c/cable-installers

Hit 10,000 feet of cable pulled this week and it hit different

Ngl, I didn't think much of it until I did the math in the truck yesterday. 10,000 feet in 5 days on a new build near Columbus. Just a solid grind that reminded me why I still love this trade. Anyone else track their weekly totals or am I just bored?

Wasted $200 on a bad crimping tool, learn from my mistake

I bought a cheap crimping tool off Amazon for a big job last month and it kept crushing the connectors instead of crimping them. Had to redo half a dozen terminations before I finally gave up and borrowed a friend's Klein. Anyone else had bad luck with those no-name tools?

PSA: Stop using cheap RG6 from the big box stores on long runs

The homeowner who watched me like a hawk the whole time

Had a job in Arlington last week where this guy stood 3 feet behind me for 6 hours straight while I ran coax through his attic. Kept saying "you sure that's grounded right" every 20 minutes. Anyone else ever get clients who won't just leave you alone?

Last Wednesday was the smoothest install day I've had in months

I finally learned why that old timers trick with coax actually matters

Last week in Dayton I was wrestling with a signal drop on a three year old run and remembered a guy back in 2019 who swore by using compression connectors instead of crimp ones. Spent 20 minutes re-terminating both ends with compression fittings and the signal came right back to where it should be. Has anyone else had a simple swap like that save a whole job?

Went back to an old customer's house I first wired in 2009

Ngl I was driving through my old route and stopped at a house I remembered doing the whole cable run for back in 2009. The guy still had the same TV stand but now there's like 4 streaming boxes and a gaming console hooked up. What got me was how clean my original work looked compared to the tangled mess of HDMI cords he added himself. Back then we just ran a single coax line and maybe a phone jack. Now you need a whole ethernet backbone just to keep up. Has anyone else gone back to old jobs and seen how much the setup changed over like a decade or more?

That old guy who taught me about grounding rods back in 2012

Met this retired installer named Pete while running a drop in some rural area near Bakersfield. He saw me struggling with a tough ground and walked over, didn't say much, just showed me how to drive a rod without bending it by wetting the dirt first. He told me he'd been doing it since the 80s and never had a single lightning claim on his jobs. It stuck with me because he wasn't trying to show off, just passing along something practical. I still think about that moment whenever I'm fighting a rocky patch of soil. Has anyone else picked up a trick from an older installer that you still use?

Tried that fancy cable toner from Harbor Freight and it surprised me

Picked up the $20 Cen-Tech toner probe kit on a whim because my Fluke died on me mid-job last Tuesday in Austin. Figured it would be junk, but it actually caught a dead pair in a bundle of 25 cat6 runs where I was certain the issue was a bad keystone. Am I crazy for thinking this might be a decent backup for the van?

That one customer who actually watched me work the whole time

Had a job last month in a little town outside Tulsa where this old guy pulled up a chair and just watched me terminate coax for 45 minutes without saying a word, then at the end he just nodded and said "you take your time, that's good." Anybody else get those quiet customers who somehow make your whole day better just by paying attention?

Rant: That whole week in June where every termination went wrong

I had a streak last June in Columbus where I blew through 12 terminations in 3 days and every single one had to be redone. One customer's cat literally unplugged the coax while I was testing signal strength on the other end. Then a new guy on my crew used the wrong compression fitting on a RG6 run and I had to drive 40 minutes back to fix it myself. Anybody else have a week where the universe just decided you weren't finishing on time?

Stood by a bucket truck with a 20-year guy who said stick terminals are better than compression fittings

He showed me how his area had way less callbacks using a good crimp and heat shrink vs those expensive compression blocks. I always thought compression was the gold standard but now I'm grabbing a new crimper next supply run. Any other old-school tricks I should look into?

TIL that two year old fiber cable can snap if you look at it wrong

Was pulling a new drop through a crawlspace in an old apartment building in Tulsa last Thursday and the jacket just split open for no reason, any tips on handling aged fiber without having to re-run the whole thing?

That $40 cable toner saved me hours on an attic run last Tuesday

I was tracing a dead line through a finished attic in a 1970s house and my old beeper just wouldn't pick up the signal. Spent $40 on a basic Amazon toner with a probe and it found the break in about 10 minutes, behind some blown-in insulation near a junction box. Beats the $150 the shop quoted for a rental and I can use it again next week. Has anyone else had luck with the cheap toners or do they crap out after a few uses?

I finally sat down with a master installer who had 40 years in

Last week I was running a job in a nasty crawlspace and the homeowner's dad came out to watch. Turns out he was a cable installer back in the 80s and 90s before everything went digital. He told me he never used a ton of tie wraps because he said they make troubleshooting a nightmare later on. He showed me how he used to run coax through walls with just a few loops and let the cable hang natural. It hit different because I've been using 50 ties per run thinking it looked professional. He said the real pros leave room for movement and future pulls. Has anyone else learned old school tricks that actually beat the modern way of doing things?

That new fiber termination kit I bought off Amazon stripped after only 8 drops

I picked up one of those cheaper kits from a seller called CableProTools last month and by the 8th drop on a new build in Aurora it was already leaving jagged cuts on the cleaver, has anyone else had luck with a specific brand that holds up past a dozen terminations?

Old timer pulled me aside after I ran 200 feet of coax through a drop ceiling without any support clips

He told me 'that cable is gonna sag right into a sprinkler head and short out in six months.' I spent the next day pulling it all back and strapping it every 4 feet, which was a pain but got me thinking about how many other jobs I've rushed. Anybody else had to redo a whole run because of one comment from a guy who's been doing this since the 80's?

Just heard a foreman say that half of his guys don't know how to properly terminate a coax connector

He was telling me that after 20 years in the field in Chicago, he still sees people leaving braid strands loose and then wondering why signal drops on rainy days, so what's the one connector mistake you see new guys make the most?

Had to pick between a crimper and a compression tool for my last install

I was setting up a new build in Austin last week and ran into a wall with some RG6 connectors. The old crimper I had kept slipping on the smaller cable ends, so I grabbed a compression tool from the truck instead. Man, what a difference... the connection felt solid and I didn't have to redo a single end. That ended up saving me about 20 minutes on a job that was already running tight. Has anyone else switched to compression fittings and never looked back?

Overheard a homeowner say cable installers are just 'wire hangers'

I was running a line in a new subdivision last week and heard a guy tell his friend we just clip wires and leave. Made me think about how nobody sees the hours of planning and drilling we do behind drywall. Anyone else get comments like that and just shake your head?

Rant: "Just fish it through" is the worst advice you can get on a rewire

Was on a job last month in an old house in St. Louis, trying to run new Cat6 through a finished wall. Every guy on the forum says just fish it, it's easy. Tried for 45 minutes, hit fire block, hit insulation, got the tape stuck. Finally said screw it, cut a 4 inch hole behind the baseboard, pulled a glow rod through the crawl space, and had it done in 10 minutes. Why do we always try the hard way first? Anyone else just start cutting access holes earlier now?

Crimped vs compression fittings on coax, found a clear winner

I've been doing cable installs for about 5 years now, mostly residential stuff in the suburbs around Nashville. For the longest time I just used crimp connectors because that's what I learned on and they're cheap. But after 3 service callbacks in one month where the signal kept dropping, I got fed up and switched to compression fittings. The difference was night and day. The compression connectors hold way tighter, no loose braid issues, and I haven't had a single callback since making the switch 6 months ago. The tools cost a bit more upfront, maybe $80 for a good compression kit, but it's paid for itself in saved time. Anyone else made this swap and noticed a big drop in repeat visits?

Stop using mesh connectors on outdoor drops, they always fail

I've been doing cable installs for about 8 years now, mostly in the Portland area. Last month I got called back to a job I did only 6 months prior because the customer lost signal after a storm. I climbed up and found the mesh connector I used was completely corroded inside, even though I wrapped it with tape. These things just don't hold up to rain and temperature swings, plain and simple. I switched to using compression connectors on every outdoor drop back in 2021 and I've had zero callbacks since. Why do guys keep using mesh when they know the signal degrades in a year or less? Has anyone else noticed this pattern with new installers on the crew?

Appreciation post for the foreman who told me to stop using my drill as a hammer

Was out on a job in Omaha last month and kept struggling with a stubborn coax connector. My foreman finally just said "put that drill down and use your fingers like a human." Turns out I was overtightening every connector and causing signal loss. Has anyone else had a simple habit that a coworker called out for being totally wrong?

Dropped $400 on a Fusion splicer from Facebook Marketplace and it actually worked