Henry saves the day!

[davesparks]

Ok so it wasn't exactly a major issue, but good old Henry did save me from having to waste an hour walking to the nearest wholesaler to buy a poxy draw tape.
I am of course talking about the old faithful Henry Hoover here.

I installed a bit of steel conduit, and then discovered that the singles just didn't want to push from one end to the other on their own (Lord knows why, there are only two shallow bends in it, nothing much) and naturally I had forgotten to pack a draw tape in to my kit before getting it delivered to site (the building is in Piccadilly Circus so much easier to courier the tools in and catch a train than try to drive the van and park it)
I thought it would be OK as the LX department in the theatre would certainly have one, but no they've lost theirs.
Next stop the sub-sub-sub-sub basement to visit the facilities guys who look after the whole building, again no luck.
The nearest wholesaler is about an hours trip by foot, I was already a bit behind schedule, and it's the most expensive WF branch on the planet, so keen to avoid this I came up with a cunning plan.

I went back to the LX department and asked them for a ball of string and some gaffer tape, and once they'd finished laughing they came up with the goods and then came to watch what I was getting up to.

So I sealed up the open besa boxes with tape, attached the nozzle of the Henry to the besa I was trying to get cables to and sucked the string through the conduit happy days!

Then thoroughly pleased with myself for avoiding the hour delay, and having suitably impressed my customer with the ingenuity of it, the fire alarm started going off! And so we all went and waited outside for what seemed like forever due to the restaurant having triggered an evacuation (again).

 

[Marvo]

I've used an air compressor to do similar fishing though ducts, never a vacuum cleaner though. Guess the question would be is it better to suck or blow?

 

[TheatreSparks]

I have done that trick with the vacuum cleaner and a ball of string. Got funny looks at first, but like davesparks, thoroughly impressed the onlookers! Works far easier and quicker than draw tape!

 

[Lucien Nunes]

This is a good trick that I have used many a time. One advantage over a tape is that it can take routes other than straight through at fittings. E.g. if you want to get out of the branch of an inspection tee or BESA box that you can't access to divert the tape, so long as you seal the far end of the run you can suck the string in at the run and out of the branch or vice versa. We even managed to get diagonally across a 6x6 that was hidden behind some panelling with half a dozen conduits connected.


BTW what about WF Berners St? ABout 10-12 minutes walk, been there too many times.

 

[Deleted member 26818]

Used to be a place in the road at the bottom of Carnaby Street.

 

[NDG Elecs]

Dave, you suck dude!


Or is that Henry...

 

[NDG Elecs]

I've used an air compressor to do similar fishing though ducts, never a vacuum cleaner though. Guess the question would be is it better to suck or blow?

A suckjob is better than a blow... any day of the week Marvo!

 

[davesparks]

This is a good trick that I have used many a time. One advantage over a tape is that it can take routes other than straight through at fittings. E.g. if you want to get out of the branch of an inspection tee or BESA box that you can't access to divert the tape, so long as you seal the far end of the run you can suck the string in at the run and out of the branch or vice versa. We even managed to get diagonally across a 6x6 that was hidden behind some panelling with half a dozen conduits connected.


BTW what about WF Berners St? ABout 10-12 minutes walk, been there too many times.

That is the branch I was thinking of, but it took a bit longer than that the last time I walked there from Piccadilly (but then I didn't have a clue where I was going, nothing to do with getting distracted by the food stalls and --- shops on the way)

Plus they are overpriced and the counter staff haven't got a clue