360 and more

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JFletcher said:
I haven't. Call me a wire jockey virgin, I dont care. The aforementioned comm run that stuck at the 3rd 90, two BIG guys tried to yank it thru, they wound up ripping the all-thread from the strut/ceiling. After that, we unfurled 180' of Clear-Glided-to-heck cable back out, and the EC who ran our 3" EMT wound up removing the 3rd 90, pulling our wire into the floor, back up and in, and reassembling the conduit. Not code, but at that point no one cared.

He vac'd a string thru the same conduit effortlessly...
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How many cables did you have in that 3" EMT?
 
edward said:
How many cables did you have in that 3" EMT?
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A 100pr Cat3 and about 20 cat5e/6. The electricians ripped the lead off the initial pull, then broke some of the conductors and jacket of the cat3 the second pull (as well as the strut supporting the conduit -I'd estimate well over 1000lbs force used with two BIG electricians yanking as hard as they could) before taking the 3rd 90 out and pulling it all in the hallway. The run zig-zagged, if that makes any difference (left, then right, then left hand turn).

TDMM / EIA/TIA 568 standards call for no more than 2 quarter bends and 100' between pull boxes.
 
JFletcher said:
A 100pr Cat3 and about 20 cat5e/6. The electricians ripped the lead off the initial pull, then broke some of the conductors and jacket of the cat3 the second pull (as well as the strut supporting the conduit -I'd estimate well over 1000lbs force used with two BIG electricians yanking as hard as they could) before taking the 3rd 90 out and pulling it all in the hallway. The run zig-zagged, if that makes any difference (left, then right, then left hand turn).

TDMM / EIA/TIA 568 standards call for no more than 2 quarter bends and 100' between pull boxes.
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I wasn't there but I've seen electricians do some pretty dumb things when pulling wire. Its not all about brute force.
 
When I worked in the field it was 4 90's or as far as the 200 ft. fish tape would reach, which ever came first.
Then set a box. (to pull through or to.......)
 
Natfuelbilll said:
What are your experiences pulling wire in conduit systems with greater than 360 bends?
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Never installed one. Where the EC did when we were doing v/d/v, anything over 4 bends was redone. Sometimes that meant sticking an ugly j-box in a ceiling, or an access cover to get to a box, but beyond 4 bends there has to be pull point(s).

The only place we ran into problems was getting around elevator shafts and stairwells.
 
infinity said:
360 is the limit. On occasion will bypass the pull point in the middle and pull through 5 or 6 elbows with large conductors especially if part of the run is vertical and we're feeding down. Don't tell anyone. ;)
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As long as you have installed the required pull point, there is nothing in the code that requires you to use it.
 
Natfuelbilll said:
I know the solutions. I'm looking for experiences/stories of greater than 360.
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NOT NEC, but here is the most extreme example of FULL pulls with > 360 deg bends I've ever seen.

1970, new aircraft test airplane, needed a few hundred sensor cables run out the wing, 5" aluminum conduit. 100% full, could not push a pencil in amongst the wires.
About 80 ft conduit with about 500 degrees total bends (convoluted bend pattern, kinda like a complicated auto exhaust system)
Nearly all wires shielded TP with Teflon outer jacket. PAM vegetable spray found to be best lube in short pull tests.
10.000# winch with good anchor, conduit anchored also.
8 people on feed end keeping cables parallel (zero crossed wires) and pushing hard into the feed end. Fairly complicated finger connections to pull end, but it all went thru.
 
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