RE: RE: Cat 5 in 100m boxes / clipsal stuff

[Nigel Orr <nigel@xxxxxxx>]

At 16:23 19/10/00 +0000, you wrote:
>Mark, I'd thought of pulling off the correct length first but the
>longest ones have to go down two floors, through airing cupboards,
>bathrooms, kitchens and cupboards under stairs.  I can guarantee I'd
>cut it 10cm short, and that if I added on 2m for good measure I'd be 10
>too long!

It's not expensive stuff, just overestimate, start with the long runs, and
if it's too short use it for a short run, if it's more than a couple of
metres long, use the excess for a short run.  I'd aim for at least 1m
excess at each end, and a bit for luck.  As Mark said, it's possible to do
multiple runs from fewer boxes.  I use short offcuts for patching within
the Krone boxes, and stick a bit of tape on longer offcuts with the
approximate length marked on it.

If the run isn't confined, you can even do 4 runs from 2 boxes without
cutting.  Guess the length, pull that much out, and instead of cutting it
off, grab the bit that is just by the box and pull the 'middle' along.  If
it was too long or short, you can feed some more round, then cut at the
box, and finally snip the loop at the place where you have pulled the cable
to.  Does that make sense?  I've done runs of up to 10 cables from 2 boxes-
but do try to do the long ones first!

There's actually another small advantage of pulling a 'loop' as above, if
you have 2 different boxes of cable (there's usually a slight colour
difference), it's easy to distinguish and mark 4 different ends- there will
be 2 different colours, and the printing on the cable sheath will be in 2
different directions!

If you think carefully about how much you need, it's probably worth buying
at least 3 boxes for a typical house- where I have seen 100m reels they're
usually priced about the same as 1000ft boxes, and boxes are _much_ easier
to feed from (you need something for reels to spin on, and they often spin
off too fast and get tangled)

Nigel


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