[amakarevic]

i just wanted to share my discovery:

i have 35' of 1/2" conduit between my basement and my shed that i am using for security wire. the conduit has 6 turns total.

it was impossible for me to run the fishtape, from either end, it would get stuck around the 4th turn either way.

so i took a 5 HP Ridgid shopvac and improvised an adapter between its hose and the conduit (with conduit elbows and gorilla tape).

on the other end, i fed thin rope (masonry line) with a little lump at the end.

IT WORKED LIKE A CHARM i had spent most of the day before trying to do it with a fishtape.

 

[secutanudu]

Nice - not to take away from your discovery, but this is a (semi) known trick....putting a cotton ball on the end of the string that's JUST smaller than the inside diameter of the conduit gives it some extra suction

In any event, good work!

I came up with my "own" trick trying to fish wires vertically through walls. I tape a small rare-earth magnet to a string, drop it in the wall where i want to put my new switch/speakers/etc. Then I have a buddy push a fish tape up from the basement, the tape grabs the magnet, in goes the string.

 

[zpm]

the conduit has 6 turns total. it was impossible for me to run the fishtape, from either end, it would get stuck around the 4th turn either way.

And that's exactly why you're only supposed to have 360 degrees of bends between pull points.

 

[frenchelectrican]

First golden rules with conduits you NEVER go over 360° total bend it don't matter which type of bend you have but you can NOT excess 360° at all unless you put a junction box or pull box to split out the diffrence.

Now for " mouse " ball the last time I did use the compressed air it work pretty good but two jobsites I have no air on hand so end up use my diesel truck exhaust and run at half throttle that really pump pretty good air at the same time dry up the conduit when they were wet with water in there.

And let me warn ya with sectury wire is that use the coax cable or data Cat 5 or Cat 6 cable if latter you do not pull hard on them otherwise you can screw them up big time.

Just one more warning as well do not run the power with data cable in the same conduit that is a major no-no.

Merci,
Marc