Last week I had to run a coax line through a nightmare attic in Austin, tight crawl space with blown insulation everywhere. I always used a steel fish tape but it kept snagging on the trusses and I was sweating bullets for an hour. Grabbed a fiberglass glow rod from my van on a whim and got it through in like 15 minutes with zero snags. Anyone else switched to glow rods for attics and never looked back?
I was working on a second-floor install in a old house in Portland last Tuesday (the kind with super steep stairs). My hand slipped while I was hauling the spool up, and the whole 500-foot roll went bouncing down into their living room. The customer was nice about it, but I spent 20 minutes untangling the mess while her cat kept trying to play with the loose end. Has anyone else had a coil get away from them in a tight space like that?
Last Tuesday I was running new coax through a tight crawlspace in a house built in the 50s. I had 200 feet of cable on the spool and about halfway through I realized the end got snagged on a nail and pulled back. I spent two hours in that cramped space trying to untangle it but just made it worse. By the end I had to cut out 40 feet of ruined cable and redo the whole run from scratch. That was the worst paying job all month because of the extra time. Has anyone else had a cable turn into a total mess like that?
I hit 500 clean fiber terminations without a single failure today and it got me wondering if I'm just getting lucky or if the fusion splicer I switched to six months ago is actually that good. Some guys swear by mechanical ends for speed but I've been getting way better results with fusion on single mode lately. What's your take on the whole fusion vs mechanical debate for everyday installs?
I spent all afternoon yesterday tracing a dead drop in a new build near downtown Phoenix. Turned out the compression fitting on the RG6 was just a hair loose and it took out the whole signal. Anyone else ever spend way too long on something that simple?
I was at a house built in the 70s over near Maplewood. The ceiling was some kind of acoustic tile with plaster behind it. Tried using my regular glow rods for like 45 minutes and kept hitting something solid. Finally pulled out my fish tape with the magnetic head and got through in 30 seconds. Has anyone else dealt with weird ceiling materials that just eat up your time?
I was doing a routine install at a datacenter off the 101 in Phoenix and walked past their main comms room. Honestly, whoever did their cable management was an artist. Every fiber patch cable was exactly the same length and routed through these little finger ducts perfect. I snapped a pic to try and copy the technique on my next big job. Anyone else run into a setup that made you rethink your whole approach?
I was skeptical too at first, but after snapping my third coax connector by following the spec sheet instead of just using feel, I switched back to hand-tightening on that attic run in Phoenix last August. Has anyone else found torque specs useless for 90% of house installs?
Back in 2019 I was working a job off Maple Street in Akron, hooking up a new build. I used one of those cheap compression fittings without checking the center conductor was seated right. It grounded out and took out the whole tap, had six houses calling in no signal. Had to back track every drop on that leg before I found it.
Had a job in Medford yesterday where the attic was packed with loose fill insulation and no crawl path. Took me 45 minutes just to find the far wall using a 2x6 plank to walk across the joists. Managed to get the drop and fish the line on the first try without falling through the ceiling.
I used to just staple everything down the corner until last month when a homeowner showed me how to pop the baseboard off and tuck coax behind it. Took me 20 extra minutes but the result looked 10 times better than my usual work. Has anyone else tried this method or do you stick to surface mounting?
I was out in Oakdale yesterday doing a run for a new construction house and managed to get the whole cable laid without tearing the outer jacket on any rocks or roots. Felt pretty good because my first few tries at this always ended up with at least one patch I had to redo. Anyone else take a weird amount of pride in clean burial work?
I saw a guy at the supply house on Tuesday actually strip coax with his molars and then he bragged it was faster than my Klein tool, has anyone else come across these weird shortcuts that just make a mess?
I was checking my van mileage yesterday and it hit me that I started installing cable back in 2001. That was right after 9/11 when everyone was staying home more and ordering cable. Found out last week that one of the new guys I'm training was born in 2002. I was already 4 years into this trade when he showed up. Made me think about how different the tools were back then compared to now. Anyone else feel like the job changed way more than they expected over the last couple decades?
I was doing a new build in a subdivision near Austin last month and the blueprints showed the existing line 3 feet to the left of where I was digging. Hit it at full speed, ripped it right out of the conduit. Had to call the customer and tell them their internet would be down for 2 days while the utility company came to splice it back. Has anyone else had a close call with buried lines they want to warn about?
I was running a new drop line for a customer over on Maple Street and my telescoping ladder slid out from under me. I had it on a sloped driveway but thought the feet were gripped good enough. Next thing I know I'm sliding down the siding with the ladder tipping sideways. Scraped my arm up pretty bad and bent the ladder's locking mechanism. Had to drive 40 minutes back to the shop to grab a spare. Anyone else ever have a ladder fail on them like that in a weird spot?
Been doing installs for 3 years and never counted before. Today I finished a job in Austin and realized I did my 500th coax termination. That's a lot of stripped cables and P-clips.
He was right, I went back to fix a loose connection yesterday and that extra 6 inches of cable saved me from having to run a whole new line through the attic, has anyone else had that tip get them out of a jam?
Had to do 30 cat6 ends at a new build in Boise yesterday. My old Klein snap-in tool finally died so I grabbed the budget replacement from the supply house. First 5 ends, three failed the continuity test. Swapped to a borrowed Fluke from another crew member and only had 1 fail out of the rest. The cheap one just doesn't seat the pins deep enough every time. Anyone else run into this or did I just get a bad tool?
Been using the cheap ones from the hardware store for years. Picked up a pair of Klein crimpers at a supply house in Tampa last week. First RG6 connector I put on felt solid. No crushed jackets or loose fits. Anyone else find a tool they were skeptical about that turned out worth it?
Honestly, I was getting signal loss on about 1 in 10 installs for months and couldn't figure out why. Then a senior guy at a job site in Phoenix pointed out I wasn't stripping the dielectric back far enough before attaching the connector. He showed me his trick of using a $10 Klein tool to get exactly 3/8 inch exposed every time. Has anyone else had a simple prep change fix their intermittent signal problems?
I was in upstate New York last December fixing a line that kept losing signal after every freeze. Swapped out the compression connector for a heat-shrink weatherproof type and the problem vanished completely. The compression ones just can't handle the ice expansion inside the connector body. Anyone else had better luck with shrink-fit on exposed lines?
I used to swear by compression fittings on outdoor runs, but after a -20 degree morning left me with three cracked connectors, I swapped to push-on ends with heat shrink. Has anyone else had compression fittings fail in extreme cold?
Pulled one of those $8 fish tapes from Harbor Freight on a job in Phoenix last Tuesday and it snapped clean in the middle of a 150ft run. Had to cut open the conduit to get the cable out, wasted 3 hours of my day. Has anyone else had a budget tool fail at the worst possible time?
I used to hate doing attic work, thought it was the worst part of the job. Last Tuesday we had a deluge in Toledo and I got stuck working in a tight attic for 6 hours straight. Customer had a finished basement so all lines had to go up top, 4 drops total. By hour 3 I had worked out a system with my telescoping rod and a headlamp that cut my time per drop down to 45 minutes. That day I actually started enjoying the quiet up there with the rain on the roof, no boss breathing down my neck. Has anyone else found a weird trick that made a job you hated suddenly bearable?