conduit and pulling string

What is the best way to get a hover to suck the string thru a conduit ? 😂🙈

or is there a better method ?

I tied some kitchen roll to one end of the string, and taped the hoover hose to the other end - worked a treat (this was through 9m of 20mm flexible conduit).

Edited by potterer (Fri 24-May-24 18:18:22)

What Potterer says .

thanks guys i will try attempt no.3 tomorrow .. 😂 🧵

or is there a better method ?

Tips that come to my mind …

That the ‘bung’ ought not to be too tight a fit.
That what it pulls behind ought to be as light as possible, string for instance, or cotton.
If the conduit allows, a ping pong ball would work well.
What else can you use which might have a bit more oomph in it ? A leaf blower ?

We used to use similar processes to get draw ropes through long lengths of pipe. A plastic bag tied on the end of the rope, and a compressor would work very well.

Curtain Wire. I bought a length off eBay and pushed it through.

If sucking, I would suggest Button Thread to a tissue, then pull through something stronger.

The "string" I used was some thin polyester cord off eBay. Blue of course!

Cheers!

its 25mm flexible corrugated conduit so about 19mm id.. Seen people on youtube use a plastic bag.

I tried yesterday with a Velcro tie and holding my hand over the nozzle and tube. It got about 2m in and stopped, also the vacuum cleaner was making a high pitched nose too.

its a comical thread but actually useful for the search engines and anyone needing to know - what not to use.

Before I retired we used to tie an 0BA nut to the string and send it on its way with a 100psi air line... got a mate with a compressor?

(Main precaution was to make sure nobody was in line with the exit- it could come out at a fair old lick )

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

or is there a better method ?

Tips that come to my mind …

That the ‘bung’ ought not to be too tight a fit.

tight enough to cause enough negative pressure - near vacuum to cause the suck effect. But the object shouldn't damage the Vacuum cleaner.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

That what it pulls behind ought to be as light as possible, string for instance, or cotton.

yup so it can be pulled by the negative pressure

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

If the conduit allows, a ping pong ball would work well.

i wonder if you can get different sized balls 🙈

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

What else can you use which might have a bit more oomph in it ? A leaf blower ?

that would be youtube material ...... 🙈😂🧵

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

We used to use similar processes to get draw ropes through long lengths of pipe. A plastic bag tied on the end of the rope, and a compressor would work very well.

You guys have a standardised set of equipment, that you repeatedly work with, but with a diy situation that varies.

In reply to a post by billford:

Before I retired we used to tie an 0BA nut to the string and send it on its way with a 100psi air line... got a mate with a compressor?

(Main precaution was to make sure nobody was in line with the exit- it could come out at a fair old lick )

that must have been fun doing.......... Given that i'm a walking disaster zone sometimes, a flying nut is not the best of ideas, Bill 🙈😂. I love it but i'm like i only want one disaster a month thank you..😂🙈🙈🙈

Fair enough

Must admit, it was some time ago... elfin safety would probably have a fit these days

In reply to a post by Taras:

its 25mm flexible corrugated conduit so about 19mm id.. Seen people on youtube use a plastic bag.

A bit of a tease not telling us how long it is.

One thing I would do is get the drawstring in before installing the conduit, with the conduit laid flat.

More seriously- you want something light with lots of air drag but that isn't big (or rigid) enough to get stuck. You could probably knock up a sort of parachute with a scrap of cloth and a few bits of (strong) thread and tie that to the end of the string. Should work I think.

Edited by billford (Sat 25-May-24 10:44:14)

its about 10 to 15m (stupidly thought it was 50m * original - see the other thread in this section 😂 MHC will laugh at this)

Yeah its going in the loft, over the loft insulation .. so i have to crawl down the length. I have two 10 meter pieces so i have to get a coupler, also I have to unbend the conduit ..........

* the reason i said 50m in another thread, was due to me buying 25m of coax cable(ebay) and it didn't even go around with loads left, which i expected. So I over estimated, given that experience 🙈😂

Edited by Taras (Sat 25-May-24 10:25:38)

Have you laid teh conduit in place?


If not, use a heavy nut and some light thread. From teh upstairs drop the conduit to teh ground and feed the nut in ... it will go to teh ground level. Pul some conduit up shaking as you go, the nut will continue down. Keep going until it appears.


For in-wall I have some large nuts - 50mm & 80mm A/F but too big for conduit!

OK, 10 to 15m in 25mm ribbed is going to be a challenge. I would have it back out if necessary and lay it out flat to get a drawstring in. No good doing it in situ. The more you try in situ, the more expensive the lesson that you can't do it!

I would be trying something like this https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/DRCAKL.html and bending the hook a little further to be sure of pulling it back. For the distance you are trying with ribbed conduit, I doubt vacuum will work, so it will have to be air pressure.

Its currently being de-kinked so no its not in place and that will be my plan B 😂

Gravity fed nut i think should work. I can just sit in the roof and feed the nut into the conduit and keep on pulling the conduit up whilst making sure the string is being thread in, if the Vacuum doesn't work.

Ah, didn't realise it hadn't been fitted... provided you can safely find some height, a vertical drop is definitely the best option.

To cover all eventualities, best to drop the weight in - with draw string attached - from the high end

Two other ideaa: on Ebay search for conduit snake also, I dont know whether the overhead fibre is all athe same - the type used hear was oval with a slight figure-of-8 construction. If you could scrounge a length of that - that should push through. I'm basing that on the offcut that the engineer left me for my "cable collection"

Also, if you have not yet joined/glued your flexible conduit together, then you could do each half seperately, rather than blow/push through the whole length.

My conduit, 25mm uPVC solid was just under 10 metres with four 90 degree bends.
https://ancient-mariner.co.uk/public/2023.08.01%20-%... - now currently using a Technicolor router mounted lower down.

Cheers!

Decided not to use the Vacuum again because of the resident cat whom is a bit scared of noises and whilst hes ok with the Vacuum i was unhappy creating a high pitched noise with the device again..

So I used a socket piece, as thats cylindrical and i could make sure it was longer than 19mm so in theory it shouldn't get stuck (but it did the first attempt).. As it was heavy enough you could locate it in the tube.

it took a couple of attempts because gravity wasn't doing its thing.

Thanks everyone.