fiberglass snake adapter

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panhandle444

Member
Location
oklahoma
Is there an adapter that can be installed on a typical metal snake that would allow the first few feet to be insulated?
Like a fiberglass adapter?
Feedback appreciated.
 

petersonra

Senior Member
Location
Northern illinois
Occupation
engineer
Is there an adapter that can be installed on a typical metal snake that would allow the first few feet to be insulated?
Like a fiberglass adapter?
Feedback appreciated.

I am afraid to even ask just why you want to insulate a snake because I suspect the answer is that you are planning to do something that is inherently unsafe.

having said that, how about electrical tape or heat sink tubing?
 
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panhandle444

Member
Location
oklahoma
I am afraid to even ask just why you want to insulate a snake because I suspect the answer is that you are planning to do something that is inherently unsafe.

having said that, how about electrical tape or heat sink tubing?

Actualy trying to be safe and economical. An option is to just buy a fiberglass snake. I have numerious steel snakes and wondered if there was a short section of fiberglass snake that could attach to those. Thus eliminating the need to buy a whole fiberglass snake.

Saftey is important and if need be ill just buy a full fiberglass snake.
 

petersonra

Senior Member
Location
Northern illinois
Occupation
engineer
Actualy trying to be safe and economical. An option is to just buy a fiberglass snake. I have numerious steel snakes and wondered if there was a short section of fiberglass snake that could attach to those. Thus eliminating the need to buy a whole fiberglass snake.

Saftey is important and if need be ill just buy a full fiberglass snake.

Why would a fiberglass snake be safer?
 

Cow

Senior Member
Location
Eastern Oregon
Occupation
Electrician
Everyone has snaked a live panelboard.....

You make sure someone is at the panel with their hand over the opening or if it's an empty conduit you screw a rigid coupling with a penny plug on it. I would never intentionally push several feet of fishtape into a live panel. Insulated or not.
 

panhandle444

Member
Location
oklahoma
Everyone has snaked a live panelboard.....

You make sure someone is at the panel with their hand over the opening or if it's an empty conduit you screw a rigid coupling with a penny plug on it. I would never intentionally push several feet of fishtape into a live panel. Insulated or not.

Great idea with the ridgid coupling and penny plug!
Even with someone at the panelboard, mistakes happen and that's what fiberglass snakes are for...or am I wrong?

I was just wondering if there is an adapter that would connect a short piece of fiberglass snake to a regular metal snake.
 

jusme123

Senior Member
Location
NY
Occupation
JW
Great idea with the ridgid coupling and penny plug!
Even with someone at the panelboard, mistakes happen and that's what fiberglass snakes are for...or am I wrong?

I was just wondering if there is an adapter that would connect a short piece of fiberglass snake to a regular metal snake.

...right tool for the right job, in your case, a fiberglass snake is needed, not a mock up of one. Buy it once, take care of it, and have it forever.
 

panhandle444

Member
Location
oklahoma
...right tool for the right job, in your case, a fiberglass snake is needed, not a mock up of one. Buy it once, take care of it, and have it forever.


I guess there isn't a legit tool that is listed to attach a short piece of fiberglass snake to a regular metal snake. ill just buy a fiberglass snake.....thank you for your comments everyone.
 

renosteinke

Senior Member
Location
NE Arkansas
For similar uses I have the Ideal "slick tape." This fish tape is made of wire strands, covered with a substantial nylon jacket. Quite flexible, and quite well insulated (even though there is no 'official' rating.) Best of all, there are no sharp edges to damage any wires that might be in the pipe.

Let the nervous nellys and the regulation wonks whine and whimper, but ....

For pete's sake, this is a basic task, part of the trade. Trade-offs have to be made. You can't always kill power to the city because someone wants to chage a light bulb. Thats why we are trained to recognize the hazards and minimize - note I said 'minimize,' and not 'eliminate'- risks. That's where tools, equipment, and procedure comes into play.

I'll bet the OP wants to add wires to an existing pipe, and doesn't want to kill the panel. Fine. Piece of cardboard over the lugs to keep the fish, and the new wires, from getting tangled up with everything else in the panel. A nice, insulated fish so there's less metal exposed to 'maybe' hit something hot. Even if that metal tip does hit something hot, there's no place for the electricity to go. With luck, the apprentice will catch the leader as it enters the panel, attach the new wires, and you can pull them back.

"Professional judgement" is not something done at some past time in a place far away by a committee of strangers.
 

drspec

Member
Location
North Carolina
something like this?


213AVcGhbQL._SL500_.jpg

http://www.amazon.com/Klein-Tools-50350-Flexible-Flat-Steel/dp/B000WMS9KY/ref=pd_sim_sbs_e_2
 

Fulthrotl

~Autocorrect is My Worst Enema.~
Great idea with the ridgid coupling and penny plug!
Even with someone at the panelboard, mistakes happen and that's what fiberglass snakes are for...or am I wrong?

I was just wondering if there is an adapter that would connect a short piece of fiberglass snake to a regular metal snake.

you can screw a carlon ENT FA with a 4' length of smurf tube onto a conduit
to carry the fish tape out of the panel.

until someone screws up and puts it on the wrong pipe by mistake.

ya need a plastic fish tape. even with that, you still have a metal
ferrule on the end that you'd better tape up before fishing into a
panel.

what i usually do, is the smurf tube with a snap on FA onto the conduit,
and then shove a fish tape FROM the panel.

when i was an apprentice, one of the large shops in the area lost an
apprentice when he shoved a fish tape into a plastic pipe, and it was
the wrong pipe, and went into live 480 gear. the PVC meant that
the first path to ground was thru him, and he was standing at a light
pole bollard in water. stone dead instantly.
 
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Fulthrotl

~Autocorrect is My Worst Enema.~
Even if that metal tip does hit something hot, there's no place for the electricity to go.
With luck, the apprentice will catch the leader as it enters the panel, .... snip ....

and if it takes one one of the phases to ground in a piece of switchgear?
the metal head on most plastic fish tapes is an inch long... that's enough.

i've got a problem with the apprentice standing there with luck in one hand,
and trying to catch a fish tape with the other.

YOU stand there and catch it. thirty five years ago, an apprentice wasn't
allowed into live gear till their last year of apprenticeship.

today, you direct ANY employee to work something energized, in violation
of NFPA 70E, and most employers above the two man shop level will
smoke you in a heartbeat.

one of the larger shops in this area, about $75M per year in work, has a
policy of NO HOT WORK AT ALL. anyone working stuff hot is immediately
terminated.

no exceptions.

they had a guy die a few years back, and the total cost to the firm was in
excess of two million dollars... fines, wrongful death, legal fees, etc.

sorry... but you aren't worth two million dollars to an employer, alive or dead.
none of us are.
 
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