idea of blocking the feed until there was enough vacuum then release. this worked. the more we let the vacuum build the fastyer we got all pull-ropes installed ready for the team on monday. .the boss borrowed the wife's home vac. no big industrial thing here. i cant imagine a way to build pressure with the blowing method.
What size wire are you using for a 160' run? Seems like there'd be excessive voltage drop on those little wires; correct me if wrong. Thanks for the video, by the way.
No worries, I'm running 2 20 amp circuits, so I upsize them to 10 gauge wire. Shouldn't have much voltage drop to go any higher then that at 161 ft. And no problem.
@@TheJacks Awesome, thanks for responding. I'm about to do a 140' run with a 60A breaker to my workshop. By my calcs I have to use 4AWG to keep voltage drop down to around 3%.
I wasn't trying to be a wiseguy if it came across that way.
Thanks again.
4 awg copper not aluminum
@@TheJacks Yes, using copper.
Shop-Vac, plastic grocery (or Home Depot) bag. Bucket of string. Tie the bag to the string and stuff it in the conduit. Haul the Shop Vac to the other end of the conduit and start sucking. Tie your cable to the string I did a 1,000+ pull of fiber optic cable with this method many moons ago. It took about 15 seconds to get the string pulled.
That's awesome it went so well for you, I can't say my pulls have always gone that smooth 😓
I sometimes use a little lubricant like dish soap. That makes pulling wires a lot easier
Great point
Never use dishsoap or any other soap as they can eat away at the wire insulation and eventually cause a short. I suggest using appropriate wire lubrication. 👍
Great tip I always use electrical lube a lot of people were saying they use dish soap which I've never actually tried.
@@mauriciomartinez431 I did not know that, so wire lubrication is the proper soution :)
These methods come in handy with really long runs where your fish tape isn’t long enough or won’t push through conduit.
I agree it's all about knowing different tricks for different situations. Thanks for the comment
Awesome stuff!
Thanks , here to help!
Thanks much, good idea, just plan good to know for the brain locker!
Skills and tools for different situations. Thanks for the comment
While you cut bottles, tape, tie and adjust the vac, I would have pushed the spring through and gotten the string back.
Fishtape?
@@TheJacks Had to google it and the answer is yes. We got one that's 55 yards at the office but that won't work in less than 2" pipes.
Fish tapes do work, but I prefer working with string if I can for the cleanup. Also the idea behind the video was that somebody wouldn't have to buy a new tool just to do one pull.
Wow, thats a lot of arsing about, in UK we have nylon draw tapes of various sizes. A thing I find useful is yo puff down some talcum powder as it makes the inner pipe slippery and reduces friction on tape and cables. There is stuff like Yellow 77 but I cant stand the mess it makes.
That is a good tip.i would have used mule tape but it was not enough weight to worry about.
I’ve wired a few OR’s and XHHW wire was required and lube wasn’t allowed. Only talcum powder
Lauren bobert can do it without the vacuum
Air compressor?
@@TheJacks - no, it was a political comment
Great video, thank you for producing it!
A question for you: why did you use separate wires and not a Romex, is it easier, or is it maybe some code requirement?
That is correct code only allows up to 10 ft of Romex in conduit, I believe it's because Romex has paper in it so if one end caught fire in theory it could catch all the way to the other end. And you can't just pull the wires out of a Romex, cuz each wire has to be individually labeled of what it is.
You failed to add some "Slippery Dick" wire pulling lubricant which makes even small conductors pull easily for long distances. I worked with big cable, 500 and 1000 mcm, and adding lube was a requirement! Even dish soap works great!
You are correct I did not use lube in this one because it was four number 10 wires and 1 in pipe. Thanks for the comment
5:07 me : high amount of build up to this moment I’m ready for Mach 5 just like you said and then….. nothing . 👏 👏 👏 well done sir , well done
It went, I cut the bottle with to much of a v so it caused the string to catch
You can only suck 14 PSI, you can pressurise to almost infinity.
Try sucking a candle out !
Well sAid
Are you normally using stranded wire for this type of installation? Seems it would be more flexible than 12awg solid wire.
Yes on this it was stranded
I learned a few things there, cheers for making
No Problem, more to come.
Great info bud enjoyed watching
Thanks
I am trying to make more content like this.
Shop vac is def the best method. We normally just attach the string to a walmart grocery bag and use the vac to pull the string through, then tie the wire to the string and pull it through.
I always thought the shop back was the best method too until I tried using my Milwaukee leaf blower That was way better
My neighbor asked me (plumber) to replace his pool light. 60' pull. Old wire was stuck. Tried soap and water, no help. I cut and stuffed the wire into the conduit and connected a water hose to the equipment end of the the pipe. Turned the hose on and dirty water started coming out the pool end (pool was full). After about 60 seconds the whole 60 ft of wire came out like a long poop into the pool. Fish taped the new wire in....done. (plumber's way)
That is epic
Greetings from Reno, Nevada.
Great project.
Thanks from Ellensburg WA.
I started thinking about Chris Farley while watching this gentleman.. LOL
First time I've ever heard that but I could see it
We used a similar method to feed 3/4/0 through some 4 inch conduit! Now that's work and there is no other way to do it. The mouse was a slightly less than 4 inch ball of taped rags and sturdy string through the middle of it. Then attached the pull rope to the wire. We had a vacuum cleaner about half the size of a VW bug to push or pull the mouse with.
That is a hardcore way and a long day. I hope you got it though!
Great detailed explanation thanks;
Just curious now, how the heck how do you sharpen that knife? i mean,it cuts like a new shaving blade..
Standard sharpener
thank you. cheap and efficient.
Glad to help
Awesome video it help me a lot cause I was struggling with the little foam mouse, if you don’t mind me asking what brand is that knife? And where can I get one?
Hey bro if you go back in the comments I put a link in there a while back, I don't remember which comment though. It was actually a cheap knife off Amazon It was only like 30 bucks, it's a 10-in folder
Thank you
Thank you ! Been doing this from time to time and that really will speed things up ! Most times I just build the piping with the wire in it already, piece by piece over the whole 160' length... TIME CONSUMING !
Glad I could help. Thanks for commenting
Farmers use wire to build hogs/chicken pens. Electricians pull conductors.
@@jamesgarrett2129splitting hairs are we😂
To make my sail, I always cut the bag at a 45 degree angle angle then tie a short piece of string from comer to corner. Tie your string to the loop and blow or suck. You can then untie it or cut a tail so you can use the bag lots of times. I use compressed air and blow.
Wow that's a good idea, my thought is I always have a sandwich bag of my lunch You never thought about making it reusable
Also worked that way, to reuse your mouse/sail. Used plastic shopping bag corners.
That's a very sharp knife you got there
The best knife of all time
Great, job and technic, thanks for posting..
Thank you
Use a pulling sock with a journeyman twist, tape with a tab. Mule tape and some foam lube spray is best in order to not cut the sweeps.
That's what I do for heavy gauge wires but for little stuff like that it's no big deal to pull it with string
I've used factory, and every kind of homemade mouse imaginal. The latest I've tried is a party balloon blown up to about the ID of the conduit. Amazing how that works.
You're the second guy that comment about the balloon I'm going to have to give it a shot make a video about it.
Thank you so much, excellent method❤
Glad to help
Nice demo
Thanks
I used compressed air and string to run ground wires thru plastic tubes 20 years ago.
Yeah it's not a new technique but it's not one The kids nowadays know about I feel like
Great stuff!! Thanks for sharing!
No problem, I love to help
What did we use before plastic bottles?
Use Greenly vac kit for $800
Very nice idea but What if there is blockage in the pipe?
Generally speaking blowing a blockage out is easier than sucking a blockage out cuz you can build infinite amount of pressure in the pipe, but different tricks for different situations
9:20
I see a lot of guys wrapping the tape the same way you do, but i prefer pulling the electrical tape from top to bottom.
Do you think its because i'm lefty?
And last question..
Rather than having the rope getting fed from the opening on the side of the bottle, since you blow the rope down the pipe with the vaccum, could you pass the rope through the vaccum ??
Pass it through the intake of the Vac, through the Vac's hose, and down the pipe? Of course, with the little bad acting as a parachute..
That is a great question, in the video and the thumbnail I show a smaller bucket of string that only does about a thousand feet but it didn't have enough in it for the run so I'm actually blowing the string out of a 5 gallon bucket of string. But one guy suggested I just put the little bottle in the vacuum like you're saying and I'm going to definitely make a video to see if that works
@@TheJacks 👍
Do you ever use a grease to make it easier to pull?
Yes there's a product out there called wire lube, some people use dish soap but these weren't very big wires and it was a pretty large pipe.