Re: Your Favorite Install Tool?

["Jim" <alarminex@xxxxxxx>]

Sylvain Robitaille wrote:

<SNIP>

> There are two things I really don't like about any sort of wiring
> projects (and the alarm panel is only one currently planned for my
> house):
>
>   - working with fish tapes
>   - working in the attic at any time of year
>
> Anything that will reduce the amount of either that I have to deal with
> is of interest to me!  :-)
>

Then I strongly suggest that you drop your interest in snaking wires
and concentrate on investigating wireless alarm systems.

Jus kidden!

Snaking wires can be taught to someone up to a certain point. After
that, you just have to put in whatever time necessary for YOU to learn
what it takes to do it. Like most things, the longer and more you do it
the better you get at it. After over thirty five years in the industry,
snaking is not a chore. Sometimes it's fun to watch the new guys try to
snake a wire unsuccessfully for 15 minutes in frustration and then you
go over and give it a twist or two, get it through and say, "What's
takin you so long?" Really blows their mind.

Another "trick" you get good at is drilling intersecting holes and
drilling at an angle to a particular spot with up to a 2 or 3 foot long
bit. One time this builder, I still work for occasionally, told me his
electrician forgot to run a doorbell wire and asked me, while I was
drilling for the alarm contact, if I could drill the wire hole. It was
an awkward spot but I said sure, where do you want it? I told him to
tap on the outside of the building beside the door. I went inside
closed the door, using a flexibit bent at an angle, I drilled through
and he pulled his finger away just in time. Certainly a bit of luck
there, but to this day, he thinks I've got Xray vision. As your
experience grows, in all these things, you get "luckier and luckier"
until it becomes a skill. In between you learn how to patch your
mistakes so that no one can see them.

Speaking of that, I had a helper who was drilling a window down to the
basement pop out of the wall with a drill bit. Not a big hole and it
was down near the baseboard. It was on a grey wall so the white of the
drywall really stood out. If I spackeled it, it would have to be
painted and I didn't think the homeowner would be too pleased with a
white patch on his wall. I got some spackle, went down to the oil
burner, tilted the chimminy damper and scraped some soot from the flue
and used it to color the spackel. It took a few tries before I got the
right color but you could barely see the hole afterwards, unless you
were looking for it. Desperation is another mother of invention.
That was years ago. Now, I carry a few of those small plastic tubes of
paint tint. Primary colors, and black so I can mix up just about any
color spackle I need.