Re: fishing phone cable through hole

Nate Nagel wrote:
Eigenvector wrote:
I'm in the process of pulling new phone cable for my house and tied the old cable to the new cable with electrical tape. Unfortunately the two became separated and now I need to push the new cable through the 1/4" or so hole in the wall and out the house. I know the holes aren't aligned, so I'm hoping there is an easier way to do this that doesn't involve "cut the drywall" The jack that it came from was a surface mount jack, so there is no box in the wall, just a hole in the drywall.

I know that there is fishtape, but for some reason I thought the head on fishtape was larger than the diameter of phone cable. The holes are almost exactly the diameter of the phone cable, if not smaller, whoever did the fishing of the wires did a really good job. The hole is small enough so that looking through it is hopeless - no eyeballing this job.

just use a length of stiff wire instead of a fish tape; a 14AWG single copper conductor will work, or even better would be some smaller yet stiff steel wire (aka "mechanic's wire")

nate


In a pinch a straightened wire coat hanger can work pretty well. And it has the benefit of being free.

OP: how far is it that you need to thread this telephone wire? Straight through a normally-constructed wall? Is the construction brick or something else difficult? Normally the original telephone installer would have used an "installer's bit" (what else?) to go through the entire structure and then to pull the wire through. This means that the path really should be quite straight but not necessarily perpendicular to the walls and once you figure out what the original path is, threading the new wire becomes much easier. Normally I'd just put a piece of coat hanger wire perhaps 18" long onto the end of the wire like a needle on a thread (but _firmly attached_ using minimal taping without looping)and poke around a bit to figure out the path and then push it on through.

--
John McGaw
[Knoxville, TN, USA]
http://johnmcgaw.com
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Tell me if Ive got this right.....(please)
    ... > access point downstairs to a terminal in a bedroom upstairs. ... > 1) The first wall is easy, because I have access behind it ... In this case I can cut a square hole for the ... tacking it in place with some 1/2" wire staples. ...
    (alt.home.repair)
  • Re: Tell me if Ive got this right.....(please)
    ... > access point downstairs to a terminal in a bedroom upstairs. ... > 1) The first wall is easy, because I have access behind it ... In this case I can cut a square hole for the ... tacking it in place with some 1/2" wire staples. ...
    (alt.home.repair)
  • Re: fishing phone cable through hole
    ... old cable to the new cable with electrical tape. ... mount jack, so there is no box in the wall, just a hole in the drywall. ... just use a length of stiff wire instead of a fish tape; ...
    (alt.home.repair)
  • Re: fishing phone cable through hole
    ... mount jack, so there is no box in the wall, just a hole in the drywall. ... stiff steel wire ... Normally I'd just put a piece of coat hanger ...
    (alt.home.repair)
  • Re: Endfed wire ?
    ... the wire through the wall without too much attenuation...The property ... is stone built and whilst I gan get a hole to take the wire it is not ... the window wall as it is directly over the conservatory... ... building work entailing scaffolding etc..The hole I have managed to drill ...
    (uk.radio.amateur)