Magnepull-new wire fishing tool

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tom baker

tom baker

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Has anyone used or seen the magnepull spider cable fishing tool?
See it here: http://www.magnepull.com/magnepull_001.htm
A 1 1/4" entry hole is drilled at the top plate, and then a magnet is guided down the inside surface of a wall to the exit point with a roller device, that couples to the magnet through the drywall. Looks like a time saver, no more reaching inside or fishing out the wire.
 
Re: Magnepull-new wire fishing tool

Clever device. I wonder if it could be used for pulling a string line through PVC?

You could just keep on rolling a line :p
 
Re: Magnepull-new wire fishing tool

A hundred bucks seem pricy for what amounts to a powerful magnet...a dead disk drive from the trash heap will yield up some pretty powerful magnets too.

With any beefy magnet one needs to be careful around floppy disks, wallets/credit cards, etc.
 
Re: Magnepull-new wire fishing tool

Says it will work in insulated walls too. Hmmm. :confused:

If the fish is also a magnet how is it that it won't latch on to metal studs and conduit? Double Hmmm. :confused: :confused:

-Hal

[ February 28, 2004, 04:23 PM: Message edited by: hbiss ]
 
Re: Magnepull-new wire fishing tool

That is an interesting device, I would like to see how it works in an insulated wall, or a wall with all kinds of obstructions in it. Also firestopping an 1 1/4 inch hole is not any fun.

Pierre
 
ok... i'll bite.....

ok... i'll bite.....

tom baker said:
Has anyone used or seen the magnepull spider cable fishing tool?
See it here: http://www.magnepull.com/magnepull_001.htm
A 1 1/4" entry hole is drilled at the top plate, and then a magnet is guided down the inside surface of a wall to the exit point with a roller device, that couples to the magnet through the drywall. Looks like a time saver, no more reaching inside or fishing out the wire.
Click to expand...


i was googling for this, when i found this forum... i'm picking one of
these up tomorrow, and we will see how it works.....

all you rich 'lectricians...... i googled the website, and left a message,
and the guy who makes them, in texas, called back... and i said i was
gonna try one, and just wondered if it'd work or not.... and there was
this moment of silence, and then this thick texas accent said...

"if you don't like my wire fisher, y'all send it back here, don't even
bother with the man you bought it from, and i'll refund all your money,
including the postage to mail it... i've sold 18,000 of these, and i have
yet to get ONE back.... verizon bought 5,000 of them alone....."

he then went on, with some passion, to describe the inner workings
of the critter, which is not just a metal roller, and a cow magnet, as
i suspected..... i've got a perfect test this week, 6 attic drops to
switches, and the plates are triple thick, and there are fireblocks
everywhere...... i got one of them done without holing the wall, and
it was almost 2 hours to do.... a severe pain in the ass....

time will tell... i'll write when i get honest work....


randy
 
As a guy who's fished more walls in his lifetime than a man really ought to, I watched all three video's on the manufacturer's website, with interest. I was particularly interested in the insulated wall fishing video. Freeze the video very near the beginning, and you can tell it's rigged. They've got the top plate hole drilled very near the edge of the wall's surface. They've also got the insulation pushed back away from the drywall at the top, to assure that the mouse will go between the insulation and the drywall. For one, you NEVER drill your hole near the edge of the top plate, because you risk blowing out through the finished surface in homes with odd thickness partitions, such as is common in older homes. You always drill dead center, as a matter of good workmanship. Additionally, if the partition is capped with a 2x6 or 2x8 to have a nailer for the ceiling drywall at the edge, it may not be clear if the original carpenter cheated that nailer to one side or the other of the top of the partition. The insulation will not normally be pushed away, and chances are really good the magnetic mouse will be all bound up within the insulation.

Nice idea, but I resent the very obviously rigged insulated wall video. Looks like a cow magnet, anyhow. They're about 3 dollars at Tractor Supply.
 
Rack-A-Tiers makes a simmillar one that we got about 2 weeks ago. Have yet to try it in an insulated wall. However, I did use it to fish across a finished ceiling in a basement, and the joist cavity I had to fish across had a 1X4 troffer in it, thus I was not able to run the leader magnet across the ceiling. I did however, manage to shove my tape measure down the cavity, suck onto the magnet(which i had a pull string attached to) and pull it back to me. Even going across the metal troffer, I thought I would lose it, seeing that only my tape measure was stuck to it, but it actually stuck well enough that it pulled right across the top of the troffer. By the way I was not able to do it on the floor above the basement ceiling because the thickness of the floor was almost 2-1/2" thick. I think like anything else, there's times this tool will work great, and there's times not so great.
 
ok.... an actual, real life, taste test of the magnepull..

ok.... an actual, real life, taste test of the magnepull..

ok... first, the magnets are **strong**.... keep them away from
anything you don't want zapped.

one of the drops i had to do last week went down thru a triple thick
top plate, thru 2 fireblocks, made a turn, went thru 2 studs, up
thru another fireblock, into a light switch. (3 gang light switch in bathroom)

medicine cabinet, insulation, and 1 1/2" plumbing in the way one way,
a pocket door the other way.....

what tools were used? a 4" holesaw, a 1 1/4" selfeed bit, 3 extensions,
the magnet, a diversibit, a sawzall, string, a fish stick, greenlee flat
fish tape, two prayers, and every oath i've ever heard issue from the mouth of an ironworker.

i only had to cut one hole in the drywall

is the magnet worth having on the truck, at $115? yep. is it the solution
the maker says it is? nope.

i've used it twice since i've bought it. once was great, once was so so.
the above mentioned drop was so so, but EVERYTHING was so so for that
one... except the swearing.

the swearing worked. but i had enough of that on the truck to get the
job done. i always make sure to stock it in one of the bins.


randy
 
tool

tool

thanks, randy, for the on-site report. the video actually made me skeptical,
as mdshunk stated it was way to staged. the isulation placement plus it looked to me that the cable being pulled was CATV or something even more flexible....it sure didn't feed lile romex.
randy, give it some more time and please let us know if you're still using it a month or so from now.
 
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