Verify Conduit Routing

[CharlieSW]

I have 10 conduits that stub up below a control panel. For an upgrade, I will be installing an intermediate pull/splice box and extending the control and instrumentation conductors to a new adjacent control panel. Some of the conduits are spare but I do not know where they go. I want to be able to reuse some of these installed conduits as well as the spares, which are in the slab by the way, for the upgrade in lieu of installing all new as space is limited. I want to find out where these conduits go - back to the MCC, or back to the PLC or some other place. I am looking for an ingenious way to find out where the conduits go. Here is the kicker - I am the engineer not a contractor and have no access to all the great gadgets that you have (smoke machines and the like). Any thoughts? One guy suggested a hair dryer...

 

[nakulak]

vacuum .

 

[Rewire]

I knew this guy that would walk around with a 4 ft piece of conduit with a four squre box on the end. When he would spot a foreman walking by he would place the conduit against a wall tap it with his kleins while yelling " It's not here yet"

 

[electricalperson]

using air would be a good idea but becareful if the conduits are underground they might be filled with water

 

[mdshunk]

Shop Vac !

If you use compressed air, you're going to have one heck of a mess on your hands.

 

[electricalperson]

greenlee makes a nice fish tape blower that you can use to shoot a thing that looks like a tampon through. it unravels a long string through the conduit so you can pull in a bigger string or a rope with. when i used it sometimes it shoots out of the end of the conduit like a cannon. you could hear it ding against the metal boxes pretty hard

 

[Rewire]

Get some jet line and a vacuum and suck a line into each conduit and label it's location.

 

[220/221]

I use a steel fish tape and attach a wire finder.

Be VERY careful if there is the slighest chance that the conduit goes to another panel or control JB with live conductors.