# Old school wire fishing.



## MDShunk

Ran across this passage in an old wiring book tonight:

FISHING AND FISHING DEVICES
247a. Animals as Assistants in Fishing.
In certain cases where other methods were not feasible, small animals have been used to draw pulling-in lines through wireways. Trained weasels have been used in threading underground conduit subways. In finished-building wiring, a cat can often be made to draw a cord through a raceway between floor and ceiling that is so obstructed by braces and bridges that it cannot be readily fished by the ordinary means. A length of cord is tied to a harness on the cat or to the animals tail. The cat is then placed in one end of the wireway and that end darkened. The far end of the wireway is illuminated with a candle if necessary. The cat will usually walk toward and out of the illuminated end of the wireway bringing the pulling-in cord with her.


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## thoenew

Cats would make sense, we've tried with dogs and they just didn't seem to get it done. 

I guess our choice of full grown 8 year old labs wasn't the best either.


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## stuiec

Yeah right. Has anyone ever seen what a cat with a string tied to _any part_ of its body will do? :no:


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## Roger123

Hmm, a cat on a string, yeah Marc, I like that idea!


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## erics37

I have pet ferrets. We have a couple lengths of dryer vent tube and they love climbing through it. It's certainly plausible but the issue with underground PVC is that it's full of PVC glue fumes, even long after it's been buried. It'd be enough to suffocate a small animal.

Anything smaller than 3" would be tough for them, as would getting traction on stub-ups. But someday I'll try it :thumbup:


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## chewy

erics37 said:


> I have pet ferrets. We have a couple lengths of dryer vent tube and they love climbing through it. It's certainly plausible but the issue with underground PVC is that it's full of PVC glue fumes, even long after it's been buried. It'd be enough to suffocate a small animal.
> 
> Anything smaller than 3" would be tough for them, as would getting traction on stub-ups. But someday I'll try it :thumbup:


I read an article in a National Geographic about a lady using ferrets to pull cable in a data centre under the computer floors.


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## erics37

chewy said:


> I read an article in a National Geographic about a lady using ferrets to pull cable in a data centre under the computer floors.


We have a couple little ferret harnesses so we can take them for walks (which is an amusing affair, I assure you). But fitting a ferret with a harness and tying a lightweight pull string is the way to go. They wouldn't be able to pull heavier stuff very well.


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## LARMGUY

Roger123 said:


> Hmm, a cat on a string, yeah Marc, I like that idea!


I Have seen a cat with Scotch Tape on its paws. :whistling2: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUzte9e3kZ4


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## ohmega

erics37 said:


> We have a couple little ferret harnesses so we can take them for walks (which is an amusing affair, I assure you). But fitting a ferret with a harness and tying a lightweight pull string is the way to go. They wouldn't be able to pull heavier stuff very well.


Have you ever seen "Beastmaster"? His ferrets save his life! I could use a couple beastmaster ferrets and a midget... for the tight spots. :whistling2:


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## chewy

erics37 said:


> We have a couple little ferret harnesses so we can take them for walks (which is an amusing affair, I assure you). But fitting a ferret with a harness and tying a lightweight pull string is the way to go. They wouldn't be able to pull heavier stuff very well.


I dont know about a dude walking ferrets... Have you seen the big lebowski? I would attach an RJ45 jack to the harness and you can plug in the patch lead to that and off they go.


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## macmikeman

I've seen both cats and dogs that were trained to locate moving vehicles. 








The final exam is a doozy however.


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## Shockdoc

Circus Electric, we use trained animals.

I can see the protesters outside my front door.

Now all we need is drilling bees to help lace out new builds.


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## wildleg

I've often thought that the only difference between the guys I work with and trained monkeys, is that the customers would probably be happier with the monkeys, even if they were tossing their feces at them.

I've had cats since I moved in with the bag, going on 30 centons ago, but I don't think we've had more that one that I would've been able to train to do that. I'd love to see some video of these old school guys.


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## LJSMITH1

MDShunk said:


> Ran across this passage in an old wiring book tonight:
> 
> FISHING AND FISHING DEVICES
> 247a. Animals as Assistants in Fishing.
> In certain cases where other methods were not feasible, small animals have been used to draw pulling-in lines through wireways. Trained weasels have been used in threading underground conduit subways. In finished-building wiring, a cat can often be made to draw a cord through a raceway between floor and ceiling that is so obstructed by braces and bridges that it cannot be readily fished by the ordinary means. A length of cord is tied to a harness on the cat or to the animals tail. The cat is then placed in one end of the wireway and that end darkened. The far end of the wireway is illuminated with a candle if necessary. The cat will usually walk toward and out of the illuminated end of the wireway bringing the pulling-in cord with her.


HAHAA...He said "Trained Weasels" :laughing::lol:


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## Roger123

LARMGUY said:


> I Have seen a cat with Scotch Tape on its paws. :whistling2: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:
> 
> 
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUzte9e3kZ4


Yeah, that would be funny is see!


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## user4818

"I have to go out to the truck to get my weasel." :blink: :laughing:


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## 480sparky

I once used a small R/C car to pull the jetline into a 6" pipe for the phone company's line into a hotel.

I also did some work in a huge warehouse where we needed to get some CAT5 cables across a drop ceiling. My helper showed up the next day with a crossbow. He had an arrow stuck into a rubber ball..... tie on the jetline to the arrow, load it up, and shoot it across the ceiling. Bingo.... within 10 seconds we're pulling across 150' of tile!


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## kaboler

These are all fun and interesting


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## BBQ

LJSMITH1 said:


> HAHAA...He said "Trained Weasels" :laughing::lol:


He must be talking about salespeople. :thumbsup:


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## BBQ

480sparky said:


> I also did some work in a huge warehouse where we needed to get some CAT5 cables across a drop ceiling. My helper showed up the next day with a crossbow. He had an arrow stuck into a rubber ball..... tie on the jetline to the arrow, load it up, and shoot it across the ceiling. Bingo.... within 10 seconds we're pulling across 150' of tile!


Hack data run. :whistling2:


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## chicken steve




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## Fredman

MDShunk said:


> Ran across this passage in an old wiring book tonight:
> 
> FISHING AND FISHING DEVICES
> 247a. Animals as Assistants:
> The cat will usually walk toward and out of the illuminated end of the wireway bringing the pulling-in cord with her.


Or you would get to go find and clean out the dead strangled decomposing cat blocking your path.


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## 480sparky

BBQ said:


> Hack data run. :whistling2:



_Any_ work not performed by you is hack.


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## BBQ

480sparky said:


> _Any_ work not performed by you is hack.


Hell no, lots of folks do better work than I.

But laying data cables on suspended ceilings is in my personal opinion hack work. 




Please note I did not say I have never done it, I am just willing to admit I have short comings and at times do some hack work. :thumbsup:


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## erics37

480sparky said:


> I once used a small R/C car to pull the jetline into a 6" pipe for the phone company's line into a hotel.
> 
> I also did some work in a huge warehouse where we needed to get some CAT5 cables across a drop ceiling. My helper showed up the next day with a crossbow. He had an arrow stuck into a rubber ball..... tie on the jetline to the arrow, load it up, and shoot it across the ceiling. Bingo.... within 10 seconds we're pulling across 150' of tile!


How did you strap those cables?


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## 480sparky

BBQ said:


> ...........But laying data cables on suspended ceilings is in my personal opinion hack work. ..........


Well, if you want to assume the cables were laying on the grid, so be it. Nothing I can do to convince you otherwise, despite that being the case.


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## kaboler

erics37 said:


> How did you strap those cables?


If the customer buys the velcro, I'll use velcro. Otherwise, it's electrical tape on a clean surface. Other than that, tie wraps. But only if my journeyman orders me to use them. I personally feel that a pinch every 10 feet isn't so great, but like you all say, shut up and listen to your journeyman.


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## chewy

BBQ said:


> Hell no, lots of folks do better work than I.
> 
> But laying data cables on suspended ceilings is in my personal opinion hack work.
> 
> Please note I did not say I have never done it, I am just willing to admit I have short comings and at times do some hack work. :thumbsup:


Its when the grid fails and people get trapped inside a building because of all the sh!t running on the grid that concerns me. AV and Fire Alarm guys over here are the worst. Not to mention the firefighters who could be in a building tearing grid down during a high rise fire, 1 cat5 in the wrong place could be life or death for them.


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## chewy

kaboler said:


> If the customer buys the velcro, I'll use velcro. Otherwise, it's electrical tape on a clean surface. Other than that, tie wraps. But only if my journeyman orders me to use them. I personally feel that a pinch every 10 feet isn't so great, but like you all say, shut up and listen to your journeyman.


Really??? I hope you are just trolling because nobody could be this stupid not to mention completely oblivious to their own stupidity.


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## user4818

chewy said:


> Really??? I hope you are just trolling because nobody could be this stupid not to mention completely oblivious to their own stupidity.


Kaboler = Katroller.


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## RICK BOYD

we had a remote army tank for a puller over dropped ceilings.




480sparky said:


> I once used a small R/C car to pull the jetline into a 6" pipe for the phone company's line into a hotel.
> 
> I also did some work in a huge warehouse where we needed to get some CAT5 cables across a drop ceiling. My helper showed up the next day with a crossbow. He had an arrow stuck into a rubber ball..... tie on the jetline to the arrow, load it up, and shoot it across the ceiling. Bingo.... within 10 seconds we're pulling across 150' of tile!


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## RICK BOYD

you tie the cat to the negative end , cat-ode ? cat-ion ?


FISHING AND FISHING DEVICES
247a. Animals as Assistants in Fishing.
In certain cases where other methods were not feasible, small animals have been used to draw pulling-in lines through wireways. Trained weasels have been used in threading underground conduit subways. In finished-building wiring, a cat can often be made to draw a cord through a raceway between floor and ceiling that is so obstructed by braces and bridges that it cannot be readily fished by the ordinary means. A length of cord is tied to a harness on the cat or to the animals tail. The cat is then placed in one end of the wireway and that end darkened. The far end of the wireway is illuminated with a candle if necessary. The cat will usually walk toward and out of the illuminated end of the wireway bringing the pulling-in cord with her.[/QUOTE]


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## Ty Wrapp

kaboler said:


> If the customer buys the velcro, I'll use velcro. Otherwise, it's electrical tape on a clean surface. Other than that, tie wraps. But only if my journeyman orders me to use them. I personally feel that a pinch every 10 feet isn't so great, but like you all say, shut up and listen to your journeyman.


Don't cinch the tie wraps too tight, and place them at irregular intervals.


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## chewy

Ty Wrapp said:


> Don't cinch the tie wraps too tight, and place them at irregular intervals.


It thins out the electrons and gives multi pair conduction which results in higher rates of transmission if you cinch them down really tight, I recommend hiring a specialist with stranglers hands to do data looming.


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## nrp3

Do they sell trained weasels at petco?


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## erics37

nrp3 said:


> Do they sell trained weasels at petco?


There are plenty of ferrets and other mustelids available for adoption from previous owners that abandoned or otherwise couldn't take care of them. Petco sells ferrets supplied by ferret mills. Next time you go there, look at the ferrets ears; if they have one or two small dots tattooed just inside their ear lobe, they were supplied by a ferret mill.

Here's a ferret rescue organization in New Hampshire:

http://www.ferretwise.org/


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## Norcal

chewy said:


> Its when the grid fails and people get trapped inside a building because of all the sh!t running on the grid that concerns me. *AV and Fire Alarm guys over here are the worst*. Not to mention the firefighters who could be in a building tearing grid down during a high rise fire, 1 cat5 in the wrong place could be life or death for them.


Don't even get me started about low voltage installers, the only thing they seem to be good for is to use them for medical experiments, at this time am dealing w/the damage they did when installing their cable, in numerous locations the bozo's smashed holes through 2 hour firewalls & left it, not to mention the carnage left behind on the ductwork.


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## millelec

erics37 said:


> We have a couple little ferret harnesses so we can take them for walks (which is an amusing affair, I assure you). But fitting a ferret with a harness and tying a lightweight pull string is the way to go. They wouldn't be able to pull heavier stuff very well.


we've been babysitting a ferret for several months while the owners are going thru a housing crunch. Love the little dude, he's affectionate, smart, REALLY quick learner, and will pull my 1/2" Milwaukee hammer drill across the floor by sinking his teeth into the resilient part of the handle grip. Agreed that would only use lightweight pull string tho. He loves pulling toys w/elastic string thru some 4" corrugated drain tubing we bought for him.


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## 90Deg.bend

MDShunk said:


> Ran across this passage in an old wiring book tonight:
> 
> FISHING AND FISHING DEVICES
> 247a. Animals as Assistants in Fishing.
> In certain cases where other methods were not feasible, small animals have been used to draw pulling-in lines through wireways. Trained weasels have been used in threading underground conduit subways. In finished-building wiring, a cat can often be made to draw a cord through a raceway between floor and ceiling that is so obstructed by braces and bridges that it cannot be readily fished by the ordinary means. A length of cord is tied to a harness on the cat or to the animals tail. The cat is then placed in one end of the wireway and that end darkened. The far end of the wireway is illuminated with a candle if necessary. The cat will usually walk toward and out of the illuminated end of the wireway bringing the pulling-in cord with her.


I don't know about animals and electricity. I've seen what happens to a squirrel in a substation transformer. At least the blackened lump was the size of a squirrel.


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## goose134

Well, now that we've got how to pull the conduits down, I guess we've got to figure out how to train a dog to sniff out boxes buried in the yard.


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## chewy

goose134 said:


> Well, now that we've got how to pull the conduits down, I guess we've got to figure out how to train a dog to sniff out boxes buried in the yard.


Thats not a stupid idea... 

I'm really serious, Dogs would be able to smell PVC and even dig it up!

Just like a pig going for truffles.


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## yrman

I've got a couple of cats and bunnies that are looking for side work to earn some extra spending money. Let me know if anyone wants to hire them and I'll send you their resumes.


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## bubb_tubbs

480sparky said:


> I once used a small R/C car to pull the jetline into a 6" pipe for the phone company's line into a hotel.
> 
> I also did some work in a huge warehouse where we needed to get some CAT5 cables across a drop ceiling. My helper showed up the next day with a crossbow. He had an arrow stuck into a rubber ball..... tie on the jetline to the arrow, load it up, and shoot it across the ceiling. Bingo.... within 10 seconds we're pulling across 150' of tile!


They make a gas-powered grappling gun with a magnet on the end for just such a purpose now.

http://www.cableorganizer.com/laserline/










Very Batman-esque.


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## thoenew

bubb_tubbs said:


> They make a gas-powered grappling gun with a magnet on the end for just such a purpose now.
> 
> http://www.cableorganizer.com/laserline/
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Very Batman-esque.


Bats would be black. I'd love to see all the looks you'd get bringing that into an office area.


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## bubb_tubbs

thoenew said:


> Bats would be black. I'd love to see all the looks you'd get bringing that into an office area.


Obviously he just spraypaints his.

Duhr.


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## greenman

See that done. also have seen a rc.truck run on top of a t-bar celling.


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## Ralphm

MDShunk said:


> The cat will *usually* walk toward and out of the illuminated end of the wireway ....



Sometimes they don't. I pulled a cat out of a furnace heat exchanger last winter. 


Owner hadn't seen it for about a month - she did say the house smelled like chicken awhile back but she thought a bird had got in there. Can't say I know why she never put the two together...


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## nrp3

mmmmmmmm tastes like chicken


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