Tools that help with cable runs

Fallschirmjager

i thought I would post this as I am sure some of you are considering putting in cables and hiding them.

So in no order of importance.

1 an obvious one, the electronic stud finder. I am sure you have seen these. It tells you where the wooden studs or battens are behind plasterboard, invaluable. My recommendation is get a good one. Also warns of power cables and pipes to stop a real potential disaster when drilling.

2 steel fish tape. This is a metal spool that is flexible but firm enough to push between the plasterboard and insulation.

3 magnetic Cable puller. This came from of all places the dragons den. This is not as good as it first looks but I found it helpful. It uses powerful magnets , one you can attach to the cable and the other is on a long piece of flexible plastic. It's cheap and worth having.

4 endoscope Inspection camera. These are now cheap, I got mine from China for 20 dollars. It's a usb cable to a small 10mm camera and led lights. I bought the cheapest one. Don't do that. There is 720p HD ones now that are built into a flexible 2metre long cable but cased in a bendable metal casing. Trust me you need the HD, sometimes quite difficult to understand what you are seeing and to know which way is up. They connect to your smart phone. It's about 60 euro. If you are going to buy one get that and not the cheapest. Having said that, I have not used the HD one but I am going to buy it. I will post here when I do. This just saved me a huge amount of work putting in a hdmi, power and network cable. I needed only 2 ceiling and wall holes and saw the cable thereby massively reducing the amount of patching needed.

5 para cord or nylon string. This is a simple thing. It's a really strong string for pulling cables, don't forget the ever helpful electrical tape to attach to your cable. It's looks like the cable used for your petrol lawnmower starter cable.you need a lot of this.

5 leave the para cord in place? For tricky runs I mark and sometimes leave the para cord in place. So if I ever need to pull another cable , I don't have to go through the horror again

6 plasterboard cutter. This is a hand held knife/saw for cutting plasterboard. Another good thing to buy is those packs of circular hole cutters you put on your drill.

7 long slim plastic. I had this from those box shaped plastic wire ducting cover you buy. I kept the 'lid' of this. Because it's slim and strong and flexible I use it a lot. For instance putting the hdmi pull yesterday I went up the wall with a notch in it cut to hold a loop of para cord. On another sheet of it I had a metal key hook screwed into a bend in the top of another length with the inspection camera taped to it. Hook takes the loop of cord and I pull hdmi, power and network cable. What could have meant tons of work was far easier. I left the para cord in place for future upgrades in hdmi versions. It's the top part of this.

8. Strips of thin wood. I am sure you are going huh? When You replace the circular or cuts in plasterboard you need something to push against. I use at wood cladding stuff but anything thin will do. I also use the no More nails glue you can get to attach it behind the plasterboard. Now you have something to either screw or glue the plaster board piece back to and also if you ever need to reuse the hole, it's easy get back out, just give it a thump.

Hope that helps

Johnboy1951

A couple of things there I had not thought of .... thanks

magnet Cable puller ..... open an old HDD and take out the magnets ..... man they are powerful!

Fallschirmjager

Jeasus , I didn't know that about hard drives. I have a couple of old crap ones here might give that a go.

It's amazing to me no one has developed a crawler bot thing for this, a fortune for some inventor there....

Access

Im very interested in this scope camera that can be plugged into the phone... Any linky for a decent 720p one? I had a look for one via google... But its a minefield of rubbish looking ones.

Fallschirmjager

Access wrote: »

Im very interested in this scope camera that can be plugged into the phone... Any linky for a decent 720p one? I had a look for one via google... But its a minefield of rubbish looking ones.

Access, I got the usb one from aliexpress. It was cheap. I was just about to buy the one mentioned in my post above and the buggers put the price up. I have bought quite a bit of stuff off aliexpress, just use your common sense, if they have good feedback, you should be fine

http://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?SearchText=Scope+camera+720p&catId=0&initiative_id=SB_20141013110954

As you can see there is no shortage. As a tip pay for the faster shipping, otherwise it is a slow boat from China, literally..can take forever.

I was looking at this but I have not used it yet so please don't take that as a recommendation.

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/-/1959862396.html

I have a 10 m usb one currently. Hope that helps