# Pulling TECK cable through steel joists



## oldtimer (Jun 10, 2010)

Mike in Canada said:


> Another 'new experience' for me. I'm going to be pulling a tandem run of single-conductor TECK cable (not unlike coreflex) to be supported by the bottom chord of steel joists. The cable is aluminum 350mcm (or kcmil if you prefer) and weighs less than 1lb per foot.
> I'm thinking the easiest way to do this is to run a handful of lengths of twine across the building, then for each conductor, one at a time, pull rope across the ceiling with a piece of twine, then use the rope to pull a length of TECK to its destination by hand, then pull the rope back with the next piece of twine and keep going until they're all pulled. The run is 45 feet up then about 200 feet across the joists. In my head, it's all easy. Anyone care to burst my bubble?
> Running TECK cable across joists is very common here, and allowed in practice, despite the fact that the joists are 10' apart, and you're supposed to support armored flexible cable every ~5 feet.


 How about using some travelers, to make the pull easier.


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## jza (Oct 31, 2009)

Recently did a similar pull, much larger, but similar. We used small pieces of half inch EMT to prevent the 'nose' from catching on the bar joist. Really helped but we still needed guys following the nose with ladders while the tugger did the real work.


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## Mike in Canada (Jun 27, 2010)

I just had a notion. The bottom chord of these steel joists (like most of them) is formed from two steel angles back-to-back sandwiched around the round-bar that forms the tension members. A piece of, say, 3/4" EMT would sit in the gap between the angles nicely. If a short piece was bent with a 45 on each end and cable-tied to the joist then it would act as a fair-lead, of sorts, and keep the cables from getting near the pinch-points. I should scribble a picture....


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## jza (Oct 31, 2009)

Pretty much what we did.


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