One I found recently:
~~If you are trying to fish a long length of larger diameter (2+") conduit, and the tape binds and will NOT go any further, and you have room for this, go get a 200' piece of 1/2" ENT from the local supply place (big box store). It is cheaper than a 200' fish tape, flexible enough to wind past sweeps, yet stiff enough to be pushed through where a tape might bind or hang. Drilling a hole large enough for poly line through the side of the nose completes your impromptu tape. $35 worth of smurf pipe saved me from having to order a very expensive tape, and waiting a week to get it.
A few oldies-but-goodies:
~ Pull your longest runs first, so when you are left with shorter pieces on the reels/in the box, you can match them with short runs and not waste a lot of cable.
~ If you do not have room on your stands to put all of your reels, a 1" 10' stick of IMT ($15 or so, give or take a few) and some D-rings make a great wire rack on new-conn projects. Put it up high enough and people can walk under it w/o stepping all over the cable and w/o the reels being in a place where people walk. It's also a theft deterrent: harder to steal something they cant reach, and you get straighter, easier pulls in higher ceilings.
~ Use cable lube on larger bundles of cable, or when pulling cable overtop or beside existing cable. imo, it is MUCH easier to pull offset lengths at the end rather than pre-stagger them, especially when the cable is lubed.
~ If you are installing cable through any fire rated walls, you had better know every spec on them and have sheets handy for the fire marshal when he tries to wrongly fail you for code compliant work. grr...
Jack
