Older installer told me to pre-drill every hole in a stud and it saved my butt on a 3 story job in Tucson
I've been running cable for about 2 years now, mostly residential stuff around Tucson. Back in March this older guy named Ray who's been doing it for like 25 years rode with me for a day. He watched me zap a 1 inch hole through a stud with my auger bit and just shook his head. He said 'kid, pre-drill the top plate before you feed the fish tape or you're gonna fight it every time.' I kind of blew him off at first because it adds like 20 seconds per hole. But on this 3 story house last month I had to run 6 lines from the basement panel up to the attic and every single top plate was doubled up with old framing. I started pre-drilling and the fish tape slid through like butter instead of getting hung up on splinters. Ray was right and I felt dumb for not listening sooner. Now I keep a 3/4 inch bit in my pouch just for that. Does anyone else pre-drill or do you just send it and deal with the snags?