This Electricians Trick SUCKS!

Looking for a clever trick for wiring conduit? Check out this electrician's hack that will make your job easier! You can effortlessly draw the wire through by hooking up your vacuum cleaner and powering it on, making it ready for your cable pull.

#electricalinstallation #conduit #efixx

[Frog-kouu]

I’ve done this before, I used a household vac to suck a string through 50 feet of under-floor conduit to pull speaker wires from an amp rack to the stage monitors.

[davidhenderson]

Remember PVC glue is very flammable. One one job we had just put in a 2" PVC line under ground about 200 feet long. We were do this before the dirt was even put back. You could smell the glue like crazy. I told my boss "Should we not wait until the glue drys first?" He was like "Why?" Before I could finish explaining how flammable the glue was and the fact the shop vac used the air from the vacuum to cool the motor and the brushes might ignite the glue it did just that. It sounded like a pulse jet engine and flames were shooting out the vac 6 to 8 feet long. He pulled the plug to shut the vac down. As it came to a stop, still in flames it back fired. The vac bucket went into a thousand pieces. Then the whole 200 foot of pipe exploded like a Bangalore torpedo. The poor man at the other end could not hear for half an hour. We had to replace the whole 200 foot of pipe. We waited a full day for the glue to dry the next time and used a leaf blower to vent the pipe until we could no longer smell glue before trying it again with the NEW shop vac. PVC glue burns hot.

[Sylvan_dB]

This tip sucks so good!

For anyone who has not tried this, do it! The first time I used this I was awe struck at how easy and well it worked. Everyone I've taught this in the years since has been equally amazed.

[dagger_d]

The only time an electrician has ever touched a vacuum

[olemansailor]

I used this as a commercial electrician many years ago. It's the first time I've seen it out in the open. Good tip

[BobRoss-ycew]

Done this for tons of 200ft plus underground pulls. Works wonders most of the time.

[awlance]

My electrician dad taught me that this was called "Sucking a Mouse" :)

[lukeweiser]

I've seen electricians make a football field sized maze of conduit ranging from 1"to 4" in diameter, bury it all, pour concrete over it and do something very similar with shopping bags, a vacuum and a forklift or pickup truck to pull it back with a tremendous amount of success. Amazing.

Highmark elec. From Boise.

[JonFromWA]

Works great for cat-5 & fiber optic cable jobs as well

[Dennis-cywv]

Great tips. I have used a vac, also used an air compressor to blow a rag and string the entire 100' between pullboxes. A tip you may want to think about is alternating spool directions, one clockwise, next counter-clockwise. This will create automatic braking at the end of the pull instead of rolling out an additional couple yards of wire from each spool, to have to rewind.

[FreedomIsMyReligion]

This is the definition of "work smarter, not harder" ❤

[windmillacres]

I once tried this by myself using a piece of foam and a nylon masonry line.
When I got to the other end, I found the entire roll of string in the bottom of the vac.
LOL
Pro tip: you might need to tie off one end.

[kjn]

Just remember, if its underground conduit its probably got water in it.
Be prepared.

[arjanhassing]

Good job, I saw it years ago on dutch television over here, but like I said; Good job mate!! 😃👍

[ronp]

Just learned about this in an industrial wiring class. The instructor said he used fishing line because it is lighter and still quite strong depending on the type. It also has less memory

[nealthomson]

These are also the perfect tools for if you are alone on a job.

Like a tool boy or an apprentice that needs no encouragement or pay. . .

We need to make more tools like this. . .

[carlsmith]

A ladder and a piece of half inch conduit is the real wire reel.

[TheeBikeStoreIncPortland]

Looks great. Only issue is spooling out wire vertically puts a twist in the wire. Set your spools horizontally

[bmcc]

I used to do this about fifty years ago when I was a union electrician. The foam bit that gets sucked through the pipe was called a “mouse “, and it dragged a slender nylon thread which was then used to drag the pulling rope.

[aaronpreston]

We did this for underground utilities, sometimes 200-400 feet of 3” conduit. For longer runs we used a large industrial air compressor and shot it from behind, you managed the speed it went by the tension on the line.