My tip of the day

[hey_poolboy]

I don't know if this is an original idea or not, but I thought I'd share my success.

Recently I was looking for ways to cut time on jobs. I work alone 99% of the time. When roughing a house with the load center in the basement, I always burn a lot of time pulling HR's. Here is my fix, and so far it works GREAT!

I bought two packages of different colored marking flags and bent a loop in the wire on the end. I drop one color through for switch height HR's, and one for Receptacle height ones. I also make any other notations on the flag with a sharpie. I can then set my spools up downstairs, make a mark on the wall for each slack allowance that I want and pull and staple to my hearts content. After I'm done, or when my legs are falling asleep from the stilts, I run upstairs, and push them in the box, staple, and pull the flag.

Hey, don't make fun, it works for me! :grin:

 

[brantmacga]

hmm. it sounds like its no fun to work in the land of basements. we don't know what those are in south GA.

 

[quogueelectric]

Hey if it works for you I think it is great! At least you are constantly trying to improve That says a lot of your character.

 

[jmsbrush]

Pool Boy do you like working with those stilts?

 

[SiddMartin]

Hey if it works for you I think it is great! At least you are constantly trying to improve That says a lot of your character.

Good point, I agree

 

[mdshunk]

Great tip! Surveyors marking flags are dirt cheap.

A third color for 2nd floor home runs?

 

[ultramegabob]

Surveyors marking flags are dirt cheap.

and they can still be re-used

 

[hey_poolboy]

I love the stilts! The only time I can't use them is on cathedral ceilings. Even on the highest setting I can't quite reach. Other than that I do all of my "ceiling suff" at one time with them on, and breeze right through. No ladder to move around!!!

 

[hey_poolboy]

A third color for 2nd floor home runs?

Yes, in the event that's needed.

 

[JohnE]

I pull all my homeruns through the first and second floors and drop right over the panel.

But your idea sounds good for running them through the basement.

 

[dnem]

I pull all my homeruns through the first and second floors and drop right over the panel.

But your idea sounds good for running them through the basement.

If you use Speedway [plastic gutter] across the basement, you can't beat running thru the basement.

 

[ultramegabob]

If you use Speedway [plastic gutter] across the basement, you can't beat running thru the basement.

who makes it? do you have a picture or a link?

 

[dnem]

I drop one color through for switch height HR's, and one for Receptacle height ones. I also make any other notations on the flag with a sharpie. I can then set my spools up downstairs, make a mark on the wall for each slack allowance that I want and pull and staple to my hearts content.

"In my neck of the woods" its common not to have the basement floor poured at the time of the roughs [pumbing, HVAC, elect]. . Sometimes the basement is still a mud pit, other times it's stoned and mostly ready for the pour but still not poured.

Would you attempt the stilts if it's not poured ?

 

[dnem]

who makes it? do you have a picture or a link?

http://www.speedwayelectricalproducts.com/

 

[ultramegabob]

http://www.speedwayelectricalproducts.com/

thats pretty cool:smile:

 

[dnem]

Speedway has these square "bridle" rings that attach to the bottom of the joists, 2 screws per ring. . You slide the Romex thru the rings, just like running phone/comm cables in standard bridle rings. . After all HRs are in, you snap the solid cover over the rings. . Snap it on, walk away. . Looks really professional finish product.

One negative. . Speedway skimped on their coupling length. . When you butt 2 lengths together, the couplings barely cover the end of each piece.

 

[mickeyrench]

tips

tips

i read here awhile back the way guys wire up homes and the way the wire is placed in the box that they always know which cable is which after the rock has been put in place. can some of you resi guys share your method?

 

[rustyryan34]

i read here awhile back the way guys wire up homes and the way the wire is placed in the box that they always know which cable is which after the rock has been put in place. can some of you resi guys share your method?

This is how we do it . All the feeds come into the bottom of the box, then just bring in the switch legs in the same order as the switches we go in.

 

[dnem]

I like your idea for a bottom up approach and it sounds good for a one man band. . But I never did a house with one guy. . I always went with a 2 or 3 man size crew.

On monster size houses when "the push" was on or when work was slow, I'd still run the crew as a 2 or 3, but I'd cut the house into wings and run separate crews per wing. . Some guys like to divide upstairs/downstairs. . But I didn't like that method unless the second floor had its own subpanel. . I liked to set the divide between crews according to panel.

I also always bought 1000' spools and spun them on axles. . Hauling them down into the basement wasn't really considered [plus it was common for the basement floor not to be poured].

For basement panel HRs, I would drill a 2" hole in a 1st floor wall 2x4 bottom cap plate, position my axle as directly above the hole as I could, go down into the basement and mount my 6" pulley on the ceiling joist. . The pull came off the 1st floor spool, thru the 2" hole, around the basement ceiling pulley, across the basement ceiling, and up thru the particular hole that was under that specific HR destination. . One man first floor, one man basement. . After the length was pulled, we spun off enough to hit the panel, cut it and dropped it thru the 2" hole to be spooled in the basement ceiling and landed in the panel later on.

 

[augie47]

http://www.speedwayelectricalproducts.com/

looks like an open invitation to violate NEC 310.15(B)(2)