# Pulling Wire



## 360max (Jun 10, 2011)

Greenlee sells a variety of pulling carts, tell your boss to stop stealing other peoples shopping carts and break down and but the right tool for the right job and than it wont be such a PITA


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## cultch (Aug 2, 2011)

Obviously 360 we have a variety of greenlee pulling carts.  It's the nature of the beast however. There are 30 some electricians. The job is spread all over. Some of those carts you can only put 3 rolls of 1000's on them. Some 6 but sometimes you have to pull 9 or 12 or whatever. A shopping carts is WAAAAYYY easier. You don't need to steal it tho you could do that. I'm sure it's cheaper to buy one than a greenlee pulling cart. 

We could fit several rolls of 12 high and low several rolls of 10 usually only high. Roll that cart around. Keep the lube in the cart and other stuff. Only 1 cart was needed for any opull you wanted to make.

My main thing is we should prolly have many rolls off 500's AND some rolls of 1000's. Depending on what's going down. But a shopping cart is way easy...


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## rdr (Oct 25, 2009)

If you're not the guy ordering the material, then tell the guy ordering the material.

If you *ARE* the guy ordering the material, then may God have mercy on your soul.


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## OaklandElec (Jan 4, 2011)

cultch said:


> When I 1st was trained up on pulling wire we had a shopping cart w/ 500' rolls. You could fit I think 20-24 rolls of 500' spools. Pulling wire was easy. The last 2 company's like to use 1000' rolls. Such a pita to lug that stuff around. Transferring high voltage wire to low. 10 wire to 12.
> 
> Anybody else ever use the shopping cart method. I'm trying to push it thru. Those 1000' rolls are great for long hr's but so many times it's not that. Plus you may have folks somewhere else in the building trying to pull wire. There is plenty of wire but it's all on 1 spool. PITA


I use shopping carts whenever I can steal them from a nearby store. I'll set one up with low voltage, one with high, 10s, etc. They are really the best, easy to customize.


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## That's It? (Aug 31, 2011)

cultch said:


> There is plenty of wire but it's all on 1 spool. PITA


 So the other guys are just waiting for their turn with the cart?


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## crazymurph (Aug 19, 2009)

Are you sure those are 1000' rolls and not 2500' rolls? Most contractors will buy the 2500' roll because they get a better per foot price and have less waste.


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## ohiosparky99 (Nov 12, 2009)

500' rolls are nice and light, but they really suck when you get close to the end of the reel and the wire twists up something awful


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## cabletie (Feb 12, 2011)

crazymurph said:


> Are you sure those are 1000' rolls and not 2500' rolls? Most contractors will buy the 2500' roll because they get a better per foot price and have less waste.


 I was going to say the same thing. 
I wish the 2,500' spools of #10 weighed the same as 1000' of #10:thumbsup:
I have carried those reels up countless stairs.


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## drsparky (Nov 13, 2008)

Shopping carts are about $175 each, that's equivalent to the daily wage of two employes of the store you stole them from or the price of a good lithium battery drill. How well would your business survive if you had losses that big every time someone "needed" some of your property?


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## OaklandElec (Jan 4, 2011)

drsparky said:


> Shopping carts are about $175 each, that's equivalent to the daily wage of two employes of the store you stole them from or the price of a good lithium battery drill. How well would your business survive if you had losses that big every time someone "needed" some of your property?


Jeez, clean them and return them when your done. I do think Target and Safeway will find a way to survive the temporary loss of their cart. Will it affect stock prices? Who can say, I'm no expert.


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## cultch (Aug 2, 2011)

Who say's you have to steal it. For 1) if you look around sometimes you see one laying there. For 2) yes $175 for a new one (on sale for $125 right now. The greenlee pulling carts are $475-$575.

With a job this big going on it just makes more sense. 

I'm pretty sure they are 1000' rolls I'll double check. It's not like I can't do it. I do it every day. It's just I have seen it done both ways and smaller rolls in a shopping cart blows away big rolls and greenlee pulling carts. Not even close. With the small roll /shopping cart method I can pull 5 120v circuits then turnaround 1 sec later and pull some 10awg 277v circuits...w/o gearing up or going anywhere.

The $ they save in the larger spools is eaten up by setting those reels up over and over again.

'That's it' Yes that sometimes happens. There is 800' of wire but someone is using it. There may be some more but it's out in the trailer or in another section.

I agree with 360. Right tool for the right job. Big ass rolls are not the right tool for the right job when you are trying to make all sorts of (shortish) different pulls trying to 100% a place. They are the right tool when pulling long hr's.

Everbody is so quick to say someone is stealing something. My sawzall, battery and charger, amp probe have all been stolen from me yet I would still not steal something. This method will make the owners MORE $ not less.

It's not like I never put any thought into this and haven't expierenced 1st hand the time saver that my method is over the standard...


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## BBQ (Nov 16, 2010)

OaklandElec said:


> Jeez, clean them and return them when your done. I do think Target and Safeway will find a way to survive the temporary loss of their cart. Will it affect stock prices? Who can say, I'm no expert.


So the basic thought here is it is OK to steel as long as it is from a large company.


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## BBQ (Nov 16, 2010)

cultch said:


> With a job this big going on it just makes more sense.


If the job is big the contract is large so buy the tools you need.


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## MollyHatchet29 (Jan 24, 2012)

If a wire tree won't work/isn't available and you can't steal a shopping cart (who needs that bad karma anyway), grab a ladder, some tie wire and some rigid pipe. Make your own wire tree.


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## cultch (Aug 2, 2011)

KLovelace29 said:


> If a wire tree won't work/isn't available and you can't steal a shopping cart (who needs that bad karma anyway), grab a ladder, some tie wire and some rigid pipe. Make your own wire tree.


That's the kinda thing I've been doing KLove. It's a PITA. 

YOU DON'T HAVE TO STEAL THE CART

I'll bet I could get a used one for next to nothing if I talked to the Groc store mgr.


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## don_resqcapt19 (Jul 18, 2010)

For 14, 12 and 10, I only buy 2500' spools and we have carts that will hold 16 spools. The cart fits through standard doors so it can be used on commercial projects.
Somewhere I read that the average waste in a spool is 100' no matter what the spool length was.


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## erics37 (May 7, 2009)

BBQ said:


> So the basic thought here is it is OK to steel as long as it is from a large company.


I'm cool wit dat.


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## Electrical Student (Jun 6, 2011)

We have a mini cart from Acme and a large one from Giant. I dident steal em but i use em. Boss says their borrowed. I would rather get a job cart but worried it would be borrowed like them carts are.


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## polyphase (Nov 1, 2011)

Shopping carts for pulling wire that's a new one on me anybody got any pics we use wire trees we have some shopping carts but they are used for tool/material


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## cultch (Aug 2, 2011)

I don't have a pic but you just cut some 1/2" emt and run it thru the groc cart (short ways) and run your spools of wire thru them. I think I remember you could fit 4-500' rolls side by side on one piece of 1/2 inch. That way you can fit like 20-24 rolls in there.


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## polyphase (Nov 1, 2011)

I'm gonna have to try that. sound like the cart would want to roll I guess u chaulk the wheels or something. I'm gonna try it.


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## cultch (Aug 2, 2011)

cool...You can cut your emt longer than the cart and fit a few more rolls on the outside of the cart..


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## rdr (Oct 25, 2009)

cultch said:


> cool...You can cut your emt longer than the cart and fit a few more rolls on the outside of the cart..


Yeah just make sure to conjure up a way to prevent the rolls from running off the end.


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## running dummy (Mar 19, 2009)

With 500' spools we just put a connector or coupling on the end so they don't fall off


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## OaklandElec (Jan 4, 2011)

BBQ said:


> So the basic thought here is it is OK to steel as long as it is from a large company.


Yes. I am also fine with stealing from you personally. And the church collection plate.


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## thegoldenboy (Aug 15, 2010)

We only use shopping carts for 1000' spools of MC or FAMC cable. THHN can go on any of our smaller wire carts such as the Greenlees.


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## jordan_paul (Oct 4, 2011)

BBQ said:


> So the basic thought here is it is OK to steel as long as it is from a large company.


Pretty much. Better from a large company then from somebody's garage. I wish we pull enough wire to have a use for a shopping cart, it seems like a good system. We just use Rack-a-Tiers or a ladder with a piece of 3/4 EMT.


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## Amish Electrician (Jan 2, 2010)

Jeez!

One of my customers is a chain of supermarkets. When I work there, I use their carts .... they're really quite convenient ... yet I never thought to 'get my own.'

Which is quite ironic, as this customer recently replaced all the carts, with the old ones going to a local surplus merchant. I've even been in the yard, and didn't think to buy one at 'chump change' pricing.

For wire pulls? Now, there's a thought. Let the framework guide the wires out, maybe help keep them from getting tangled up. 

Why didn't I think of that?

I had tried something like this with milk crates, but it was more trouble than it was worth.


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## retiredsparktech (Mar 8, 2011)

cultch said:


> cool...You can cut your emt longer than the cart and fit a few more rolls on the outside of the cart..


When out on a job, I used to use the shopping cart to hold the EMT while hacksawing it to length. We never had to steal them. The neighborhood kids would leave them on our parking lot. We considered them "abandoned". LOL.


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## Wirenuting (Sep 12, 2010)

We would make racks from octagon boxes and 1/2 conduit. Cheap & easy, no wasted tax $$.


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## cultch (Aug 2, 2011)

Yeah I'm an idiot. They ARE 2500' rolls. We got some 500' rolls in today so things are looking up.


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## mnelectrician (Dec 1, 2008)

Wirenuting said:


> We would make racks from octagon boxes and 1/2 conduit. Cheap & easy, no wasted tax $$.


I've used 1900 boxes for the same thing and a piece of Romex for a handle. It works good when you don't have a wire rack handy.


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## noarcflash (Sep 14, 2011)

As an owner, I would NEVER use a stolen shopping cart. Looks bad all around. Looks bad to the customer, and looks bad in front of employees.

so many chain stores went out of business around here, I brought 3 shopping carts at the auctions. $100, and I can hold my head up high.

The rest of you are no better than crack heads stealing copper off the job site.


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## nitro71 (Sep 17, 2009)

If I saw a shopping cart I'd be thinking WTF.. Is this the homeless electrical rodeo.


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## 360max (Jun 10, 2011)

nitro71 said:


> If I saw a shopping cart I'd be thinking WTF.. Is this the homeless electrical rodeo.


:laughing::laughing::laughing::whistling2:


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## cultch (Aug 2, 2011)

narrow minds think alike:whistling2::laughing:


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## 360max (Jun 10, 2011)

Electrical Student said:


> We have a mini cart from Acme and a large one from Giant. I dident steal em but i use em.* Boss says their borrowed*. I would rather get a job cart but worried it would be borrowed like them carts are.


...next time a tool gets stolen, and your responsible for that tool, tell the boss someone must have borrowed it.


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