Mill is 3-phase 440v, I have 1-phase 220v - What kind of options do I have?

You are probably right about the tape hitting the connection at the 90. I should have mentioned that that is one of the things the "bullet" I mentioned is good at preventing. I use 1/2" diameter bullets, turned from plastic.

I haven't found a magnet strong enough yet that would pull a fishtape out of a conduit. The hook is a common method when the tape is that close to the end.

When you're ready to attach the wire to the tape, strip about 4 to 6" of insulation, then clip 3 of the 7 strands off at the insulation. Bend the remaining strands over to almost meet the insulation, but bend two to go through the eye of the tape one way and the other two to go the opposite way. Tape it up tightly in three layers running up over the eye. Flag the end so you can find it when you want to unwind it.

The lube will help, but you also need someone to feed the wire in while you are pulling the tape.
 
Charley Davidson said:
Man you are one lucky dog, all this time your worried about what 3 phase gadget to use and it's right there already.

Try a strong magnet (rare earth type) tied to a string to get that fish tape out. Might work. Good luck
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The really ironic part of it is that as I add up the costs of what I'm doing it would still have been cheaper to go with a couple of VFDs and by the time I'm all done I may have as much into it as I would have with an RPC setup. :headscratch: By far though, it will be the simplest, most flexible, and most reliable system. Gotta give it a lot of points for that!

Interesting idea Charlie. If the fish tape were a little less rigid and the section of pipe wasn't so goofy it would be worth a try. I still may use the idea partially to help whatever I use to fish for it with "find" the metal tape. That'll give me something to think about tonight.

Thanks

Hawkeye said:
You are probably right about the tape hitting the connection at the 90. I should have mentioned that that is one of the things the "bullet" I mentioned is good at preventing. I use 1/2" diameter bullets, turned from plastic.

I haven't found a magnet strong enough yet that would pull a fishtape out of a conduit. The hook is a common method when the tape is that close to the end.

When you're ready to attach the wire to the tape, strip about 4 to 6" of insulation, then clip 3 of the 7 strands off at the insulation. Bend the remaining strands over to almost meet the insulation, but bend two to go through the eye of the tape one way and the other two to go the opposite way. Tape it up tightly in three layers running up over the eye. Flag the end so you can find it when you want to unwind it.

The lube will help, but you also need someone to feed the wire in while you are pulling the tape.
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That sounds good. I was also planning on using something to make the end of the wire/fish tape junction more of a "cone" shape in an effort to keep it from dragging on the insulation of the other wires. I'm going to have to either get "creative" or do a LOT of running back and forth, as I've mentioned before, this is a one man show.

I think that before I go to bed tonight I'll look up some new "choice words" to use just in case I run out of them early. :biggrin:

Worst case scenario is that I end up pulling the fish tape and start over from the "shop" end. If I'm forced to do that I'll also have to take some extra precautions as then I'd be pushing the tape towards a live panel. Not something I'd recommend anyone do! Don't try this at home kids!

-Ron
 
ScrapMetal said:
I think that before I go to bed tonight I'll look up some new "choice words" to use just in case I run out of them early. :biggrin:
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I can help you with that, I can string enough words together as long as a freight train

ScrapMetal said:
Worst case scenario is that I end up pulling the fish tape and start over from the "shop" end. If I'm forced to do that I'll also have to take some extra precautions as then I'd be pushing the tape towards a live panel. Not something I'd recommend anyone do! Don't try this at home kids!

-Ron
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At least you'll know when your through:biggrin::lmao::bitingnails:
 
If the tape will not go in one way, then try reversing it and going the other way. You know that the last 160 feet went well from the supply side, so if you can get past the first 20ish feet from the garage, you should be clear pushing. Just be real careful if you are working with "hot box" and start poking around in the dark from 180 feet away.

Another trick that is used is blowing in a string line, small balloon type end, some light thread and compressed air, not sure how well it works, but have heard it being done.

Walter
 
I've blown a few strings through conduit, and it does work. I'd rather use a shop vac to suck it through when I can though. One key difference: compressed air will also blow the string itself even if the wadding on the end stops. Once I blew about 500 feet of sting into a conduit not realizing it, and that it had stopped. Was a mess to salvage. I use a wire rat (or rabbit some places) to vac through. Of course, this won't work on conduit with wire already there, so this is for reference sake only. In a pinch, I have used a plastic bad such as a sandwich bag or parts bag instead of a rat. I just did a job last month (volunteer work) that we used a foam rat on ~350 feet of 4" conduit with 4 90° bends. That's max allowed for a single pull on power I believe. This was CAT 5E and RG-59 coax. We pulled only 2 wires at a time, and limited the pull force to about 25# to minimize possibility of damage.

Walter has an excellent point. Try from the other end, since it was clear pushing up to near the end. Just another caution about hot boxes....extra care, please.
 
Borrow some kids pet Ferret stick the fish tape up his butt a few inches and put a treat at the other end , mission accomplished :biggrin::lmao:
 
Well, it was doomed from the start. Maybe not "doomed" doom but I still got off to a poor start today. FWIW - The Lowe's I usually hit is right between my house and office so I rely on it quite a bit. Now, on my way into the "shop"/office today I stopped by Lowes to pick up a much shorter fish tape for the fishing expedition and also planned on picking up the wire I would need. This is where my supply of choice words started to run thin as Lowes does not stock #3 awg wire! They stock 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, etc. but no #3. Yes, I could have grabbed some #2 but I find it silly to pay another 20% on wire I don't really need. My electronics background also kicks in at this point with, "Do I really want one leg with a much different impedance?" Might get by with it but it certainly wouldn't help. So, no wire. :banghead:

Okay, I'll try and finish getting the tape through for the pull, at least I'll accomplish a bit of it today. (Remember, I'm already low on choice words :p) After a couple of hours of not even an inkling of success while trying every trick I can think of I decide it's time to go to "worst case scenario". I pull all the fish tape back out and swap ends. I place some non-conductive material in the live box that I'm now pushing towards so that it will deflect the end of the fish tape away from the breakers should it come through. Lube up the fish tape and start the process over out in the now non-air conditioned "shop" (Have I mentioned that I really, really, like air conditioning? :eek:). The feed is going just fine and I figure I should be home free as the tape sailed past whatever had been blocking it from the first direction. I'm getting close to the 160' mark again and sure enough, at 160', I hit a dead stop.

I'm down to the last couple of choice words so now I just repeat them over and over using a slightly different inflection each time.

This makes no sense at all. Back to trying to fish out the fish tape, now from the "live" end. Completely out of those choice words I'm just left with the growing feeling that I just "want to kill something" and I'm getting tired. Turns out I was also getting a bit careless. I was so focused on trying to manipulate the end of the small fish tape that I lost track of where the rest of it was flopping around. Of course it found a spot on the panel that was NOT connected to ground and all of a sudden roughly 6" of spring steel fish tape was bright red and kind of droopy. There was a nice little arc to bring it to my attention as well. I had just discovered a way to instantly anneal a section of fish tape. Again kids, don't try this at home! I might add that I was wearing gloves and standing on a rubber mat and very careful that I myself was not connected to ground.

Decided to give it a rest for the day and sleep on it a bit tonight. :thinking:

Now, let's see. I think the kid next door might have a ferret...

-Ron :biggrin:
 
One good argument for not working by yourself on electrical, especially. Glad you're OK. Maybe a glass/nylon tape next time?
 
Ron

Glad you are OK.

Do the hob on a day when the offices are closed, and turn off the power!

Much safer for everybody concerned.

Worst case scenerio, pull out one, or all wires, and attach a length of rope to them, then pull back in the right number of wires along with a spare length of string "just in case" I have even used plastic coated clothes line wire to pull wires with.

I would consider trying the vacuum cleaner small bag and twine next

Walter
 
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