Your Favorite Install Tool?

Or 1 foot off the floor so you have to lie on your belly to work on the panel. Grrrr... js

The old, very damaged, suspended ceiling was removed the week I bought the house. It's remaining with no ceiling until I finish several rewiring projects, which I admit will be a few years at least.

Oh yes, of course ... water pipes. Thanks!

Only because you don't live in Canada! ;-) I rather lose the drill bit than lose the insulation! :-)

Hey your spelling is better in French

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| > Sylvain Robitaille wrote: | >

| >> Crash Gordon wrote: | >>

| >>

| >>>Basement is almost the same process...easier if your basement doesn't | >>>have a finished ceiling. | >>

| >>

| >> The old, very damaged, suspended ceiling was removed the week I bought | >> the house. It's remaining with no ceiling until I finish several | >> rewiring projects, which I admit will be a few years at least. | >>

| >>

| >>>Except you wont have the problem of drilling out the roof...only | >>>smashing into the basement stem wall with your drill bit...and of | >>>course water pipes. | >>

| >>

| >> Oh yes, of course ... water pipes. Thanks! | >>

| >

| > And 110 wiring... Don't forget 110 wiring. | | |

ah it just gets cold there...here you dry up and shrivel to a raisin.

Heh...I did a takeover last spring some three letter company installed it on the floor of a clothes closet...laying on the floor.

| > I usually hide them behind clothes in the mbr closet...and where I can | reach | > them without a 12 foot freekin' ladder. WHY do people put them almost on | the | > ceiling in a residences? Drives us short installers nuts. | | Or 1 foot off the floor so you have to lie on your belly to work on the | panel. Grrrr... | js | | |

It was you?

| > I usually hide them behind clothes in the mbr closet...and where I can reach | > them without a 12 foot freekin' ladder. WHY do people put them almost on the | > ceiling in a residences? | | | Drives us short installers nuts. | | Yep... that's why.... | | | >

| >

| >

How 'bout the panel next to the crawl hole....in the attic. js

Drives us short installers nuts.

Yep... that's why....

And 110 wiring... Don't forget 110 wiring.

Problem is the insulation wraps tightly around the bit making it impossible to get out. Also, instead of your insulation being spread out through the 16" stud space, you now have an empty stud space with about 6" of worthless tightly packed insulation.

Worst of both worlds...

Probably, but far more flexible

Each fishing device has its purpose. The creepzit rods are handy in most cases but for more flexibility the 10', 15' or 30' fiberglass fish tape works best. Metal fish tapes aren't my favorite but I have seen one of the techs I work with do wonders with them even in insulated walls. He puts a bend in the end and can "drive" it right up the wall around switch boxes and end up with it right where he wants it...

It helps it bounce over obstacles and if your rods start to veer off course you can spin them and it will "walk" you back onto your line. Typically in these applications you will connect your wire to the back of your last rod after you have the front end where you want it.

Helps to have an assortment of various kinds as they each have strengths and weaknesses. The right tape for the right job makes the work a lot easier. I have 6 different types on my truck.

With ya there brother....

Man... you just f'd up my night... I have been stuck a few times (usually crawl spaces) and I keep thinkin' I wouldn't want my last moments on earth to be those...

But ya know we grow up with the John Wayne book of manhood and have such a hard time admitting we are getting old. We tell ourselves we know our limitations and we don't do certain things anymore. Then we are out on a job and have to get that last wire pulled...

Crash Gord> wedged head down a vaulted ceiling truss, then had a fatal heart attack up > there.

Then I strongly suggest that you drop your interest in snaking wires and concentrate on investigating wireless alarm systems.

Jus kidden!

Snaking wires can be taught to someone up to a certain point. After that, you just have to put in whatever time necessary for YOU to learn what it takes to do it. Like most things, the longer and more you do it the better you get at it. After over thirty five years in the industry, snaking is not a chore. Sometimes it's fun to watch the new guys try to snake a wire unsuccessfully for 15 minutes in frustration and then you go over and give it a twist or two, get it through and say, "What's takin you so long?" Really blows their mind.

Another "trick" you get good at is drilling intersecting holes and drilling at an angle to a particular spot with up to a 2 or 3 foot long bit. One time this builder, I still work for occasionally, told me his electrician forgot to run a doorbell wire and asked me, while I was drilling for the alarm contact, if I could drill the wire hole. It was an awkward spot but I said sure, where do you want it? I told him to tap on the outside of the building beside the door. I went inside closed the door, using a flexibit bent at an angle, I drilled through and he pulled his finger away just in time. Certainly a bit of luck there, but to this day, he thinks I've got Xray vision. As your experience grows, in all these things, you get "luckier and luckier" until it becomes a skill. In between you learn how to patch your mistakes so that no one can see them.

Speaking of that, I had a helper who was drilling a window down to the basement pop out of the wall with a drill bit. Not a big hole and it was down near the baseboard. It was on a grey wall so the white of the drywall really stood out. If I spackeled it, it would have to be painted and I didn't think the homeowner would be too pleased with a white patch on his wall. I got some spackle, went down to the oil burner, tilted the chimminy damper and scraped some soot from the flue and used it to color the spackel. It took a few tries before I got the right color but you could barely see the hole afterwards, unless you were looking for it. Desperation is another mother of invention. That was years ago. Now, I carry a few of those small plastic tubes of paint tint. Primary colors, and black so I can mix up just about any color spackle I need.

Vegas gets pretty darn hot, but they also get more rain. Walking across a casino parking lot in August...you better have a bottle of water with you.

Hint with flex drills...they eat up the torque of the drill, I usually drill the starter hole with a bell hanger bit through the header then insert the flex drill and drill the top plate. Also, they cost more than bell hangers and I dont want to wear them out too quick. AND you have to unload the flex bits frequently because you will notice the flutes are blocked byt the weld to the flex rod with makes the chips get stuck in the hole...gotta unload often.

"Crash Gordon" a écrit dans le message de news: fVs7f.7$ snipped-for-privacy@news.uswest.net...

Cause WE can access them and have a good laugh when we meet short technician at ADI or burtek and think if them trying to reach the can ;-)

just kidding..I too, doesn't like to have to bring the 3 step with me when working in closet...

I have one panel in an attic. It was a messy take over then the house got hit by lightning (direct hit) so they decided to add on an new wing...due to the const. of the house there was no other place that made economical sense (in other words they were cheap). It turned out not so bad as it's in kind a storage room next to an air duct so it gets some air conditioning (ok ok so I cut a small hole in the duct)...anyway its been working fine for 15 years and battery consumption has been normal...go figure...then again it was a radx 6112.

Not something I would intentionally do however.