Running Wire In A Tight Space
As part of my outdoor LED Christmas light project I had to run some wire through a hole in my garage attic, down the inside of the house soffit for about 16 feet, then up and over a 6-inch high chunk of wood, and another foot of soffit.
After trying to fish it with assorted poles and coat hangers, I spied a 10 foot length of PEX pipe left over from a renovation. I taped it to the end of my shop vac hose (which gave me the 16-feet), and stiffened the whole thing with broom poles. I loaded it with a long length of mason line with a loosely balled up bunch at the end.
I inserted the whole thing into the space, turned the vacuum on blow, and the string shot right to where I needed it. I’d have taken pictures, but I had to assemble it as I inserted it, and disassemble it as I pulled it out of the tight space.
Then I used the string to pull the wire.
A little later, I needed to get wire through a conduit from inside my garage to the garage attic. Loaded string into the vacuum hose, held it up to the conduit, blew the string through then pulled a wire after it.
Just thought it might come in handy for someone else at some point. Much easier to “push” the string with a vacuum, and then use the string to pull a wire.