Unpopular opinion: sometimes the old way of pulling wire is still the best way

I was in a 1920s house in Cincinnati last week, rewiring the second floor. The walls were solid plaster and the stud bays were a total maze. I tried using my new fiberglass push rod for an hour and got nowhere. Finally, I grabbed a metal fish tape and a steel chain from my truck, tied them together, and dropped it down from the attic. Got the pull done in ten minutes. When do you guys ditch the modern tools and go back to basics?

3 comments

3 Comments

mason8471mo ago

Old romex with the cloth jacket is actually easier to strip with a lineman's knife than those new plastic strippers everyone loves. The trick nobody talks about is how modern tools create friction that old methods somehow bypass. When you drop that steel chain down a plaster wall, the weight and hitting action works better than any push rod ever could for snaking around fire blocks. Plus metal fish tape has this satisfying snap sound when it finally hooks onto something solid. You can feel the difference in your hands, old tools just have better feedback.

karen_nelson402mo ago

Ever try a coat hanger in a pinch?

ericnguyen2mo ago

Wait, @karen_nelson40, are you saying you actually used a metal coat hanger? That's the part that gets me. I tried a plastic one once and it just snapped, so I can't even imagine bending the wire kind.