Been doing cable installs in Cleveland for 6 years and always blamed bad connectors when a drop failed the meter. Last week I swapped out my old crimp tool for a $35 one with a ratchet handle and suddenly my return loss numbers were clean across the board. Turns out the cheap tool was squeezing the ferrule unevenly, only showed up on longer runs over 150 feet. Anyone else had a tool that caused intermittent issues you wrote off as something else?
I was doing the standard over-under coil on a job in Austin and a senior guy stopped me, said my wraps were twisting the cable core. He showed me how to flip my wrist every loop and it clicked instantly. Anyone else get handed down a basic trick that made you question everything?
Last week I was on a job with this older guy named Dave who's been doing installs since the 90s. He watched me spend 20 minutes threading coax through a tight attic space and just shook his head. He told me I was fighting the house instead of working with it, and showed me how to use the roof pitch and joist direction to plan my path before even climbing up. It hit me hard because I've been doing this for 3 years and never once thought about reading the structure first. I always just went in and started pulling until something worked. Now I'm wondering if there are other basic tricks I'm missing that could save an hour on every job. Has anyone else got tips from a veteran that made you feel like you learned the hard way?
I was out on a job last week for a 3 story house in Austin and got into it with another installer about the best path for running lines. He swears by attics every time because you avoid moisture and critters. But in my experience, attics can be a nightmare with blown insulation and summer heat that makes you miserable in 10 minutes. Crawlspaces might have spiders and dirt, but at least you can move without roasting. The customer wanted the modem in a back bedroom so it was a long haul either way. What do you all lean towards for tricky runs like this, attic or crawlspace? Has anyone had issues with one over the other long term?
I've been doing cable installs for about 7 years now, and I remember back in 2019 we used to spend a ton of time stripping and crimping each coax end by hand. Now with those compression connectors and better strippers, I can knock out a termination in under a minute. The push from ISPs to standardize on compression fittings really sped things up. Has anyone else seen their termination time drop that much in the same period?
Was picking up some coax last month and this grizzled guy behind the counter just goes "you the one who left that birdsnest on the side of that brick house on Poplar?" Felt like a heat miss, seriously. He said my straps were too loose and the cable was gonna sag in the summer heat. Told me to pull it tighter and use a smaller spacing between straps. Now I space them every 18 inches instead of 24 and make sure the cable lays flat against the wall. Has anyone else gotten roasted like that by a random old timer?
Turns out their idea of a clean drop meant old coaxial wrapped around an AC duct with mouse droppings everywhere, and now I bring my own fish tape and a headlamp to every job no matter what they say, has anyone else dealt with customers who lie about how bad their setup really is?
Picked up one of those $15 toner kits off Amazon last week to trace a line in a drop ceiling at a commercial building in Portland. Hooked it up, hit the button, and my Fluke tester gave me a error code and then just died. $400 tool gone. The toner must have been putting out way too much voltage or something. Has anyone else had a cheap tool wreck their gear like this?
I mean, everyone in this group swears by Klein tools but I grabbed their tone and probe kit and it keeps giving me false positives on live lines. The green label one with the LED indicator. I've had to double check everything with my old beat up Fluke from 2018. Maybe it's just my unit but has anyone else had issues with these newer Klein models?
I was troubleshooting a customer's signal loss in a house near Denver. Pulled out the old RG6 that was installed back in 2013. Swear it looked fine on the outside but when I cut it open the copper was all corroded and green. Found out from a supplier that moisture gets in through tiny cracks in the jacket over time. That explained why their internet kept dropping out at random times. Has anyone else run into old cable that looked okay but was actually shot?
Last week I was doing a big job in a commercial building downtown. 24 drops, all cat6, and the customer wanted it done in one day. My old punchdown tool broke halfway through. I had two backups in my van. One was a cheap $15 plastic one from a hardware store. The other was an Impact brand one I got on sale for $40. I grabbed the Impact tool because I trusted it more. Bad move. The Impact tool's blade slipped on the third keystone and I ruined it. Ended up using the $15 plastic one for the rest of the job and it worked fine. Anyone else had a favorite brand let you down like that?
Had a job last Tuesday in an old house in the historic district. Customer wanted a cable line from the basement to the second floor bedroom. No drop ceiling, no crawl space, just plaster and lathe. I was about to cut a bunch of holes when an old timer I work with sometimes told me about using a glow rod and a magnet. Basically taped a small rare earth magnet to the end of the rod, used another magnet on the outside to guide it around fire blocks. Worked on the first try. Took maybe 20 minutes total. Has anyone else tried this method for tricky wall runs?
I hit the 500 mark yesterday on a job out in the Oakley neighborhood. That's a lot of wall plates. I realized I've only had 3 callbacks total in 4 years. Two were for bad splitters the customer bought themselves, one was a loose connector I rushed. It made me think about how many of us fly through jobs and don't track our own numbers. Anyone else keep a log of their install count or callbacks?
My buddy Dave told me to skip the cheap toner and get a Fluke Pro3000 instead, but I figured I'd save some cash and grabbed a no-name one off Amazon for $30. Took me three hours to trace a line at a house in Oak Park because the probe kept picking up noise from the neighbors' cables. Finally gave up and borrowed Dave's Fluke and had it done in 10 minutes. Anyone else waste time on bargain equipment like this?
Used to get kinks and bad 90s all the time guessing the radius on RG6, but now I crank those bends out clean and fast with zero scrap, anyone else make the switch from freehand to a tool?
I was counting up my job tickets from this year and somehow hit 100 attic cable runs today. That's 100 times I crawled through blown insulation, dodged nails, and sweated my ass off in 130 degree heat. Hit that number on a new build in Brookside where the customer wanted a whole home mesh system. It hit me different because I started this job solo two years ago and now I'm tracking real progress. Anyone else ever look back at their numbers and surprise themselves?
A guy in a Facebook group said the 3M clips from China were fine for exterior work, so I used them on a job last week. 4 of the 12 popped off by the next morning in just normal wind. Has anyone else had these fail on them too?
I was up there for 45 minutes with sweat dripping down my face because the previous installer stapled the old line to every single truss, and I had to cut it all out with dykes one staple at a time - anyone else have a job where the heat almost made you quit halfway through?
I count every single one in a notebook and number 500 came at a house off Maple Street in Springfield. That first attic took me an hour to get the drop line right and now I can do it in 15 minutes if the insulation isn't too bad. Has anyone else kept a running count of those miserable crawls?
I swapped out my old crimper for a new Klein one last week after using the same beat up one since 2015. The connections on the new one are cleaner and I haven't had to redo a single end. Anybody else notice a big jump when they finally upgrade a tool they've had forever?
I bought this off Amazon last week thinking I was saving cash. First job I used it on, the tone was so weak I couldn't hear it past 20 feet of cable. Wasted 2 hours tracing a line that turned out to be dead. Ended up borrowing my buddy's Fluke kit to finish. Has anyone else had a cheap toner give out on them mid job?
Met this old timer Ed during a commercial job downtown Omaha back in 2021. He insisted we run zip ties every 4 feet on every drop, said anything loose causes headaches later. Three years in, I just spent a Saturday fixing a bundle I ran loose that got snagged by an HVAC crew. Now I feel stupid for ignoring him all those months, has anyone else missed advice from an older guy that turned out to be gospel?
I had this job last Thursday at a house off Maple Drive where the signal kept dropping on the second floor TV. After swapping splitters and checking connectors for an hour, I finally looked at my own bend on a corner run and saw it was pinched flat. I always thought a tight 90 degree bend was fine, you know, as long as it looked neat. But some older installer walked me through how the dielectric gets crushed and causes reflection, which was messing up the whole line. Has anyone else had a similar "aha" moment with something basic like this?
I was working a new build in Raleigh and the GC pushed back the sheetrock crew by one day so I could get my runs in. That never happens, did I just hit the lottery or do you guys have any GCs that actually get it?
Found a $20 Werner at a yard sale in Tacoma last summer, looked barely used. Guy swore it was solid, but I ignored the cracked step rung because I wanted to save a buck. Third job up in a crawlspace, that rung gave out and I ate it hard onto a concrete floor. Sprained my wrist and had to take two weeks off. Anyone else learned this lesson the hard way with cheap gear?