c/cable-installers

Hit my 500th drop ceiling this week and it was a weird one

I mean, I've been doing commercial installs for 8 years now, and the 500th job just happened to be a tiny closet in a dental office, not even 40 feet of cable. The last ceiling tile was a perfect fit first try, which never happens with those grid braces. Has anyone else tracked a random milestone like that, or am I just weird about counting?

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barbara_baker57•1d ago

Leaving a fish tape in a wall taught me to label everything

Last month I ran a new coax line in a three story apartment building near Austin and left my 25 foot fish tape inside the wall after a rough pull. I only realized it when I went to pack up and the reel was missing from my van. Now I tape a bright orange flag to every tool I bring inside a job, even the small stuff like my 9/16 wrench. The customer never knew about it, but that $40 lesson made me count my gear twice before I close a panel. Has anyone else lost a tool behind drywall, and did you ever get it back?

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bennett.noah•4d ago

Hit 1,000 drops today, surprised myself with how routine it felt

I've been running cable for 8 years in the Charlotte area and today I finished install number 1,000. Sobering number when I did the math from my old work logs. I always figured that milestone would feel like a big deal, maybe a reason to step back or celebrate. Instead it just felt like another Tuesday, same crawlspace, same stubborn coax line. That made me realize the job stopped being hard work and turned into muscle memory, which honestly scares me a little. Has anyone else hit a round number and felt nothing? I'd like to know if that's normal or if I need to shake things up.

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xena_fox39•4d ago

Hit 500 jobs this week, almost missed the red flag

I hit my 500th install on Tuesday over in Medford, and I really thought that was just a number to be proud of... then I looked back at my logs and noticed 15 of my last 60 jobs had the same drop amp model failing after about a year. That is way too high a failure rate for me to keep ignoring, especially when the customer calls start stacking up. I'm wondering if anyone else tracks their repeat callbacks by equipment brand, or am I just being paranoid about a coincidence? Has anyone else seen a specific part start failing right around the same time on the jobs they did earlier?

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sage_dixon•7d ago

The torque spec on my crimper manual was off by 15%, checked it against the factory gauge

Was down in Waco last month redoing a run of 500MCM and my crimps were coming out loose, pulled the manual and it said 12 ft-lbs but the calibration sheet on my tester said 10.2, that little difference was the whole problem. Anyone else ever catch their tools lying to them like this or am I just unlucky with the batch I got?

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nathana48•8d ago

TIL the average pull box has a max fill ratio of 40%, guess who learned the hard way

I mean I always knew you weren't supposed to stuff a pull box like a turkey, but I never actually looked up the number. Last month we had a service call over on Maple Ave where a guy had crammed like 14 cables into a 12x12 box and it was shorting out every time it rained. When I pulled up the spec sheet on my phone, it said 40% fill max, and I've been doing this for 8 years without ever checking. How do you guys actually plan fill ratios on tight jobs, or do you just eyeball it and hope for the best?

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lunakim•10d ago

Hit my 500th attic pull yesterday, still shocked my back works

I've been tracking every install since January and 500 attic runs in 8 months is way more than I figured. Climbed into one in Fresno with 140 degree heat and thought, how did I do this 499 times without quitting... anyone else ever actually count their total and get weirded out?

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lily_singh2•10d ago

Just hit my 10,000th drop and it got me thinking

Been doing residential installs in Phoenix for about 4 years now and my truck rolled over 10,000 jobs this morning. That number hit different when I realized it meant 10,000 attics, 10,000 crawl spaces, and roughly 40,000 feet of coax and cat6 pulled. Started wondering if anyone else keeps a count, or if you just let it blur together after a while. Do you guys track jobs or does the number not really matter once you're in the rhythm?

c/cable-installers

Hit my 500th drop ceiling this week and it was a weird one

Leaving a fish tape in a wall taught me to label everything

Hit 1,000 drops today, surprised myself with how routine it felt

Hit 500 jobs this week, almost missed the red flag

The torque spec on my crimper manual was off by 15%, checked it against the factory gauge

TIL the average pull box has a max fill ratio of 40%, guess who learned the hard way

Hit my 500th attic pull yesterday, still shocked my back works

Just hit my 10,000th drop and it got me thinking

Old timer's trick about dead zones actually worked on me

Old-school fish tape vs modern glow rods, fish tape still wins

That $400 cable toner with GPS tracking was a total waste

A customer's box quote changed how I handle attic pulls

Raccoon chewed through my drop line in Duluth at 6am

That one crawl space from hell finally beat me, then I beat it

That master tech from Charlotte gave me bad advice on a hard drop

Took me 6 months to realize my compression fittings were backwards

Did the FCC really change the ground block rule in 2022?

That $40 Klein coax stripper saved my butt after three days of bad terminations

Warning: that underground locator line can lie to you in the worst way

Still wrap my service drops with electrical tape from 2010, but the new compression fittings changed my whole game in Phoenix last month

That $400 crimper from 2008 finally gave up, and I sort of miss it

Swapped my old coax stripper for a cheap rotary one, huge difference

Vent: Drove 2 hours for a 'quick' install and the customer hid the panel behind their new gym equipment

Splice case from last Tuesday gave me a real scare in Bakersfield

Old crimper trick from my first boss still saves my butt on bad connectors