New Job Advice - Cable Pulling

bigalpha

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Location
Tucson, AZ
So I'm picking up a temp. gig pulling cable for a telecom-type company. I don't know much about hard lines, so I'm looking for some advice or tips to help.

The lady at the temp agency said the position I'm in is going to be learning about differences in cables, lacing, termination. I know enough keywords to get me in trouble, but not much else.
 
Dishsoap when pulling through pipe / conduit with existing cabling = win


For the rest, that's going to be determined by the company what you're playing with - whether it's RG cable (like your TV cable; real easy to strip / terminate) or CAT cable (ethernet / data cables; can be a pain to terminate at times)..

You'll probably be doing mostly pulls and then get to terminate them when you see the other end again. You'll get fishtape, strippers, crimpers, bring some dishsoap and some gloves..
 
Apparently the project I'm going to be on is wiring up a call center, so I assume it's going to be phone/CAT cables.
 
Dishsoap when pulling through pipe / conduit with existing cabling = win


For the rest, that's going to be determined by the company what you're playing with - whether it's RG cable (like your TV cable; real easy to strip / terminate) or CAT cable (ethernet / data cables; can be a pain to terminate at times)..

You'll probably be doing mostly pulls and then get to terminate them when you see the other end again. You'll get fishtape, strippers, crimpers, bring some dishsoap and some gloves..

Elkhide or deerhide gloves will last somewhat longer than regular cow leather (probably because it is softer,) but have on pair on your hands and one in your pocket.

Chances are good you'll wear out the web in the thumb after a few days - I always did, when I had a big cable job to get done.

Dish soap will work better than most commercial cable lubes.

Cat-3/5/6 is a bit more of a pain to terminate than RG (more leads, gotta get them in the right order,) but it's way easier to pull (more flexible) - especially if you're pulling stranded UTP instead of solid (UTP = Unshielded Twisted Pair. Stranded tends to want special terminations, but they're different internally - they don't handle any different.)

The big fun comes when switching termination styles from voice to data - voice runs pairs from the inside out, while data tends to shuffle them around. Look up standard colour coding for RJ-11, RJ-14, and RJ-45 plugs and note them on a card - after a dozen or so, you won't need the card anymore (but you'll be glad you had it!) I always strip them about a half-inch or so longer than I need to to sort the pairs, get them in the right order, then clip them all straight - easier to do that way, I've found.

(I've done some RG/CATV work, but most of my cable pulled has been voice and data - and I've pulled that stuff by the mile!)
 
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