That thing paid for itself on the first pull through a conduit full of dried mud and old wire, so why did I wait this long to upgrade?
Ran into a job last Thursday where a customer's house had coax that was stapled so tight I spent 45 minutes trying to cut it clean with my Klein cutters and still got a bad bend. I know some guys just torch the end to melt the jacket off but I'm worried about messing up the copper. Which method do you swear by for getting through those tight spots quick?
I used to rely on that electric stapler for everything (thought it was saving my wrists). Then I got a call for a new build in Phoenix where the drywall was so hard the stapler just bounced off, took me twice as long. Switched to a $15 hammer tacker halfway through that job and never looked back. Has anyone else hit a wall where a staple gun just won't cut it and went manual?
I was on a three-story townhouse roof in Cincinnati yesterday, and the homeowner swore the roof deck was solid. I stepped onto the ridge and my boot went through a rotted spot, dropping me right through the attic insulation up to my waist. Has anyone else had a near-miss like that, and do you carry any specific gear for checking roof integrity before you climb?
Guy stopped me while I was running a new drop in his attic and asked why we don't just use those flat ribbon cables that go under baseboards. I told him about signal loss and interference, but then I thought about it later - he's got a point for basic internet setups, maybe I'm overcomplicating some jobs. Anyone else ever had a customer point out something simple that made you question your whole approach?
I always had trouble getting a clean 90 degree bend on RG6 without kinking it. Kept blaming the cheap cable until my buddy Dave from my shop in Denver showed me his trick. You put your thumb on the inside of the bend and pull the cable tight around it, not just push with both hands. First try came out perfect and I felt like an idiot for messing it up so long. Anyone else got weird little tricks for new guys that nobody teaches in training?
I started installing cable back in '98 and we used to strip and crimp every single connector by hand. Took me about 3 minutes per connector at first. Now these new guys come in with these compression tools that do it in 30 seconds flat. I fought it for years, swore my way was better. Then last month I had to redo a whole 48 port patch panel because my hand-crimped ends kept failing. Borrowed a compression tool for the second try and it worked perfect. Anybody else notice the old tools just don't hold up like they used to?
Last Wednesday in Denver, I was running a 150 foot drop through a finished basement and the homeowner kept following me around saying I should go through the wall cavity instead of along the joist. I stopped, handed him my drill, and said go for it. He stared at me for 10 seconds then went back upstairs. Has anyone else had a customer try to micromanage a simple install?
Picked up one of those fancy Fluke toners last month thinking it would save me hours tracing lines in a new build in Denver. Turns out it kept picking up phantom signals from nearby live wires, sent me chasing the wrong coax for 3 hours straight. Anybody else had a toner that just flat out fibbed on you?
Tbh I thought this old timer on a job in Nashville was just being extra. He said to zip tie the coax cable at every single joist instead of every few. I ignored him for like 3 months on different jobs. Then last week I had a service call where a homeowner was getting pixelation on their main TV. I traced the line and found a bunch of the cables were sagging between joists. That little bit of movement was enough to mess with the signal over time. So I went back to that spot and redid it his way with a zip tie at each joist. Signal cleared right up. Guess the old guy knew what he was talking about. Anyone else ever get humbled by advice from a veteran installer?
I was running lines in this old house and my favorite Klein crimper slipped right out of my hand, fell through a floor register, and landed in the ductwork below. Spent 45 minutes fishing it out with a coat hanger and a magnet on a string while the homeowner watched from the kitchen. Has anyone else lost a tool in a really dumb spot and had to MacGyver it back?
Last Tuesday I was stuck on a job in an old house near downtown, trying to get coax through a wall that was packed with that blown-in cellulose insulation. After fighting with the fish tape for like 20 minutes and getting nowhere, I grabbed a shop vac and taped a piece of PVC pipe to the hose. I shoved the hose into the wall cavity through a small hole and let it run for a minute to clear out the insulation. Then my fish tape slid right through like butter. Saved me from having to cut into the drywall and patch it later. Any of you guys ever tried something like that for tricky runs?
Went to a job in Phoenix last week and the guy had moved the coax line himself. Wrapped it around a tree branch. Signal was garbage. How do you handle customers who mess with your work before you even get there?
Back in the early 2000s I swore by crimp-on F connectors for every residential job around Austin. Then I tried compression fittings on a big apartment complex last month and finally saw the difference - zero signal losses across 60 units. Anyone else make the switch later than they should have?
Ngl I used to just pull cable as fast as I could through attics in Phoenix. This one guy in his 60s watched me for like 2 minutes on a job near Camelback and goes 'youre gonna snap the copper core doing that.' He showed me to always leave a 6 inch service loop and use a little tension gauge. Has anyone else had an older installer teach them one little trick that saved them a ton of callbacks?
Honestly, I never really thought about it until our warehouse guy showed me the numbers last week. I found out my crew alone goes through about 3,200 feet of RG6 coax cable every month, which blew my mind. That's almost a mile of cable just from three trucks running residential installs in the Nashville area. We're doing an average of 12 jobs per truck per day, and each one takes about 80 to 90 feet for a standard home run. The stat came from our inventory system that tracks every spool we pull. Has anyone else ever checked their monthly totals and gotten surprised by how much cable you're burning through?
I was at a supply house pickup last Wednesday and heard two guys arguing about trenching vs directional boring. One said nobody should trench anymore because it tears up yards and takes too long. But I've been doing this 20 years now and I still trench for most residential jobs, especially when the ground is soft and the distance is short. It's faster if you know what you're doing and it costs the customer less. Has anyone else run into this push away from trenching, or am I just old fashioned?
Had a job last month out in Maplewood. Customer wanted internet in a detached garage. Thought about pulling RG6. But the run was 400 feet. Signal loss would have been brutal. Grabbed a spool of single-mode fiber instead. Took an extra 20 minutes to terminate but the signal was perfect. Anyone else dealing with long runs switching over?
She said 'nobody ever asked where I wanted it before' and that simple comment has stuck with me more than any big commercial job I've done, has anyone else had a customer say something that just hit different?
I replaced a drop amp from 2014 that was still passing signal but had a voltage drop of almost 4 volts under load. Customer's internet was cutting out every night at 8pm exactly when the neighborhood maxed out usage. Anyone else see old amps slowly degrade like this before total failure?
Old timer named Rick from a job in Charlotte said slicking up the cable with gel would save me time on a long conduit run, and after fighting with it for 45 minutes dry, I finally tried it and pulled 200 feet through in under 10 minutes with zero snags - any of you guys use that stuff or just rawdog it like I used to?
Had a job yesterday where the customer kept losing internet every time the wind blew. Checked the line outside, checked the modem, swapped splitters. After way too long I finally looked at the barrel connector on the side of the house and it was corroded. Replaced it in 30 seconds. Anyone else ever chase a simple fix for way too long?
I was running a new line in an attic in Austin last week and heard a crack when I hammered a clip over the coax. Pulled it back and saw the jacket was split clean through, never noticed that before in 5 years of doing this. Has anyone else had clips damage their own cable like that?
I was on a job last week and the dispatcher told me I should start grouping my calls by street number instead of zip code. She said I was wasting 2 hours a day driving back and forth across town. Has anyone else tried sorting their route by address order instead of area code?
Last week I had a job in a older house in Columbus where the signal was dropping every 30 seconds. I spent 45 minutes re-terminating ends and checking splitters before I realized my new batch of compression fittings had a bad batch of o-rings. Swapped them out with some older stock and the signal locked right in. Anyone else run into dodgy fittings from a certain supplier lately?