Gone fishing (need help on pulling wire)

[Gordon Moore]

No not that wire

Since I know have a tuner card in my PC I currently have a coax cable hanging from the drop ceiling...which is rather ugly.

So I would like to go behind the wall.

It's an exterior basement insulated wall with little room between the vapour barrier and the drywall.

I have access at the top through the drop ceiling.

Any good hints for pulling wire from the ground to to the ceiling where my cable enters the house? (there's a splitter hooked up right where I need it).

I would like to install a cable plate so things are a little neater looking.

HELP...my wife certainly doesn't dig the wire draped from the ceiling. :LOL:




"A RONSTER!"

[efarstad]

For those fisher's of cable, :P , here's an idear: tie a large enough magnet to the cable you're fishing down the wall and then use an opposite polarized large magnet to pull the cable down the wall to your desired hole.

I read about that somewhere...so don't give me the credit for that one, though I wish!

E





The Norwegian A/V Nut!
E-Cinema

[Dennis H]

If your coax is stiff enough, you can just push it through. If it's too flexible for that, push something stiff (maybe a piece of Romex?) through, tape the coax on the end, and pull it through. It sounds harder than it is. Electricians do this stuff all the time in remodels.

[ThomasW]

This is the reason 'fish tapes' were invented.




theAudioWorx
Klone-Audio

[Gordon Moore]

This is the reason 'fish tapes' were invented.

Ya Thomas...I was being cheap .
Bent suggested taping some coat hangers together, three will probably do the trick.

Andrew thinks he may still have a fish tape that he can access, so the "real thing" might be easier to work with.

The only other thing was that I am a little worried about is poking a hole or 2 through my vapour barrier as it's a tight fit I guess ideally if I can run along the edge of a stud it might be better....I'm not sure what the effect would be if I accidently go through it...I can't imagine a little hole is going to cause me grief but then again you never know.

[Andrew Pratt]

Gord another thought is if you can't go behind the wall leave it in the front but come down in the corner and buy one of those cover sections of plastic that mould around wires. You sould be able to paint it so you wouldn't know its there...or run it down though that storeage area under the stairs and then hide it behind the baseboards on the floor. You could then either just bring it up behind the PC or actually install a plate which might not be to bad since you could put the plate a few inches above the baseboard so you wouldn't have to really dig to much behind the drywall.

[Chris D]

Gordon-

I've done quite a bit of finished drywall wiring in various applications around my house, so we can walk you through this for sure. I'm trying to grasp the details of what you're describing. You're saying that the cable is currently poking through the drop ceiling next to the wall, and that if you take out the tiles you have access to the side wall? What kind of access? If above the ceiling tiles the walls do not have drywall, and just exposed vapor barrier and insulation, then you're golden. If it's finished drywall above there, then that's not too hard, just cut into the drywall and I'll talk you through it. If you actually have access to the top plate from inside the ceiling, again, no problem, we'll just drill through the top plate and snake the cable. Just let me know the particulars.

In any case, I'd recommend buying a wall snake and maybe even a flexible drill bit depending on your situation. I've got a groovy snake (okay, I just had to say that) that's a flat tape of metal that rolls up into a nice little casing. It's always fun to buy a new tool, and now you've got an excuse! Only maybe $5-10, and if you're anything like me you're sure to use it again in the future and get your money out of it. I showed how to use both the flexible drill bit and wall snake in my HTB magazine article about wiring.




CHRIS
Luke: "Hey, I'm not such a bad pilot myself, you know"

[Gordon Moore]

Well Andrew came over and brought the real deal (an electricians snake). The wire was fed behind the wall with little trouble (we had to take a run or two at it ). So it's all done




"A RONSTER!"