Little help for industrial guy from residential

D

dm9289

Industrial Maintenance Electrician
Location
Pennsylvania
Occupation
Industrial process repair/ maintenance Electrician
My house is older mostly ungrounded circuits. I was going to redo some wiring. 1st floor to partially finished basement, suspended ceiling. The basement walls are built up and out in the basement for drywall insulation etc. this makes it very improbable to go up from basement. So its likely i will go from first floor to basement with some flexible bit. In the past my previous old house I used the 3ft klein flex bit but it still made a little rod burn at the top of the hole and was hard to keep bent even with bending tool while drilling. Attic access for some outlets will not work tight point in A frame. Any recommendation on flexible bits that have worked well for anyone. My right-angle drill is larger chuck height than box size.

Thank you
 
ggunn said:
Have you considered going through some sort of external conduit?
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Yes, but trying to avoid. My Klein flex bit in the past caused more plaster repair that I'm trying to minimize or avoid. I have plaster board then mesh then plasterboard then skim of plaster so its hard to match up for repair
 
Don't be scared to cut and patch wall. It is often far easier to intentionally cut an oversized hole ( say 6x8 inch) and then patch afterwards then to deal with a cut-in box, especially if you need to drill holes for the wires.

You also have the benefit that you can mount boxes to studs (more secure) and you can use larger boxes with device rings (more space in the boxes to work with)
 
Are your basement walls concrete? If you have an exterior panelboard, you can core drill the basement wall and use Link-Seals. I've had to do this many times when I had no other option.
 
winnie said:
Don't be scared to cut and patch wall. It is often far easier to intentionally cut an oversized hole ( say 6x8 inch) and then patch afterwards then to deal with a cut-in box, especially if you need to drill holes for the wires.

You also have the benefit that you can mount boxes to studs (more secure) and you can use larger boxes with device rings (more space in the boxes to work with)
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I was thinking that also I hate a unsecure mount
 
Rick 0920 said:
Are your basement walls concrete? If you have an exterior panelboard, you can core drill the basement wall and use Link-Seals. I've had to do this many times when I had no other option.
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Block walls suspended ceiling then built out with vapor barrier then 1" fiber board then studs and dry wall plus extra support. This really kills my angle to drill or get a right-angle drill in area
 
letgomywago said:
Best investment for what youre up to is to get some wire fish rods it'll make your project go way smoother.
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Agreed i do have a set from previous home projects. I got another flex bit I'm trying with a ball on it to keep it off the wall. Old house so i got to get thru hard wood then plywood then floor stud. Hitting nails could be an issue.
 
letgomywago said:
Is there a plumbing chase all the way up? Depends on how old your house is. Next option is cutting holes behind stuff you don't care about as much like closets.

Flex bits are how you find where your existing wires and plumbing are.
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I'm fortunate in that I can see most other items paths so "hopefully" I "should" be maybe ok. House was built in 1953 no grounded outlets and spacing requirements appear much different than current code.
 
Don't know how deep your joists are but will a 90 deg drill help or a 90deg attachment for a drill work? I had a little Milwaukee 90 degree adapter that saved me on 1 job. Not easy to drill with not the best but it worked. I have a 90 degree Ryobi drill and I bought some short stubby spade bits at Horrible Freight. You can also get some cheap spade bits and cut the shank. No angle is tough
 
Eddie702 said:
Don't know how deep your joists are but will a 90 deg drill help or a 90deg attachment for a drill work? I had a little Milwaukee 90 degree adapter that saved me on 1 job. Not easy to drill with not the best but it worked. I have a 90 degree Ryobi drill and I bought some short stubby spade bits at Horrible Freight. You can also get some cheap spade bits and cut the shank. No angle is tough
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My right angle is a big old Milwaukee. Depending on flex bit results I may buy a low profile 1-1/2" height adapter I seen at HD. They are only about $25 so worth a try. Also going to try this type of old work boxes
 

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54” flex bit is quite a bit more flexible than the 36”.

That being said, I cut a hole at the top of the wall just below the plate all the time. Looked at a job yesterday and told the HO that any added receptacles or wall sconces on a eave wall will get wallboard cut out on the inside. Period.

I’ve wasted hours of my life trying to fish wires up an impossible angle, or trying to get to the top of a wall from an attic I can’t crawl to the edge of because the roof is a 2/12 and I don’t physically fit in that edge and neither do my tools.

And then the box opening gets all messed up anyway.

And with the age of your house, I’d be very surprised if there wasn’t horizontal or angled blocking at various heights in the wall anyway.

Cut or remove drywall. It’s cheap and easy. 👍
 
Seven-Delta-FortyOne said:
Cut or remove drywall. It’s cheap and easy. 👍
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I'm the first to do that too. But from what the OP is saying about the joist bay above the concrete block that has been firred out and finished, I run into that, and that little drill will let you reach in and drill up through the shoe at the outside wall into the bay. I use a short 4" auger that will fit up in 2x12 joist bays. I suppose if you had 2x10 joists you could cut the auger bit shank off by a couple of inches.

At the very least you can use that drill to drill down through a hole cut in the sheetrock, smaller than what you would need with a regular right angle drill and extension bit.

I've used those flexi-bits and find them useless. Might as well cut out the sheetrock because that's what you will be doing anyway after you use one of those... if the auger doesn't break off.

-Hal
 
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