NM cables

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George Stolz said:
Because when I pull on the cable when I'm stripping out the boxes, the cables move. Drives me nuts. :)
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Yeah, count me in as not being a fan of the stackers either. Since they don't actually secure the cables (they just kinda hold them in place) it's hard to get any twists out of the cable unless you put a stacker every foot or so. :roll:
 
I posted this on another forum a while back. Here is what stackers are great for. When you are dropping down between two studs to a single gang switch or receptacle and the studs are just far enough apart to set the 1 gang box between, it becomes a chore to staple due to the obstruction to the hammer swing. Stackers have the nail at tangent thus making it easy to install in that situation. Eliminates having to turn hammer sideways and go tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap......... fast guys can do that in only 13, takes me 14....
 
macmikeman said:
Eliminates having to turn hammer sideways and go tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap......... fast guys can do that in only 13, takes me 14....
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Well, if you learned to rap staples, instead of tapping them, you could become a rap artist. :cool:
 
LarryFine said:
Well, if you learned to rap staples, instead of tapping them, you could become a rap artist. :cool:
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boooo.gif
 
macmikeman said:
When you are dropping down between two studs to a single gang switch or receptacle and the studs are just far enough apart to set the 1 gang box between, it becomes a chore to staple due to the obstruction to the hammer swing.
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I just drive the staple in vertically at an extreme angle (in line with my hammer swing) and use a zip tie.

Aside from the "not grippy enough for me" excuse, I also fall back on the excuse that I can carry 30+ zip ties in my little 8" x 1" PVC conduit zip-tie-quiver affixed to my bags, and a 100 staples in my pouch. I can't conveniently carry more than three stackers in my pouch without them taking over my bags. That means lots of trips back to the bag of stackers, IMO.

To each their own. :)
 
LarryFine said:
Well, if you learned to rap staples, instead of tapping them, you could become a rap artist. :cool:
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Once upon a fall night, dreary, on a messageboard I query
Over many a code and NEC sections in two-thousand-nine
Then I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping
NM staples constant rapping, clapping on my studs of pine
'Tis the 'lectrician,' I muttered, strapping down plastic line
Only this, it's Larry Fine.

I won't quit my day job either. :grin:

I like those stackers for comm wire, but I've had mixed luck getting the nails to hold in the webs of wooden I-beams.
 
JFletcher said:
Once upon a fall night, dreary, on a messageboard I query
Over many a code and NEC sections in two-thousand-nine
Then I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping
NM staples constant rapping, clapping on my studs of pine
'Tis the 'lectrician,' I muttered, strapping down plastic line
Only this, it's Larry Fine.

I won't quit my day job either. :grin:

I like those stackers for comm wire, but I've had mixed luck getting the nails to hold in the webs of wooden I-beams.
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Only somebody from VA would try that.:roll:
 
JFletcher said:
Once upon a fall night, dreary, on a messageboard I query
Over many a code and NEC sections in two-thousand-nine
Then I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping
NM staples constant rapping, clapping on my studs of pine
'Tis the 'lectrician,' I muttered, strapping down plastic line
Only this, it's Larry Fine.

I won't quit my day job either. :grin:
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Nevermore! ;)

I like those stackers for comm wire, but I've had mixed luck getting the nails to hold in the webs of wooden I-beams.
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Did you see my LV-cable pics? I had no problem with them.
 
JFletcher said:
Come to think of it, the stackers I used were made for comm cable, and had a much smaller nail than the NM ones you used. That could be the problem I had.
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These were regular NM ones. If the nails slip out, go to the other side of the web, pull them tight, and bend them downward.
 
Getting Deep

Getting Deep

Sure is getting deep in this thread, pardon me while I go for boots and shovel.

I love stackers when I make multiple runs together; they save a lot of time. If I'd had any sense, I would have invented them in 1976. I remember crawling under houses and stapling cables, wishing for a better way. I thought of that very item, the concept anyway. I should have made prototypes with scrap materials and presented to come companies. Instead, I spent most of my spare time on barstools. I left electrical work (forgive me please) a few years, came back doing commercial. Started work with a friend in '03 and was handed a bag of stackers. Was I sick, I could have been on easy street.

Sometimes a few staples are still needed, as mentioned. Cables may want to sag and need a hand. Mostly, stackers are a good thing with me.

I had an inspector turn down a tie wrap if you can believe it, a project at my own house. Had the tight space between studs someone mentioned. I got a nail in at a sharp angle and tie wrapped to it. I thought about challenging but it wasn't worth a fight.
 
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