A Puzzle
 

I'm hoping one of you may know the answer, we have been struggling with a problem for most of this afternoon, have tried various methods but all failed.
How do you thread electricity cable through approx 25 metres of conduit, we are running electricity to our store shed so want to put the cable in a protective conduit.
The most we have managed to push through so far is about 5 metres and as we dont want to cut the conduit into 5 metre lengths are hoping there is an answer out there somewhere.

Yvonne

Re: A Puzzle
 

Hi YMF,

An electrician would use a cable Threader/Puller. This is a 5mm dia semi rigid rod of fibreglass that has a brass eye on one end and a blind plug on the front. The one I have coils for storage into a 500mm circle and extends to about 10m when straight. There may be longer ones available. If not a slot is cut in the top of the conduit, a string pulled through to that point and the fibreglass rod reinserted again dragging the same string to the end. Attach the cable to the string and pull it through.

Regards, ;)

John.

Re: A Puzzle
 

In the local builders or electric stores they sell like a plastic cable 10 or 20 mtrs long about the width of a bit of spaghetti, tape the cable to one end and push the other end through the conduit ;) ;)

Re: A Puzzle
 

The best idea is to push a stiff wire (normally I use the earth wire from 3 core house wire) through before it gets buried, you can then bend and shake it until the wire has passed through, if thats not poss then I have in the past used a hairdryer, make sure its set to cold air, :scared: Very very important. use some Cotton wool and tie some cotton to it, push into the conduit, use only enough wool to form a loose plug, then use a funnel and direct the air through it and into the conduit, the air will push the cotton wad down and hopefully out, tie some string to the cotton and pull through, carefully, when you have the string, attach to wire and pull that through, however 25 meters is a long way, so maybe use a hosepipe and water to do the same thing. never tried with water but it but should work. Failing that you would have to purchase a "pullthrough" or "fish"which is a device that feeds a stiff nylon or steel wire through conduits. example:- http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/...99405&id=57293
Regards
Kevray

Re: A Puzzle
 

10 out of 10 for ingenuity kevray :D :D

Re: A Puzzle
 

I bought a 15m puller from Carrefour last week. 25m might be a bit of a problem though, although if it's new conduit you're laying you can probably just work it through with some string to extend it.

Re: A Puzzle
 

Thanks for everyones help, we have tried the hosepipe and water version, no joy there, the cotton wool version sounds good though, at least we are not standing out in the cold of England doing this. Will let you know how we get on.
Yvonne

Re: A Puzzle
 

Interesting John...I was lent one of these devices to thread a new rope through my boat mast.....unfortunately the coil it had been stored as meant it was too curvey to get through.. resorted to lifting the mast in a crane and dropping thin cord with chain on the end thru the middle. I heard later that old fashioned curtain wire is better, as the coil unsprings straight.. could this be used in the conduit instead???

Re: A Puzzle
 

Hi poollounger,

Can you get 25m curtain wire? but yes it would do.

Regards, ;)

John.

Re: A Puzzle
 

Attach a thread to the back of a small electic toy car. Attach the thread to the end of your wire. Set the vehicle off down the conduit and pull through the wire when it gets to the other end.

Is it large enough for a small child? :)

Re: A Puzzle
 

Get yourself a round piece of sponge the same size as the inside diameter of your conduit.Thread a long length of string through the sponge and tie a washer on the string so it wont pull through the sponge.Insert the sponge into the conduit and get an air compressor and just blow it through,then hook your wire to the string and pull your wire through.If you dont have an air compressor then try using a vacuum cleaner by reversing the suction to blow. We blow these sponges up to 300 feet through conduits all the time.

Re: A Puzzle
 

HI YMF
It might sound ridiculous but how about a weight attatched to a thread or line,the conduit dropped down the well and the line dropped in the conduit.Same system can work off the blue bridge,or a nice glass of red, a good book, feet up, a call to (local electrician) then it is hand in pocket and down with switch

Re: A Puzzle
 

Thanks once again to you all for putting so much effort into this, maybe we should run regular "puzzles" with a prize for the best reply.

We especially like the last suggestion of just getting someone else in to do the work and put our feet up with a glass of wine.
The other idea was to get the guy I saw walking his Ferret on the beach the other day to bring him round and see what he could manage.
What we have done is to cut the conduit into smaller lengths, 12 metres seems to be fairly easy to thread the cable through. We wanted to put junction boxes around the garden for future lighting projects anyway.

Hopefully soon we may find time to sit in our garden and enjoy it, with the planting of some trees today it is starting to look less like a building site.


Yvonne