🐿️Pinecone Attack

c/cable-installers

2

rivera.susan•1d ago

Overheard a home owner say "you just pull the wires through"... made me laugh

Was on a job in Bakersfield last week. Customer saw me with my fish tape and said that. I just smiled. Pulling coax through a finished wall in a 90s house is never simple. Not with those staple guns they used back then. Took me 45 minutes to get one line from basement to attic. Has anyone else dealt with people thinking this job is easy?

13

ivangrant•1d ago

Had a chat with an old Bell guy that made me rethink my whole termination setup

He told me he's been using the same cheap Klein crimper for 12 years because he cleans it with contact cleaner every Friday, and I've been buying new tools every 6 months because mine keep jamming up. Anyone else got a simple maintenance trick that saved you hundreds?

3

maryadams•2d ago

I finally tried a fish tape with a built-in light

Got sent to run cable in a dark crawlspace over in Maplewood last week, and my regular fish tape was useless down there. Borrowed a Klein Tools one with a little LED on the end, and I pulled three Cat6 runs in half the time. Anyone else find these gimmicky or is it actually worth buying one?

28

noahward•5d ago

A quick chat with an old electrician changed how I pull cable now

Was running Cat6 in a new build last week and an old sparky came up and asked why I was fighting the bundle. He said try pulling from the middle of the spool instead of the end, it cuts down on twist and tangles. I gave it a shot on the next run and it saved me like 20 minutes of wrestling. Anyone else get random advice from other trades that actually works?

30

nathan_torres34•6d ago

Just realized I was overcomplicating my coax terminations

Ran into an old timer named Jerry at a job site in Dayton last Tuesday. He watched me messing with my compression tool for like 5 minutes, then just said "son, you're fighting the cable, not working with it." Showed me how to strip it in one smooth motion instead of two. Been doing it his way for two weeks now and my loss readings dropped by half. Anyone else pick up a dumb simple trick from some random guy on a job?

4

nancy154•8d ago

Warning: I think faster internet speeds actually made my installs worse

Ever since we started rolling out gigabit fiber here in Portland about 18 months ago, I've noticed way more callbacks for signal noise issues than with the old 50mbps connections. The higher frequencies just seem to pick up every little imperfection in the run, so who's actually benefiting from this speed war?

29

richard_roberts80•9d ago

Just realized I've been stripping coax wrong for 20 years

I always used the cheap stripping tool from the supply house. Last week an old timer handed me his manual stripper and showed me the trick. Anyone else stick with tools they know are bad just because you're used to them?

6

mary836•12d ago

Why does nobody talk about labeling cables with a thermal label maker?

I finally broke down and bought a Brother P-Touch after years of using sharpies and tape flags. The difference is night and day. I did a job last Tuesday at a new office building in Boulder, had to trace 48 cat6 runs back to the patch panel after someone else pulled them. With sharpie tags half were faded or fell off. The thermal labels took maybe 2 hours total to print and stick. They're still on there clean and clear. Has anyone else made the switch and noticed a big time save on troubleshooting?

7

brian303•13d ago

New apartment complex had me scratching my head over their telecom room setup

Honestly, I did a walkthrough at that new complex off 85th and Aurora yesterday, and their main telecom room was a total mess. Every cable was just coiled on the floor with no labels, and the CAT6 runs were mixed with old coax from some previous build. Ngl, took me 45 minutes just to figure out which bundle went to unit 304. Has anyone else seen builders skip basic cable management in new builds like that?

16

leor37•15d ago

Had a crusty old cable guy in Tucson show me something I'll never forget

I was up on a ladder running a new drop for a retirement complex about six months ago when this guy, must have been 70 years old, walks up and just watches me for a minute. He was a retired installer from Comcast, told me he had done this route back in the 90s. He pointed at my coax and said "you're crimping that too tight, you're crushing the dielectric." I always thought a tight crimp meant a good connection, but he showed me how a slight looser fit actually kept the signal cleaner over longer runs. We sat there for ten minutes while he explained how he used to run lines for the old analog systems and how one bad crimp could kill a whole apartment building's picture. He even pulled out a rusty old compression tool from his truck that looked like it survived a fire and showed me the exact pressure to use. Has anyone else run into an old pro who gave you a tip that contradicted everything you learned in training?

13

faith_perez•17d ago

My neighbor saw me coiling cable in my driveway and gave me a tip that blew my mind

I was out in the front yard after a job last Tuesday, doing my usual over-under coil on some leftover RG6. My neighbor Bob, who's like 70 and used to install phones back in the day, walked over and told me I was making it harder on myself. He showed me this trick where you let the cable hang and twist naturally before coiling, and it took me maybe 30 seconds instead of two minutes. Has anyone else had some old timer drop knowledge on you that just totally changed how you do something?

7

lisa_wilson87•18d ago

Showerthought: found out the average cable installer walks 8 miles a day doing this job

I was looking up something about knee pads on my phone last Tuesday and stumbled on some random industry stat from 2021. It said the average cable installer walks about 8 miles per shift. I had to laugh because I never really thought about it, but yeah, I'm basically hiking every day. Between going up and down ladders, running lines through attics and crawl spaces, and walking from the truck to the house thirty times, it adds up fast. My phone's step counter confirmed it - I hit 9.2 miles on a rough day last week. Made me wonder if any of you guys actually track your steps or if you just know your knees are screaming by Friday. Has anyone else looked into this and found a similar number for their average day?

17

olivias88•18d ago

My worst install day ever happened in a crawl space

Last Tuesday I had a job in an old house in Austin where the crawl space was only 18 inches high and full of mud. I spent 3 hours running coax under there, got stuck twice, and came out covered in spider webs and dirt. Has anyone else had a job that just made you question your whole career choice lol?

11

pat360•20d ago

Stopped by a new apartment complex in Omaha and spotted something weird

I was running a fresh install at The Ridgeview building last week and every single unit had these tiny junction boxes shoved behind the drywall with barely an inch of slack. Has anyone else run into this with newer builds? It took me forever to get my terminations right with no room to work.

0

spencerw72•22d ago

Bought a $200 cable toner that saved my bacon on an apartment complex job

Picked up a Klein Tools VDV500-820 toner at Home Depot after fighting with a faulty one for months. Found a bad line in a 12 unit building in under 20 minutes. Would have spent hours crawling attics without it. Anyone else find a tool that just clicked for them?

8

seana14•22d ago

That job at the old Masonic lodge in Cleveland taught me to double check everything

Last month I had to run cable through this old Masonic lodge downtown Cleveland. Place hadn't been updated since the 70s. I figured I'd just fish the lines through the existing conduit like always. Big mistake. Halfway through pulling Cat6, I hit something solid and the whole pull stopped dead. Turns out someone had stuffed newspaper and old insulation in the conduit years ago. Had to rip out half the drop ceiling and run new surface mount boxes. Took me three extra days and the customer was not happy about the extra holes in their plaster walls. Now I always stick a camera down any conduit before I start pulling. Anyone else run into weird stuff in old building conduits?

20

evan_morgan81•1mo ago

PSA: Hit 5000 feet of coax pulled in one week and my knees are still mad at me

Last month I had a big commercial job downtown that needed all new drops for a building remodel. I figured 5000 feet in five days was doable but man, crawling through attics and under raised floors that many times really adds up. By Thursday I was using a dolly to move spools because bending over hurt that bad. Anyone else track total footage and get surprised by how hard the physical side hits?

24

christopher_singh92•1mo ago

An old timer told me to stop untwisting coax so much and he was right

I used to spend forever untwisting coax cables before terminating them, thinking I was making a cleaner connection. This older installer at my shop in Cleveland watched me do it for like 5 minutes, then said 'you're just giving yourself more work for no gain.' He showed me how a little twist actually helps the shield grip better and I saw less signal loss on my next test. Has anyone else gotten away with leaving a few twists in their coax?

5

riverf34•1mo ago

Debate: crimped connectors vs push-on fittings for RG6

I'm up in Portland and had to decide between crimping all my ends by hand or using those push-on fittings that cost twice as much. I went with crimped because I like the control, but after 80 jobs last month I'm wondering if my hands can take it. Plus I've heard push-ons fail less in wet weather. Anyone else made the switch and regretted it?

30

cameron770•1mo ago

I finally visited that fancy new apartment complex downtown and spotted a nightmare installation

So I got a call to check out some signal issues at The Grand in Austin last Tuesday. Place looks all modern and sleek, stainless steel everything. But when I popped open the comms closet on floor 8, I nearly choked. Someone had run the coax cables right next to the main electrical panel, like less than 2 inches away. You could see interference pattern on the signal readings. Plus they used these cheapo crimp connectors that were already starting to rust after only 6 months. The building manager said they hired the lowest bidder for the buildout. I spent 4 hours re-terminating and rerouting just that one floor. Has anyone else run into this kind of shoddy work in new builds around their area?

20

riverf34•1mo ago

Rant: That conversation with the senior guy at the supply house about compression fittings.

I was picking up some RG6 last Tuesday at the Graybar in Nashville, and this old timer who's been installing since the 80s just stops me. He goes "you know why those compression fittings fail on you after a year? It's cause you ain't cleaning the dielectric off the copper right." I stood there and he showed me his method with a pocketknife. That simple thing never crossed my mind but it makes total sense. Any of you ran into a small tweak like that that saved you callbacks?

3

allen.amy•1mo ago

Hot take: visited a job site in Seattle last week and saw 3 different crews using zip ties on outdoor fiber runs

Watched one of those zip ties snap in the rain after just 2 hours and had to wonder why nobody carries stainless steel straps for coastal weather, anyone else run into this on damp jobs?

6

the_amy•1mo ago

Why does nobody ground their drops anymore?

I swear half the new guys I see out here are just running coax straight from the tap without bonding it to the ground block first. Did a service call yesterday in a house where the customer's modem kept frying during storms, and sure enough the drop was just sitting there ungrounded from 3 years ago. It takes like 5 extra minutes to run a ground wire to the rod or the meter pan. I know it's a pain when the ground rod is on the other side of the house, but it's code for a reason. Anyone else dealing with sloppy installs that skip the bonding?

3

pat360•1mo ago

Tried fiber couplers on a 3 year old splice and the signal jumped

I had a customer in Raleigh who wanted us to re-terminate some old fusion splices from 2021. Instead of cutting them back, I tried using fiber couplers to bridge the existing ends to new pigtails. The loss was actually lower than I expected, around 0.3 dB on most runs. Now I'm wondering if I've been wasting time re-splicing old joints when couplers work fine. Has anyone else tested this on older outdoor plant?

6

richard_roberts80•1mo ago

Changed my mind about fish tape after watching a guy at a supply house

Went to Platt in Denver last week and saw an old timer pull 200 feet of 12/2 through three 90s with a fiberglass fish tape like it was nothing. I've always been team glow rod, but that smooth motion convinced me to finally try a proper fish tape on my next big pull. Any of you guys made the switch later in your career?