blowing string through conduits
- Thread starter jaykool
- Start date
- Status
Pierre C Belarge
Senior Member
- Location
- Westchester County, New York
Try Greenlee.com
- Location
- Chapel Hill, NC
- Occupation
- Retired Electrical Contractor
Not sure about a blow gun but I have a very cheap and very small shop vac that I bought years ago at the Home Depot for $60 or so. It works fine for pulling lines in the conduit.
- Location
- Chapel Hill, NC
- Occupation
- Retired Electrical Contractor
Why do you think a blow gun will work better. BTW Greenlee.com Go there and click on the PDF catalog at the bottom of the page then go to page 12 for the blow gun.
doubt a blow gun would work either.
get a salamander and some flex duct blow hot air in the raceway then use a vac to draw the water out. If its morta try vinigar, if its mudd flush with water.
have used a co2 bottle with a bat mitten bird type of shuttle pulling a string, but you appear to have a blockage.
goldstar
Senior Member
- Location
- New Jersey
- Occupation
- Electrical Contractor
Yes. And bring MONEY. The good thing about the Greenlee stuff is that they have one hose size for the vac but have adapters that will fit onto the ends of most conduit sizes. OTOH, if you are creative enough you can buy an inexpensive shop vac at Big Orange like Dennis did and make your own adapters. If you buy the Greenlee stuff I'd bet you'll go for about $600.00 + for a complete kit.
mkgrady
Senior Member
- Location
- Massachusetts
I have used a rotorooter service when the conduit was really jammed up. It beats running a new conduit if it is in a paved road. The worst conduits I have seen are the old orangeburg type. Over time the layers of tar/paper swell and peel off from the inside. This clogs up the pipe pretty good.
Same here. Got a Rigid at the Orange Store that can convert to a blower if needed.
I have, however, seen where it takes both a vac and a compressor to get the job done.
No one has mentioned GB's SuperBlower.
Yea, I know..... GB aint' all that popular. But this one thing works.
1793
Senior Member
- Location
- Louisville, Kentucky
- Occupation
- Inspector
Deleted post Malfunction.
Last edited:
ohmhead
Senior Member
- Location
- ORLANDO FLA
Well we use a Rigid shop vac & Greenlee big can vac both work the same and most of our runs average 250 ft to 500 ft per run.
We use polyline jetline blue and red .
Most of these are paralleled multipule runs.
We use a 130 lb air compressor for the over 500 ft plus every job and were talkin lots of runs average 250 conduits per job 2 inch to 6 inch feeders .
Our rat or mouse is a plastic shopping bag with a rag inside and duct tape sometimes we use a rag and two bags .
On long runs over 600 feet to 1000 ft we shoot compressed air 130 pounds of air with a stainless steel braided cable 22gauge and we use that to pull the rope in . We shoot that thur a nozzle 1 inch rigid pipe with a 1/4 hole drilled in it for SS cable to fly thur with a plumbers cap attach on end which goes over the pipes and also the old duct tape .
We also flush out our conduits with water and blast out water with compressed air and then run a brush mandrel down each one .
95 % of our runs are underground there are some overhead but few !
And we measure all conduits with the Stringking tool !
We dont use true tape or measuring mule tape its a waste of time !
We use polyline jetline blue and red .
Most of these are paralleled multipule runs.
We use a 130 lb air compressor for the over 500 ft plus every job and were talkin lots of runs average 250 conduits per job 2 inch to 6 inch feeders .
Our rat or mouse is a plastic shopping bag with a rag inside and duct tape sometimes we use a rag and two bags .
On long runs over 600 feet to 1000 ft we shoot compressed air 130 pounds of air with a stainless steel braided cable 22gauge and we use that to pull the rope in . We shoot that thur a nozzle 1 inch rigid pipe with a 1/4 hole drilled in it for SS cable to fly thur with a plumbers cap attach on end which goes over the pipes and also the old duct tape .
We also flush out our conduits with water and blast out water with compressed air and then run a brush mandrel down each one .
95 % of our runs are underground there are some overhead but few !
And we measure all conduits with the Stringking tool !
We dont use true tape or measuring mule tape its a waste of time !
MAK
Senior Member
- Location
- Massachusetts-Boston
I just heard about "Orangeburg" conduit about 2 days ago on a job @ a dam. The engineer I talked to said that they had a hell of a time with pulling fiber through orangeburg that was probably 50 years old. What is it ? EMT? Rigid?
ptonsparky
Tom
- Occupation
- EC - retired
We used co2 years ago. It would put a mouse through a hollow core door. Might not make it on the safe way to do things today.
e57
Senior Member
- Location
- San Francisco, CA
greenlee string with an plastic bag at the end and a shop vac....
Bituminized fiber drain and sewer pipe (a.k.a. Orangeburg pipe). This type of sewer pipe (2? - 18? diameter) was manufactured as an oval conduit for wiring, etc., from the 1890s to the early 1940s; thereafter, it was made as a round pipe until the 1970s. (There is over 1200 miles of this conduit in the walls and floors of the Empire State Builidng in New York City.) Orangeburg pipe is comprised of cellulose fibers impregnated with hot coaltar pitch. The joints are gasketless. The pipe often softens and deforms with age, allowing infiltration and root intrusion. Two varieties exist: one with solid (homogeneous) walls and one with laminated walls. This pipe material was widely used in house laterals for over 70 years -- until pvc took over.
The Fibre Conduit Company of Orangeburg, N.Y., was a prime manufacturer of this type of pipe. When sewer pipe was first made in the 1940s, they changed their name to the Orangeburg Pipe Co. of Orangeburg, NY.
Source: Larry Vail, Degussa-Hulls Corporation, Allendale, New Jersey.
MAK
Senior Member
- Location
- Massachusetts-Boston
Wow thanks for the explanation!
- Status