>Just lost a bid a government fiber optic install job
>Can't sleep, I have 3 more years to be eligible for an RCCD
>Fricking boomers with their connections, networking, and 'experience to get experience'
>There fricking Manufacturer Line Card affiliations where they can get 20-40% off the market price
I just need to get better at pulling cable, specifically predicting all the bullshit I will have to come across. A firewall here, a conduit to small there and now I have to call and engineer to assess how the frick I am going to core through pre-cast concrete.
I need a way to hone my skills without fricking up my house (or someone else's house). Skills for defeating old decrepit buildings with hellish wiring. DIY tools for defeating the crawl space. For terminating the fiber enclosures fast.
tl;dr
What are some DIY obstacle courses, tools, and/or activities that help you get good/efficient at your trade?
Dear god, why is residential wiring such a fricking mess all the time?
guess what commercial is just as bad after enough years
As with any part of the industry, the only training is actually doing. Take whatever cable pulling jobs you can and learn from that shit. You will frick up and make mistakes, but so does literally everyone. Setbacks are not a reflection of your skills either. If it was a government contract you probably just got underbidded because they always just go with the cheapest option.
last point best point. government jobs always go to either the cheapest guy or a buddy of someone. the qualifications and everything else has nothing to do with any of it nor does your skill level. If you look at a lot of government contracts, they end up going to people or companies who have never even stepped foot inside the trade the contract is for before.
>conduit
It never works unless you put it I. And there's still a pull rope in it, even then it might be a fricking b***h if you subbed it out.
If it's that big spec out the conduit as a separate line.
You can get a chink mass fusion machine for cheap and it's probably fine. Certainly for short ranges in an office building. The cable is also cheap as hell. Go with plp/coyote 1u FDP for most deployments. Their trays are the best to work in.
Unle
> conduit
>It never works unless you put it I. And there's still a pull rope in it, even then it might be a fricking b***h if you subbed it out.
For short distances (~30m) You can push fiber glass rods or fish tape through it, no need for a pull rope. Also, pic related is teh shit for pulling cable through conduit. What I do hate is unfastened conduit behind dry wall, though. Hard to impossible to push anything through that floppy shit.
> You can get a chink mass fusion machine for cheap and it's probably fine. Certainly for short ranges in an office building.
Been toying with that idea myself. Cheap is still about a thousand europoor fiatskis, but they are tempting indeed. Regular fusion splicers start at around 4k around here. I haven't done any fiber so far, but gotta start somewhere. Sooner or later I'll be faced with the need to run something non-conductive to run between buildings...
Customer always points to a 2" conduit and says it goes to the other room
I always fish I lt with my buddy and it's always just open in the crawlspace 2' away
> I always fish I lt with my buddy and it's always just open in the crawlspace 2' away
Not thrilled, but I'd be happy to have a crawl space to run it through. Here in Europoorland most walls are plastered brick and most people are too cheap to have somebody run conduit before plastering or too dense to run conduit it if they do the electrical wiring themselves. Consequently, all I've got to work with is the occasional unused chimney because nobody wants the trouble, expense and dirt of knocking off the plaster or cutting slits and re-plastering/painting for a single fricking Cat.6a outlet. They don't want ugly, ugly cables run atop the wall either. Which is why I tend not to do a whole lot of residential work. It's a bloody pain in the ass, usually low volume and there are way more complaints because in commercial work you your onsite contact is the boss himself or Buddy the Janitor - not Karen the entitled stay-at-home mum.
one of the best fishing tools I carry is a 5ft string of paracord taped to a 5ft length of chain. when you're in the attic and you drill down a top plate, drop the chain in the hole and tie the rope to a 2x4 (or your wire). head down to the opening in the drywall and use one of those magnets at the end of a thick copper wire to feel around for your chain in the wall. much more reliable than a fish tape. glow rods are underrated too. sounds to me though that your problem has more to do with selling jobs and networking
> +5 Blessed Chain of Drop Detection
Neat. I'm stealing that idea for the next time I have to deal with new installation in
drywall.
>baling twine
What's that for? Surely not pulling, right? Or is it the anchor cable for the tennis ball? I've read about some cable pullers throwing a tennis ball attached to string to the next removed panel in a drop ceiling to quickly get a pull line across the whole span.
Speaking of reading: Cabling: The Complete Guide to Copper and Fiber-Optic Networking by Bill Woodward is not half bad as a starting point. It's a bit dated, but it covers both copper and optical in pretty good detail.
> electrical tape
For fastening fiber, I presume? I prefer velcro cable ties for that - no sticky residue.
> thicc cable ties
For fastening conduit? Doesn't sound like something one would use to fasten fiber...
> To terminate fiber quickly and easily, get a fusion splicer and buy a ton of pre-terminated pigtails from something like fs.com.
Sounds sensible enough.
> Start doing any and all jobs you can.
If only it was that easy to find jobs that need done (and customers willing to pay - often they balk when they learn that having someone do their wiring costs money). I fervently hate the customer acquisition part of business.
holy frick. What kind of magic is this? i am but a simple caveman. your world frightens & confuses me.
> paracord
> chain
> taped
Why tape when you can tie?
It's easier
I think you're right. I can't remember exactly because I haven't replaced one in so long but I think you'd get away with tying a single knot then taping over the connection real good with some super 88. Tape alone would not hold up to the abuse you're going to give it. The main idea though is to keep it as thin and smooth as possible to avoid snags
Yeah, tape for mere snag protection (rather than holding the chain) sounds more like it.
You can't tie anything that can grip the smooth plastic of the cable.
Put.three half hitches down the cable and tape it up, and smooth.out the tip so it will transition around a corner.
Holy shit! Did you learn this from an old hand?
My first journeyman told me they used jack chain to fish down interior walls, but I never got it to work. That was back before neodymium were everywhere... Thanks! I'm happier than a nog at Kwanzaa!
YT8 DYY
Whenever I've run fiber:
>Armored single mode
>12 strand minimum
>SDS hammer drill with long-ass masonry bit
>fiberglass pushrod
>baling twine
>electrical tape
>thicc cable ties
To terminate fiber quickly and easily, get a fusion splicer and buy a ton of pre-terminated pigtails from something like fs.com.
Start doing any and all jobs you can. That's how you get those connections and reputation. It's also how you get better at doing the job and at anticipating how long a job will take/ obstacles you may run into.
you can do this without a licence? all i know about fiber is that it may or may not be by your house outside and that you have to put it in a box(?) outside and then when its inside you have to splice it again to your tv or router or whatever with some weird machine.
This is only indoor fiber runs. Outdoor fiber (like your ISP) is an entirely different thing, with different cables, outdoor splice cases, working on telephone poles or in the dirt, etc.
I generally pull the cable itself. Steel armoured fiber is a bit too heavy, stiff, and not smooth enough to use a pull line for any length of distance. The baling twine is just for pulling the cable for short distances through holes in walls/floors/etc, until you can grab the armoured cable with your hands.
Velcro doesn't grip the exterior of the cable. If you apply any force to the pull line/rod, velcro won't hold. Electrical tape stretches when you apply it, and can really take some abuse before it lets go.
Yes, the cable ties are to fasten the fiber to the ceiling. Remember, this cable has a steel armoured exterior. I wouldn't recommend running loose fiber or patch-cable type fiber for any length, as it's just too susceptible to accidental damage.
Unfortunately, I don't have any advice for you about getting customers. All my fiber running has been done in conjunction with my job as a network engineer.
> I generally pull the cable itself. Steel armoured fiber is a bit too heavy, stiff, and not smooth enough to use a pull line for any length of distance.
Not even pic related? I use that screwed into the threaded end of fiberglass rods or the strong, braided type of fish tape that comes in a drum with handle for pulling CAT7. I'd imagine it holding thiccer grades of armored fiber cable (12E9 and larger, say) just fine...
As for velcro: misunderstanding, I don't use it for pulling - just for bundling cable.
>pic related
>no pic
Apologies, I didn't mean to build quite as much suspense. Also,
is the braided fish tape I was referring to.
The actual cable pulling and fiber pary doesn't have e a governing body. There's recommended specs for fiber loss and reflection of your splicing and ways to characterize the fiber to guarantee your customers stuff works with it, that's generally an added service.
The actual hard work part, digging a trench for 2" conduit and putting pull boxes in and whatever other shit, that's normal construction shit and you need to do whatever local authorities say, especially wrt to working in the road or getting space in easements.
That isn’t why you lost the bid. You can’t blame connections either. 10-1 you fricked something up on your bid that auto disqualified you. Beyond that, you don’t really seem like you have the experience or past work for gov contract jobs.
Did you see who got the bid? Sometimes the pitch or bid is publicly available for law and transparency. Check out your competition.
>That isn’t why you lost the bid. You can’t blame connections either. 10-1 you fricked something up on your bid that auto disqualified you.
>t. never bidded / quoted in his life
Man I'm glad I don't have to do that shit anymore lol
> Man I'm glad I don't have to do that shit anymore lol
Bid on public tenders or run cable?
Run cable, pull wire, hang conduit, install stupid shit in stupid locations "just because", have to deal with construction trannies, have to deal with jobsite dick waving contests
What are you doing nowadays?
Controls engineering/maintenance/lifecycle support, mostly in food grade manufacturing facilities. Air conditioning is awesome
>What are some DIY obstacle courses, tools, and/or activities that help you get good/efficient at your trade?
go to any hospital and get a job as a cable crew puller. They are desperate for workers and you will have to pull delicate fiber/cat6 risers through the most horrific shit imaginable on a daily basis
t. telecom wiring
What is best priced OTDR for premise applications? (under 1 kilometer) for singlemode and multimode?
Never useful a cheap one. You can get an exfo axs-100 for not tooo bad on ebay. That's only single mode I think.
There's all sorts of chink ones now and they're probably serviceable.
If you're certifying stuff you'll have a had time if you're not using Exmoor viaci I think
I don't pull the fiber I just splice it.
They have people who don't speak english and can't follow directions who pull it.
>t. soft hands
I used to work on the fibre roll-out in New Zealand. It was pretty good at the start but then some jeets got into the local contractors office and only hired other jeets to do the field work. And man, the drop in quality was WILD. Used to be that almost every tray you would go to put a fresh connection into would have a bunch of really nicely laid out splices, installs would mostly be well done, very few fault call outs. After the jeets got in you would open a cabinet tray lid and scream internally as a dozen fibres pop out at your face in a fricking birds nest, then the managers would seethe at you if you break one of them while trying to wrangle the shitshow back into the tray. Metres of conduit would be held on with one single saddle at the top, non stainless fixings leaking rust stains down the outside of brand new white plaster walls, etc...
Also a classic job I remember.
>jeet does original install
>runs unarmoured cable under the floor
>lots of guys would do this and imo it was probably fine so long as you pinned it up over joists or whatever so it's out of the way
>jeets of course never do that
>unarmoured cable laid straight along the mud, goes right next to access hatch
>jeet apparently sees something leaking under the floor and lets the customer know
>customer calls out plumber, plumber open the access hatch, steps on the fibre, breaks it
>plumber shitting himself because it's a common rumour that it costs bazillion of dollars to fix fibre connections
>QA guy goes out, tells customer it's fine, was installed wrong and they will get someone out to do it properly
>THE SAME jeet gets sent out to do it properly
>does THE SAME THING again
>tells customer it was done properly
>customer sus, opens access hatch to check it out himself, steps on the fibre, breaks it
>customer apocalyptic seething (fair)
>they send out old British telco dude to fix it
>does it properly
>shows me the picture he took of two yellow fibres laying in the mud side by side
Nuke India
All the fricking pajeet telconshit is fricking hilarious. They will twist copper pairs together and slide paper splices over them.. without soldering them. Install the heatshrink case wrong. All done. Good job. Drink some water. Upload this amazing proud work to youtube. It's so good.
The fiber shit is even crazier. Just doing it on the side of the road, holding a bundle of fibers with one foot and stripping another with their hands. Fusion machine on their lap.
Wtf man.