This week on Ask This Old House Tom used a Greenlee fish tape to fish (or snake) some speaker wires through the wall.
He kept calling it a snake. At the end of the segment Richard showed his is drain snake.
Now I have never heard a fish tape called a snake. But the term snaking wires is often used. And it resembles a fishing line as much as it does a snake.
I am wonder if is a regional thing to call the fish tape a snake.
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Replies
My thoughts exactly. Always fish tape wire and snake drains. But who is to argue with Tommy? Almost like arguing with Norm.
Greenlee makes a fishing tool that looks like the fishing pole. They are fiberglass rods in 3, 4 and 6 foot lengths that screw together and there is a hook end and a pointed end to allow pushing or pulling of wires. They are great!
Around here both fish and snake terms are used for running old work wiring. But, we do not have snake tapes or poles. Go figgure...
Frank DuVal
What I want to see is somebody manufacture a fish rod set with opposing pole magnets in the ends of two sections, so when you're trying to fish into a blind stud bay from above and below, the two ends will find each other and you won't have to keep wiggling the fish tapes around until the little hooks catch each other....
Hey, maybe I oughta manufacture it myself and get rich. Remember you guys, I said it first on BT; you're all witnesses....
Dinosaur
'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?
golly dino- that was pretty slick.
Now I shot off my big mouth I'm gonna have to start dinkin' around with old fishing rods and mini rare-earth magnets until I find the right strength--strong enough to snap to it's partner but not so strong that it veers off toward every gyprock screw it passes. I oughta write it up for Tips N Techniques to get funding for research and development....
Andy E--you guys wanna back this one? I'll call it the FHB SNISH TROD....
Dinosaur
'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?
my kids little Tigger toy has paws that might just work!
Got one stuck to the bulkhead in the van ...
can I get in on the action?
JeffBuck Construction Pittsburgh,PA
Artistry in Carpentry
What the heck are you fishing for with snakes?
worms are usually plenty big enuff!
Has anyone seen the greenlee suspended ceiling fish line that looks like a dart gun with a reel on top?
Mr T
Do not try this at home!
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Yes. I have seen those Greenlee line throwers.
Long before I saw them I had experimented with a slingshot, a fairly powerful Whristrocket model, and a spin casting reel. This worked great for running computer networks in cube farms. The power made 100' and greater throws possible.
In residential construction it was overkill. More likely to damage ducts or something important. The dart gun is good for this but I have had similar success with a handball ball with a 4 oz. weight inserted into it. The whole thing strung on a light 1/8" Dacron line.
All this is of some utility in running communications, cable or telephone lines but it accomplishes little for running electrical power cables. The power cables still have to be dressed up and stapled down. So someone has to go up into the attic anyway.
The one area I have used this to advantage for power cabling is in larger houses where many home runs, the final run on each circuit to the panel, run parallel. Here I have sometimes shot a line and then run the line under the ceiling joists. This is left in place until all the cables are run. This allows groups of cables to be pulled with the continuos loop without having to rerun the pull rope.
Once all the cables are in place a helper can properly dress and group the cables, stapling them down neatly as per code and good trade practice.
Another suspended ceiling trick that some friends of mine used to run surround speakers in a movie theater was to use a radio controlled toy truck to drive on the top of the ceiling towing monofilament line. That sounds like a lot more fun than messing with 30 ft ladders on a sloped floor with bolted down theater seats.
-- J.S.
Dam* that's cool, I can see during the IRS audit, RC toys for what? Here in the hills we just put a bird feeder in the target area and tie a line to a squirrel.
Edited 2/24/2004 9:01:56 PM ET by RASCONC
Never tried that. I have hear something about it being use in drop ceiling spaces.
A friend used a tiny toy tuck once, it was about 4" long and about 2-1/2"wide, to pull a string into a 4" conduit. They said it worked well for shorter runs of less than 100'. Less time involved than stringing cords for a vacuum or limbering fish tapes. It was a simple toy without any real controls. Forward and reverse. Just turn it on and let it run. The conduit runs were relatively flat so it didn't need to climb much.
I also saw a blurb in EC&M magazine some years ago about experiments with RC trucks using a small camera and light so it can be maneuver in the ceiling. I have never seen these systems in use.
As an aside if you don't get EC&M, Electrical Contracting and Maintenance, drop by their web site and sign up. It's free. Good magazine. I have been getting it for quite some time. Code talk, safety articles, estimating, regular articles on new methods and materials and even some useful courses I recommend that anyone who works in the electrical field get a subscription.
I know some people that took a RC truck, some of the low cost wireless security cams, a light, and battery back to do a low cost inspection of some drain pipe.
I used "fishing" weights and line in a vertical wall and a coat hanger to "hook" it from the side once, the coat hanger caught the line and the weights got caught on the narrow end of the bent wire so I could pull it in from the "deep" does that count as "fishing" ?
Yah, we need enough senior capital to get in the first of the R&D supplies: 12 cases of Guinness and two ¼" rare-earth magnets.
Not sure how the suction cups would work out, but after a few brews we might do some brainstorming....
Dinosaur
'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?
nah ..
it's not suction cup's ..
it's the real deal ...
Tigger Paw's have magnets in them ...
must make them bouncy or something?
JeffBuck Construction Pittsburgh,PA
Artistry in Carpentry
Even better! Suction cups could be scary. You ever seen how tight they can stick? In Japan a number of years ago, there were some tugboats outfitted with whacking big suction cups mounted on articulated mechanical arms. They used these to latch onto 900-foot-long ships while putting them to the dock. I understand the only way they could get loose after they were done was to pump air into the cup.
I don't think I want to have to design all those extra functions into this gizmo--price will go way up, sales will go way down, and we'll be left cashing in the empty Guinness cans to pay off the losses....
We better stick with magnets. One end could be an electro-magnet, so it could be turned off it you had to let go inside the wall for some reason.
Hey! This is starting to sound like it might actually work....
Dinosaur
'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?
Go down to your local fly fishing store, and they have a gizmo that you put on your landing net. one piece attached to back of vest and one to net...only have to get kinda close and they really stick.They are about 9/16 diameter and about 1/4 thick..
I use a wrist rocket slingshot with a spinning reel attached to hang antennas in big trees.One shot gets it over a 75' tree easy...and fast...
Bud
I used to be a tugboat deckhand. A lot of the work we did on one boat I worked on was ship docking in New York Harbour. Did you know that the deck of a light (ie: unloaded) oil tanker can be 60-75 feet above the water? Guess who has to throw the heaving line up to the ship deckhands so they can pull up the docking lines with a capstan...?
When I was in shape, I could heave a 3lb monkey's fist with ¼" dacron line attached 60' straight up while both the ship and the tug were doing 8 knots down the channel. If I was lucky, the wind wouldn't blow it all back in my face before those underworked and over-fed ship deckhands got around to catching it....
BTW--do you know the difference between a fairy tale and a sea story? Well, a fairy tale starts, "Once upon a time...." And a sea story starts, "Now this is no $hit...."
Dinosaur
'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?
Very true about the stories.
The Army version is: 'There I was...'
"...with mud up to my armpits...."Dinosaur
'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?