Fish Tapes, what gives

Status
Not open for further replies.
FionaZuppa

FionaZuppa

Senior Member
Location
AZ
Occupation
Part Time Electrician (semi retired, old) - EE retired.
just had three 240' metal fish tapes become useless after 1st use. each use was ~125ft

1) greenlee 240'
2) ideal 240'
3) replaced #2 from same place (a swap out)

the greenlee simply became unbound from the case when trying to rewind it. had to bring it back with 100' of tape spaghetti in back of my truck.

the ideals, they went out fine and came back (once), but after that i could not get them to unwind again, and after a few attempts to let some out to try and get it moving again they simply froze.

my last 125' conduit pull i had to blow string through.........


so what gives, i thought these were, as greenlee site says, built for the trade???
 
When winding I apply a little pressure or drag with the fingers on the tape as it gets wound. The extra drag makes the reel wind tight in the holder. If it does not wind tight, not all of the tape will fit back in the holder.

It's not a big deal to split the cases and rewind from scratch. I usually like the Greenlee and Ideal tapes over others. That's all I can think of, they have to wind tight in the holder to go back in.
 
__dan said:
When winding I apply a little pressure or drag with the fingers on the tape as it gets wound. The extra drag makes the reel wind tight in the holder. If it does not wind tight, not all of the tape will fit back in the holder.

It's not a big deal to split the cases and rewind from scratch. I usually like the Greenlee and Ideal tapes over others. That's all I can think of, they have to wind tight in the holder to go back in.
Click to expand...

i was winding it back in against the friction of tape still in the conduit....... i was using tape to pull some pull string back through......
 
I flat out abuse my fish tapes (klein) and only replace them when they get too kinked up from twisting them or pulling them with linemans.

I can't see how one use would mess up a tape? You have to roll them back up tight, but they pretty much do that on their own.

Maybe try a nylon tape.
 
i dunno. the 1st one seemed like a failure of the case to hold tape inside. the 2nd and 3rd one went back fine, once, and then seem to have binded and would not release back out. 3rd one had tape coming outside of the holder.....

one post says to hold line tight while winding back in. with one person how do you do that, two hands are needed to work the wheel and handle.

anyways, i find blowing string through the conduit a tad less frustrating.
 
when they break I pull them out bend a short half moon on some 1 inch emt and wind it up its not pretty or compact but it stays straight and usefull.
 
Im a little confused...

Are you trying to wind in the fish tape with the full pressure of what you are pulling through the pipe?

I always pull the tape by hand or linesman and wind the fish tape back in with no pressure...Ideal 240' now about 200' after getting caught in walls a few times :slaphead:
I will add I'll take a oily rag and wipe the fish tape if it got wet so the blue steel doesn't get too rusty.
 
It 's always a little hard to read into what one was doing at the time!
I certainly won't have put a simple fish in for the length you mentioned.

You didn't say what size conduit you were pushing in. If large, I usually make a large oval bubbled head. Say it's a 3? pipe I might double back at least six inch of wire tape and press it down and secure it, slightly less than than the OD of pipe.

Your length is right at the toss up distance to draw a string with a vacuum or push a tape but then again your exact distance was not mentioned. Even worst if underground is trying to push into a pipe where your working againest the couplings trying to get a fish in. One should push into a run of pipe through the flat part of pipe.

In whatever case. I'd of spun the tape dispenser if I hit a foul at any distance mentioned. Spin and feed then repeat.

A rat and a string with a vacuum equates to a difference of pressure of 14 lb/in sq from the vacuum for any conduit with consideration for P= F/A; Pressure =Force/Area.
 
i've destroyed many a fishtape. Later (10yrs or so) I realized it was user error reeling them back in. If someone can come up with a foolproof fishtape that might make sharktank
 
1/2" underground pvc about 130ft, three 90's and two 45's in there. i didnt have any issues until 124ft where it hit a 45? coupling. i didnt have any wire on it yet. the reel out and back in went smooth, and the reel back it still had some tension on the tape. after thee reel back in it would not easily reel back out.....

dunno, the electrical supply house refunded me....
 
rolling up your tape a certain way is your choice. Ive tried it all but never with new tapes use the roll and pull technique, usually you use that method on old tapes but evryone has own opinion. We all abuse our tapes at one time or another. Wear and tear always takes a toll. If your putting bends and kinks in your tape then its a matter of time when it messes up. If your struggling pulling wire with your tape and using your linesman your gonna mess it up regaurdless. Analize your conduit runs. more than 360, offsets ect. if wire pulls are tuff its deffinitely the installation.
 
DCFIT said:
rolling up your tape a certain way is your choice. Ive tried it all but never with new tapes use the roll and pull technique, usually you use that method on old tapes but evryone has own opinion. We all abuse our tapes at one time or another. Wear and tear always takes a toll. If your putting bends and kinks in your tape then its a matter of time when it messes up. If your struggling pulling wire with your tape and using your linesman your gonna mess it up regaurdless. Analize your conduit runs. more than 360, offsets ect. if wire pulls are tuff its deffinitely the installation.
Click to expand...

just for clarity, i was not using the case to "pull" the tape back out. my helper would pull tape out about 3ft at a time and i would reel that 3ft back into the case, but all the time there was a little tension on the tape, etc. i suspect it was not winding back in over the spool like a mechanized string-on-bobbin machine does (back and forth, etc).
 
In a related story...

Today, I found my fish tape that I had left out in the weather on my deck for a month or so. The part of the tape sticking out of the plastic shell was pretty rusty. I tried to extend it, but it wouldn't go. I sprayed WD40 all around it, still no go. I took out the four screws that held the plastic shell together and when the last screw came out...

It exploded. The steel tape itself came apart into at least 20 pieces and the piece that landed the farthest from me was about 15 feet away. Pieces of steel and globs of grease/water/WD40 hit me in the chest and arms, and I am really glad I had my glasses on.

Don't try this at home, kids. :D
 
ActionDave said:
That's the kind of stuff we try at my house every time there is a chance.
Click to expand...
I was braced for a SPROINGGG!!! when the last screw came out, but I was completely surprised that the steel tape itself shattered into at least twenty pieces, some of them only a few inches long. What's up with that?
 
ggunn said:
I was braced for a SPROINGGG!!! when the last screw came out, but I was completely surprised that the steel tape itself shattered into at least twenty pieces, some of them only a few inches long. What's up with that?
Click to expand...
You did not by any chance submerge it in liquid hydrogen for awhile? :)

All I can think of is that the tape was hardened on the outside and softer on the inside to combine abrasion resistance with flexibility, and some sort of corrosion of the surface made it vulnerable to the sudden release of tension.
I am open to other ideas.
 
GoldDigger said:
You did not by any chance submerge it in liquid hydrogen for awhile? :)

All I can think of is that the tape was hardened on the outside and softer on the inside to combine abrasion resistance with flexibility, and some sort of corrosion of the surface made it vulnerable to the sudden release of tension.
I am open to other ideas.
Click to expand...

Not unless we had a liquid hydrogen storm here while I was out of town for Christmas.

I fully expected to have steel tape strewn all over the deck to have to untangle, clean up, lubricate, and rewind onto the reel. I did not expect it to shatter like it did. I never found the outer end of it; it might be in the next county.

FWIW, the last time I had used it (a month or so ago when I left it outside) I extended 20 feet or more of it from the reel and it was fine; it was not already broken.
 
small rust pits on "loaded" steel that suddenly changes shape = "explosion". 20+ yrs ago in my materials lab we loaded glass rods, some polished as smooth as it could be done, others scuffed with scotch brite. the smooth glass would load up (bend) and then snap, the scuffed ones would load up (bend) and then shatter in explosive manner.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top