My house wiring odyssey

[Steve]

I think the concern it that water pipe has a lip at the fittings where things can snag. That's why central vacuum pipe is made with no lips and all is smooth the entire way with no place for anything to catch. If you always use a pull string and attach it such that there are no 'edges' on your pull, you should be ok, but I would have to agree a smooth interior is best if possible.

 

[brotsten]

Good catch - I ended up disassembling my entire PVC setup as I used the water stuff and the wire didn't fit easily; too much concern over breaking the wires.

I'm not certain the concern here, so please elaborate. Yes, it's for future wiring (though right now it simply works great as an "intercom" down to the basement when we're pulling wire). It's a 3" pipe, and it's completely straight and vertical, except for the 45 deg you see there. I'm planning on putting a heavy nylon rope down it and then capping it.

If I should ever have to pull wire, it will be like we do now, where she pushes from below and I just take up the slack above....so even if there are any rough edges in there, we aren't going to pull hard across those. (in other words, I think we're too far gone to replace this thing now, so I'm trying to convince you it will be ok after all. )

It's the radius of the turn. You can probably get away with a single 45 bend at the end of the pipe, but I wouldn't. Go to the electrical section at home depot and look at the pvc fittings, they have much larger radius so the wire will pull easily and not be damaged. The electrical sweeps will fit on the pvc you have already run, you would only have to replace the end of your run..

Brian

 

[IVB]

yeah, I didn't have 1 45degree, I had 2 90's, which basically sucked ass. BEtween the lips & the bends, I could "feel the burn" of the wire.

 

[judge_l]

I used some of these to help hold up wires.

 

[Ranger Digital]

Judge we need a SKU. All it brings up is "The product you are trying to view is not currently available." Likely you were logged in?

 

[beelzerob]

It's the radius of the turn. You can probably get away with a single 45 bend at the end of the pipe, but I wouldn't. Go to the electrical section at home depot and look at the pvc fittings, they have much larger radius so the wire will pull easily and not be damaged. The electrical sweeps will fit on the pvc you have already run, you would only have to replace the end of your run..

Brian

Well, the 45 is optional...it's just friction fit on, so if it really were a pain, I could remove it. But ya, I'll run a rope down it before we're done, and I'll always use that to pull up wire. There are no rough edges on the inside that I'm worried about. Ask me again about this in a couple years, though, when maybe I've used it....

Amusingly, we had originally planned to put in 3 3" pipes in the chase and use that for our cable pulls to the attic. After trying to fit 1 pipe in the chase, we decided we'd just free-run the cable and leave the 1 pipe for the future. I'm SO glad we did that, because we'd have filled up those pipes really quick, not to mention the strain of sliding the cable against other cable in a filling tube. The big open hole was a much better idea.

As far as securing the wire when we're done, I'll probably cruise by Lowes and see what they have. I'd use what Judge suggested if it came in a bigger size....it'd take about a dozen of those to hold that wire! Of course, there's always plumbers Jhooks...dunno if that plastic is strong enough for that weight, though!

 

[Herdfan]

With regards to your new set of HV wire beside your LV bundle, @#!! yes I would get the build to make the elctrician move it. A licensed electrician should know better.

 

[beelzerob]

With regards to your new set of HV wire beside your LV bundle, @#!! yes I would get the build to make the elctrician move it. A licensed electrician should know better.

This will be interesting to see how it works out....you see, I was there the day he ran the wire in that location...but I was so busy, I didn't notice what he was doing. At the same time, what he said was that we "stole his hole", meaning he had already drilled a hole in that location for the wire, but hadn't run it yet, and that we had then put our TV wires down that hole. Now, neither my wife or I ever remember not drilling a hole....but even if that is the case, I can't understand that he would do that and not tell me. If he could have convinced me to move my install, that's fine...but it's like he sabotaged our work without so much as an oops.

The last thing I want to do is make one of the trades mad while they're still working on our house...so I'll deal with this through the builder and express my concern.

 

[brotsten]

but it's like he sabotaged our work without so much as an oops.
The last thing I want to do is make one of the trades mad while they're still working on our house...so I'll deal with this through the builder and express my concern.

Wecome to construction.

I would blame part of that on the general. There is a pecking order, plumber goes before the electrician and so forth. I know with my wife's company, the high voltage goes first, then the low voltage. Even building our own house, she made me wait until the electricians gave the ok.

Brian

 

[beelzerob]

Wecome to construction.

I would blame part of that on the general. There is a pecking order, plumber goes before the electrician and so forth. I know with my wife's company, the high voltage goes first, then the low voltage. Even building our own house, she made me wait until the electricians gave the ok.

Brian

Ya, I think it's going to come down to that....I waited until he gave me the "ok" to get started, which should have meant all other trades were done. I knew they weren't done, though, as I could tell stuff they hadn't finished yet, but I had hoped it was minor. In fact, as I stood there with the electrician in the great room, I mentioned to him to please avoid my wiring when he puts in the great room lights and fan, and he said "not a problem". Well...it would seem there was a problem.

Of course, now that we've already cut the wire, it won't be trivial to move that installation....in fact, it was the first bundle pulled, which means it is literally buried under all other wire. It's situated between a window and an open floor, so at most I could move it over one stud cavity, but I believe theres an HV wire in there too.

So this is the question again....will HV lines like that really cause a problem, given what I intend to use those LV lines for? I mean, is this documented, or is this one of those beware things that has never really been shown to be an issue, like wire gauge for speakers? Will I see distortion in the video signal when I run component over those RG59's if I dim the great room lights up and down or turn on the ceiling fan? I'm going to have my builder as the electrician that, but I want the forum response too.

 

[beelzerob]

Now that we're as far along as we are, I finally start turning to consideration of testing. Testing the 4c wires will be easy enough, and I don't feel the need to test the speaker or coax cables. So that only leaves the Cat's. I have a little blue box that connects on both ends of the cable and will at least tell me if the wires are shorted or open, etc....but to use that, I first have to have either a male or female RJ45 connector on it. Since I'm sure to trim the wire eventually, then any connector I put on there will probably be wasted. So the question is...what's the quickest and cheapest way for me to test the Cat 5 and 6 wires in the house??

 

[IVB]

put 2 surface mount RJ45 on either side, and use that tester. If the cable rings fine, pull the surface mounts, go to next cable.

You can use a 110 punchdown tool to hook up those surface mounts inside of 20 seconds.

 

[brotsten]

Now that we're as far along as we are, I finally start turning to consideration of testing. Testing the 4c wires will be easy enough, and I don't feel the need to test the speaker or coax cables. So that only leaves the Cat's. I have a little blue box that connects on both ends of the cable and will at least tell me if the wires are shorted or open, etc....but to use that, I first have to have either a male or female RJ45 connector on it. Since I'm sure to trim the wire eventually, then any connector I put on there will probably be wasted. So the question is...what's the quickest and cheapest way for me to test the Cat 5 and 6 wires in the house??

I've got one of those nifty little units that you download your wiring plan to, do punch down lists on, TDR the cable to see how long it is, and do a speed certification on the wire. I never use it.... Personally, I would just use a tone set, if one or two wires is good, chances are.... But, I duplicated most of my runs too.

If you do want to test every wire, a couple of these might be handy $8.25 each.

Thanks again for the Centralite driver.

Brian

 

[beelzerob]

If you do want to test every wire, a couple of these might be handy $8.25 each.

As near as I can tell from the pic (there doesn't appear to be anything other than that), those are just alligator clips, and so they don't actually make contact with the wire, right? So I'd have to strip each wire to use that? It otherwise looks like something really handy, but that'd be time comsuming.

I think I like IVB's idea...I've done punchdown before, they're really simple. I just didn't know you could re-use a punchdown device. I thought it was one of those one-way kind of connections. I've got several RJ-45 female connectors (keystone), which are wired with punchdown, but you have to bend the wire 90 deg to get it in.

I wonder if Lowes has any surface mount RJ45's...that'd save having to get it online. Maybe Radio shack..... Will surface mount rj45's work with Cat6? I mean, at least for my simple testing purposes, not to get full gigabit. I keep seeing how Cat6 has all its own stuff, just want to be sure.

Thanks again for the Centralite driver.

Brian

Glad its useful! I'm not quite done with it, just taking a break while I figure out how to configure my litejet to send CR's.

 

[brotsten]

As near as I can tell from the pic (there doesn't appear to be anything other than that), those are just alligator clips, and so they don't actually make contact with the wire, right? So I'd have to strip each wire to use that? It otherwise looks like something really handy, but that'd be time comsuming.

I think I like IVB's idea...I've done punchdown before, they're really simple. I just didn't know you could re-use a punchdown device. I thought it was one of those one-way kind of connections. I've got several RJ-45 female connectors (keystone), which are wired with punchdown, but you have to bend the wire 90 deg to get it in.

The 110 punchdowns do have a finite life, especially the keystone type. If you go the punchdown route, make yourself a jig to hold the keystone jack, it really helps. The nicest one I saw was a 1/2" piece of steel that was milled out so he could set the keystone jack in it, it was cool..

I'd be surprised if you could punch them down faster than you can strip them. A little test jig like I showed you with a bed of nails would be slick, but even surplus prices would add up.

Brian