[TowerTalk] Wire lubricant for cable pull thru conduit

[Dick Dievendorff]

This is great advice, Grant!  I'm going to make a trip to the local
electrical supplier anyway for goop and I'll get some tape as well.

Your suggestion of using THHN rather than Romex is a good one. I can also
common up the ground path that way.  I don't need to operate three rotators
at the same time.  So I can run a pair per rotator plus a common ground, and
probably one CAT5 cable will be good for three rotators' worth of position
info.  I have a prop pitch and a K0XG ring rotator and I plan to add a
TicRing rotator as well.  All will be powered from the garage/shack.  The
run is only 100 feet, so probably #14 is plenty big enough.  Anti chafe
collars is not something I would have thought of, thank you!

I can assemble the gear, cut the wires to length and roll them up.  I could
perhaps put them onto spools of some sort.  I do think the outside area is
the right place to feed the wire in and I'll pull in the garage, it comes up
into a conduit box. No room in the garage for multiple spools.  

I'd love to have you come up, but I have to do my homework first.  How about
some time in March?  Weather could suck, though.

Any day of the week is fine, weekends are only academic to me...

73 de Dick, K6KR


-----Original Message-----
From: Grant Saviers [mailto:grants2 at pacbell.net] 
Sent: Monday, February 25, 2013 2:37 PM
To: Dick Dievendorff
Cc: towertalk at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Wire lubricant for cable pull thru conduit

Hi Dick,

What I've learned -

Measure the conduit first, I've been surprised by actual pull lengths
different than what looked right on paper. I use conduit measuring tape,
about 1/4" wide and flat. I have lots if you want some, or check with an
electrical supplier. If the conduit is straight with only end sweeps then
the calcs may be ok. This tape is also great for blowing thru the conduit as
a leader. I tie it to a crumpled up plastic grocery bag and use the shop vac
to blow, and away it goes! I pull a couple of small towels through before
pulling the cables to clean out whatever got there during construction and
reduce the condensation.

Pull everything at once. A rolling hitch around the bundle plus electrical
tape will work. Taper the end by staggering the cables and tape all the way
onto the free pull line. Or you could use the Kellums as a connection to a
"master" cable and tape on the rest. A taper helps at the conduit junctions
and sweeps. The ROMEX cables will make the job much harder, especially the
UF stuff for underground/water exposure. You might consider pulling 9 (or
whatever you actually need) conductors of stranded THHN in 12 or 14 gauge,
that will be much easier. HD stocks it in blu, blk, grn, wht & red and
sometimes org.

3/8" polypro works as the pulling rope and is cheap but use gloves. It may
put some twist into the cables as it untwists, so the pros use flat pull
webbing (what I use) or double braid rope. With the number and low flex of
your cables, two persons are a must and three will be better. 
One to pull, one to feed at the entry and apply lube, and a third to bring
up the cable end. With 100', I would stretch it all out unless
dirt/contamination is a problem. Then it will be necessary to feed off the
spools, definitely a third person in this case. Unwind the coils otherwise
the twists will make the pull a lot harder. An electricians reel stand is a
big help, but not having one I jury rig something up with C clamps and
pipe/conduit scraps.

I have used the TFE loaded lube, not sure it helped much over the usual
stuff, check HD. One quart should be enough and the feeder should glop it on
as the cables go in. Disposible gloves are nice. The feeder also needs to
center the cables into the conduit as they move, otherwise both the conduit
end and outer cable sheaths suffer. You should have the anti chafe collars
on the conduit hub end threads.

With the conduit load you plan, I think later pulls may be very difficult
but pull an extra 3/8 line and measuring tape with the pull. 
Are any of your cables spares? I stick in an extra CAT5, 4 conductor
control, RG6, and RG8 for future antenna or whatever projects.

If the date works, perhaps I can lend a hand and bring some stuff.

Grant KZ1W


On 2/25/2013 12:07 PM, Dick Dievendorff wrote:
> I’ve never run anything through conduit before.
>
>   
>
> I have a 100 foot long 3” conduit between house and tower, and in that 
> conduit I hope to run two ½” coax cables, three 3-wire ROMEX cables 
> carrying 24V for three different rotators, two 8-conductor (CAT-5 
> like) cables for an antenna switch, and three two-wire cables for the 
> rotator position indicators.  It’s a good-sized bundle.  There are no 
> 110 AC power lines in the bundle.
>
>
> I think I need to pull all this at once, with lubricant, and include a
> length of pulling rope or tape in the bundle for “next time”.   I believe
> that I want to pull these through all at once  in order to avoid risk 
> of damage to cables already installed.
>
>   
>
> What’s the right sort of lubricant for this?   What quantity should I buy?
>
>   
>
> I have some light nylon “fish” cord that I think I can pull through 
> with a small wadded up plastic bag and a shop-vac.  After I have that 
> pulled through, I assume I attach it to a hefty pull cord. What sort 
> of pull cord should I be shopping for?
>
>   
>
> Any tips on tying the “bundle” to the cord so that I have a smooth 
> thing to pull?  I have Kellums Grips suitable for ½” coax, but not for
anything else.
> Is this a “pulling eye”?
>
>   
>
> I presume I want one person on each end that can communicate, one to 
> feed a smoothed bundle in one end while the other pulls.
>
>   
>
> Should I tape the whole bundle together every few feet?
>
>   
>
> Thanks,
>
>   
>
> Dick, K6KR
>
>   
>
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