c/cable-installers

Skeptical about cordless crimpers until a 3 story townhouse

I fought using a battery crimper for years, figured my hand tool was fine and cheaper. Then last month in a 3 story townhouse I had 14 compression fittings to do. My wrist gave out around fitting 8, and I had to borrow the homeowner's drill attachment just to finish. The next day I ordered a used Dewalt crimper for $220 off eBay. Hand tools have their place, but on a big job, saving 20 minutes of hand torque is worth the weight in the van. Anyone else stubborn about making the switch, or am I the last one?

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david_reed22•22h ago

Mice chewed through 3 drops in a Richfield attic, now I check EVERYTHING

Last Tuesday I was doing a standard install in Richfield and kept getting signal loss on 3 separate drops. Pulled my tester out, all good at the panel. Spent 2 hours tracing lines thinking it was a bad splitter. Finally crawled up into the attic and found mouse nests right where the cables ran. They chewed through the coax shielding in 3 spots. I always checked exterior lines for squirrels but never thought about indoor attics. Now I do a quick visual sweep of the whole path before I start terminating. Has anyone else dealt with rodents wrecking runs that looked fine on the tester?

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nina_taylor•1d ago

Fish tape vs. push rods for a 90 foot conduit run, my pick surprised me

Had a nightmare run last week through a parking garage, 90 feet with two 45 degree bends. I always swore by steel fish tape for long runs, but it kept binding up at the second bend. Grabbed a set of fiberglass push rods from the truck out of desperation, they flexed through like nothing. Whole pull took maybe 20 minutes after an hour of fighting the tape. Anyone else switched over for the long stuff or am I missing a trick with the tape?

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emma_wells83•5d ago

Splicing drops wrong for 2 years, a bucket truck ride fixed it

Been doing aerial work since 2021. Always stripped the jacket back 4 inches before the connector. My lead saw me on a job in Tulsa last month. He said, that's why you keep getting ingress on windy days. Took me 20 minutes on his truck going over the actual spec. It's 1.5 inches max for this connector type. Two years of callbacks over a half inch of extra exposure. Check your connector data sheets, even the ones you think you know. Anyone else had a basic habit that was totally off?

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danielm80•12d ago

Coax vs. fiber for a 200-foot run, I picked wrong twice

Last month I had a long drop through a crawl space and attic, about 200 feet total. I went with RG6 because it was cheaper and I had it on the truck, but the signal loss at the modem was brutal, like 8 dB too much. Swapped it out for a fiber pre-terminated cable and a couple of media converters, cost me an extra $120 but the install finally held. Has anyone else fought this same distance problem, or do you just refuse jobs past a certain footage?

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sammartinez•12d ago

That moment the aerial drop took out the neighbor's gutter

Last Thursday in the rain in Tacoma, I was doing a standard install on a two story and my bucket gave a little too much swing. The damn drop cable caught the corner of the neighbor's gutter and ripped a 4 foot section right off. Homeowner came out screaming before I even got down, and the neighbor on the other side was filming on his phone. I had to stop everything, call my insurance, and spend 2 hours cleaning up the mess and explaining to both of them that it wasn't a hack job, just dumb luck with the wind. Ended up paying $180 out of pocket for a gutter guy to come fix it that same day just to keep the peace. The install itself took an extra hour because I was second guessing every move after that. Anyone else have a job where a tiny mistake turned into a whole afternoon of damage control?

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fionafoster•13d ago

Spent $180 on a fusion splicer rental, should've just borrowed the truck guy's old one

We had a job in Fresno last month, 12 fiber drops for a new apartment complex. My boss said rent the fancy fusion splicer instead of using my mechanical ones, so I coughed up 180 bucks for the weekend. Thing was finicky, kept erroring on the cleave angle, and I burned 3 hours fighting it. The old timer on the crew, Dave, finally pulled out his beat-up splicer from 2008 and it worked first try on every joint. Anybody else had a rental that fought you harder than it helped, or is it just me?

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amy_martin•15d ago

Finally ditched the old drill holster after 11 years

Used to carry my impact on a belt clip and it tore through 4 pairs of work pants a season, plus the drop risk in crawlspaces was brutal. Switched to a padded shoulder strap rig about 6 months ago after a buddy in Columbus swore by his, and now I can reach up without the thing swinging into drywall. Anyone else found a carry setup that doesnt wreck your back on long attic runs?

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smith.elliot•16d ago

Warning: toning those coax ends wrong can cost you a truck roll

Spent 9 months toning RG6 with the probe tip touching the center pin directly, thought it was fine. Then a customer's modem kept dropping sync and a senior guy showed me I was shorting the shield against the connector body, which was causing noise. Anyone else figure out they'd been doing a basic step wrong for way too long?

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adam919•16d ago

Duct seal saved my whole attic run at a school in Tulsa

Pulled 300 feet of RG6 through a hot plenum and the staples kept popping, so I packed every wall penetration with duct seal and the signal jumped 4 dB. Anyone else use that on commercial drops or just for termite proofing?

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grace_knight19•19d ago

Blew a fuse box in El Paso because of a frozen ground rod

Went out to a house on the east side of El Paso last Wednesday, old neighborhood with buried lines everywhere. Customer said their internet kept dropping every time the wind picked up, so I figured it was a loose connector. Turns out the ground rod was half pulled out of the dirt from years of frost heave, and some critter had chewed through the bonding wire. I tried to re-ground it with a new clamp, but the rod was so corroded it just snapped off under the hammer. Spent two hours digging a new hole, ran a fresh copper wire, and still had to drive back to the shop for an adapter because the old panel used a different lug size. The homeowner kept asking if I could just tape it together, which was not happening. Has anyone else dealt with ground rods that are basically rusted dust inside the clamp? How do you even test those properly without pulling the whole damn thing out?

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susan81•20d ago

Attic heat in Phoenix taught me to check vents before running cable

Last August I was up in a Mesa attic running cat6 and the heat was brutal, but the real problem was a collapsed flex vent blocking the path. I spent an extra 45 minutes rerouting because I didn't scout ahead. Anybody else do a quick dry run before committing to a pull, or just wing it like I did?

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willowr96•21d ago

Picked the $50 toner probe over the $180 one, just finished my first week with it

Was hunting a dead line in a 3 story apartment building in Columbus and figured I'd gamble on the cheap one since I only need to trace maybe 15 taps a month. It found the splitter on the third try where my old method would've meant pulling ceiling tiles. Anyone else run budget test gear on low volume jobs or am I just asking for trouble down the road?

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fiona_kim97•22d ago

Three hours inside a crawlspace over one loose connector

Spent a whole morning on a job in Tacoma where the signal was dropping every 20 minutes. Turned out a connector at the ground block was hand tight from a previous job, took me 3 hours to finally check that with my torque wrench. I've checked splitters, runs, even swapped the modem before I got to the obvious. Anyone else got a simple fix that ate up a whole shift before you found it?

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the_viola•23d ago

That splitter in the attic from 1998 finally gave up today

Was doing a service call in Round Rock, customer's internet kept dropping every 20 minutes. Climbed up and found this ancient 3-way splitter with corrosion all over the ports, replaced it with a new one and boom, solid signal. You guys ever find gear that old still in use? How long do you usually let stuff ride before you swap it out?

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nina_hall48•23d ago

Ground block pulled off siding, fried a customer's TV in Maplewood

Last Friday I was running a new RG6 line to a second floor bedroom in an older split level over in Maplewood. The house had a messy ground block from a previous install, two wires sharing one lug and one of them barely screwed in. I got the drop terminated and hooked up my signal meter, everything read fine, so I started pulling the line through the wall cavity. About halfway through, the cable snagged on something and I gave it a good yank. That pulled the whole ground block right off the siding, and the bare copper wire swung down and touched a live outlet box on the exterior wall. There was a pop and a spark, and the homeowner's smart TV in the family room below blinked off and wouldn't come back on. Turns out the surge went straight through the shield to the ground path and fried the TV's power supply. I had to replace the block, re-ground everything properly with a new copper rod and clamp, and eat the cost of a service call for the TV repair guy. The homeowner was cool about it, but my boss wasn't thrilled when I had to explain the $180 in parts and labor. Has anyone else had a bad ground cause equipment damage on the customer side, or is it just me?

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lewis.brian•23d ago

Before and after on a rewire in an old house, the difference was night and day

Last month I ran new coax and Cat6 through a 1920s rowhouse in Philly. The old runs were daisy-chained with splitters from the 80s, signal was garbage on the second floor. After I replaced everything and put in a proper home run to the basement, the modem went from 40 Mbps to 280. Customer actually asked if I swapped out the ISP too, had to laugh. Anyone else see that big a jump just from fixing old cabling?

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scott.olivia•25d ago

A homeowner's basement ceiling comment got me second-guessing my whole prep routine

Last Thursday I ran a new drop for a guy in Beaverton who had this super clean drop ceiling with those plastic tiles. I was about to start fishing through the joists and he just said, 'you know, the last guy left a coil of slack right above this tile and it kept rattling every time the furnace kicked on.' I laughed at first, but then I thought about how many times I've shoved extra cable up there just to be safe. That slack sits there for years, collecting dust and making noise for someone else to deal with. It hit me that my 'just in case' habit is actually just lazy finishing on my part. I spent the next hour pulling the line tight every few feet and strapping it down clean. Has anyone else had a client point out something obvious that made you change how you leave a job site?

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shane_bell•26d ago

Tone generator vs. my old toner probe, wish I switched sooner

For two years I used a cheap probe that needed both wires clipped to test lines. Last week on a rough commercial job in Phoenix, I grabbed a modern tone generator with inductive coupling and traced a buried drop in about 8 minutes. My old method took 30 plus and I still guessed on two splices. If you're still using the clip-on style, try the inductive type before your next service call. Has anyone else found one brand way more reliable in heavy interference?

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quinn161•27d ago

That foreclosure job made me stop trusting the blueprints

Talked to a builder in Tulsa last week who said 40% of the prints he sees are off by at least a foot, and after I ran into a wall stud 6 inches from where the plan said, I'm starting to think he's right, so how do you guys handle rough-in when the blueprint doesn't match the walls?

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scott.olivia•28d ago

Appreciation post: that 500 ft spool is heavier than I ever guessed

I mean, I finally looked up the actual weight on a 500 ft roll of RG6 quad shield the other day, like 38 pounds or something. I've been hauling these up ladders and into attics for years and just assumed it was maybe 20. It's no wonder my lower back complains after two jobs in a row. Has anyone else switched to carrying them on a shoulder strap or a cart after checking the numbers, or am I the only one who never thought about it?

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fiona_carr26•28d ago

That customer's 'fancy' wall mount cost me an extra hour in Phoenix

Read a post about a guy who found a hidden stud behind a plaster wall using a cheap magnet, saved him from drilling into a pipe. Tried it today on a tricky install and honestly, it beat my $200 finder on this old house. Anyone else got a weird tool trick they swear by when walls get sketchy?

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patricia32•28d ago

That brand new crimping tool broke on the third job in Bakersfield

I picked up a fresh crimper last Tuesday thinking it would last me at least a year. Third house I hit, the ratchet just gave up and slipped right through the fitting. Didn't even get a solid connection, just a loose mess. I had to drive back to the shop for my old beat up one, which worked fine like it always does. Has anyone else had new tools fail way faster than the old standby gear? What brand actually holds up for you guys?

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craig.viola•29d ago

My coax stripper was backwards for 2 years until a newbie caught it

I've been doing residential installs for 6 years, and last month a guy fresh out of training looks at my prep work and goes, 'uh, you know the blade goes on the other side, right?' I had been using my strip tool upside down the whole time, which is why I always had to nick the dielectric with a knife to get a clean cut. It added maybe 30 seconds per drop, but on a 10 drop day that's 5 minutes, plus the occasional damaged connector that meant a redo. I checked my old crimps and sure enough, about 1 in 15 had a tiny burr that could cause signal loss. has anyone else had a basic tool habit that a rookie corrected, or am I the only one who spent years doing it wrong?

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grantw41•1mo ago

Old lady in Dayton taught me more about drops than my trainer

Tbh I was running a triple play install in Dayton last spring and this 70 something customer kept watching me fish a line through her crawlspace. She finally said, 'honey, you're fighting the joists, go around the ductwork.' I blew her off and spent 45 more minutes stuck. She handed me a wire coat hanger she'd bent into a hook and I had the line through in 5 minutes flat. Been using that same homemade hook on every hard drop since. Anyone else ever get schooled by a customer who used to do this job back in the day?

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