Wire pulling fish tape

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myhvacguy

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Highlands Ranch, CO
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HVAC Service Tech
I have been borrowing a metal fish tape from an electrician on my job site that I have fallen in love with. It is approximately 3/16” steel spring that is 125’ in length with an loop on the end. It is so much better than the flat 1/8” steel that I own. I’ve asked the electrician where he got it and of course he doesn’t know. (Apparently it’s the owners and possibly a hand me down) my question is, does anyone know where I can find something like this? I have scoured Amazon and can’t seem to find anything steel.


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myhvacguy said:
I have been borrowing a metal fish tape from an electrician on my job site that I have fallen in love with. It is approximately 3/16” steel spring that is 125’ in length with an loop on the end. It is so much better than the flat 1/8” steel that I own. I’ve asked the electrician where he got it and of course he doesn’t know. (Apparently it’s the owners and possibly a hand me down) my question is, does anyone know where I can find something like this? I have scoured Amazon and can’t seem to find anything steel.


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I have a stainless steel one that sounds like what you have. It is longer than that but they make different lengths. It is an Ideal brand.
 
IMO Ideal Blued Steel fish tapes are the best ones on the market. They're very stiff which can make them brittle. If you need to bend a "nose" on the end you'll have to heat it with torch.
 
Could this be it

fts-75.jpg


I found it here https://www.garvinindustries.com/panel-and-pulling/fish-tapes/fts-75
 
ptonsparky said:
I have one. After a bit, meaning distance, it doesn’t push so easily into the longer runs. The guys prefer the standard flat fish tape. They would like those better if they cut off the twisted & distorted portions. I do, if I have to help them.
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So I have been running a CO system that was poured in concrete. However the GC used smurf tube. What I found nice about the spring is that it is out of a case and I can out the other end in a drill and run it slowly like a drain snake. Yes it requires a second person manning the drill, but it makes the long runs with bad angles easier to push through.


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LarryFine said:
You can buy a round springy leader for a standard tape.
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I have added one to my Klein tape but it seems to be a lot thicker at the end where it connects to the flat tape. Makes it harder to get through 1/2” conduit when there is already 1 wire in there.


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I once had a pull where the fishtape was so almost-too-short that I had to disassemble the reel housing so I could pull enough out of the other end with a hook to attach a single wire loop with the wires I was pulling in attached to it.
 
LarryFine said:
I once had a pull where the fishtape was so almost-too-short that I had to disassemble the reel housing so I could pull enough out of the other end with a hook to attach a single wire loop with the wires I was pulling in attached to it.
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I disassembled the reel housing of a retracted fish tape - once. I'll never make that mistake again.
 
myhvacguy said:
So I have been running a CO system that was poured in concrete. However the GC used smurf tube. What I found nice about the spring is that it is out of a case and I can out the other end in a drill and run it slowly like a drain snake. Yes it requires a second person manning the drill, but it makes the long runs with bad angles easier to push through.


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I have found nylon fishtapes work the best in smurf tube, especially if its not strapped well. Smurf is great in architectural brick, rock or block monument signs, easy to get around weird angles.
 
On a job we used all 1/2 rigid. Nothing would go through it till we found that the aviation cord, which was 1/4" or less plastic coated steel cable that we used for pull cord e-stops, slid right through it. Everyone took some at the close of the job, I did not but now wish I had.
 
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