Customer's orange tabby jumped right into my open tray while I was fusing at a house in Tempe, knocked the whole thing onto the carpet. Anyone else have to redo a whole termination because of a nosy pet?
I was running coax through a drop ceiling in an office building near Scranton and my main crimper just gave out on the third fitting. Ended up having to finish the run with my backup Klein that I keep in the glove box, but it added 20 minutes to the job. Anybody else have a tool fail on them out of nowhere like that?
I was up in Bellevue last month on a new build and forgot my trusty Klein crimper at home. Grabbed a cheapo off the shelf at Harbor Freight just to get through the day. First RG6 termination, the die didn't seat right and I mangled three connectors before I got one that looked half decent. The old Klein just feels solid and gives you that clean crunch every time. Anyone else have a cheap tool fail on a job and cost you time?
Grabbed a $12 no-name tape from the hardware store instead of dropping $40 on the Klein. Snapped clean in half halfway up the third floor conduit run and I had to fish it out with a magnet on a stick. Anyone else swear by the steel Klein tapes?
Honestly, for years I'd strip coax cable with a knife and fumble with compression fittings. Then a guy in Ohio showed me this $12 prep tool that strips and corks in one go, and it changed everything. I picked one up last Tuesday and ran 40 terminations without a single bad pull. Has anyone else used one of those all-in-one strippers, or do you still stick to the old way?
Last month I was troubleshooting a weak signal for a customer in Rochester. Turned out a ground wire had come loose from the bonding bar in their attic, probably from an animal or just age. Three years ago a retired installer told me to always double-check those connections because they can cause intermittent issues that drive you crazy. Has anyone else found loose grounds that looked fine at first glance?
Ran into a retired telecom guy at a job site last week. He pointed at the cheap 3-way splitter I was about to slap on and asked if I knew the dB loss on it. Caught me off guard. He laid out how a 7dB loss can kill signal on a long run and showed me his old pocket chart. Now I actually look at specs before grabbing a splitter. Anyone else ever get schooled by an old timer on something simple like this?
I noticed a bunch of new guys on a job in Seattle last month were just taping over their F-connectors with electrical tape... it always fails after a few rain storms. You gotta use the silicone-filled heat shrink tubes instead, they seal way tighter and last for years. Anyone else run into this on their installs?
I was reading through some old training manuals last night from a course I took back in 2019. There was a stat that blew my mind: over 70% of failed splices in fiber optics are caused by dust particles you can't even see with your naked eye. I always thought it was bad cleaves or crappy fusion splicers causing the issues. But apparently just a speck of dust smaller than a human hair can mess up your return loss by like 3 or 4 dB. I've been blaming my gear for years when it was probably just me being lazy about cleaning connectors before mating them. Now I'm going to go way harder on the isopropyl alcohol and lint free wipes before every single splice. Has anyone else had a similar realization about something small ruining your signal?
I was about 30 terminations into a 200-drop house when the ratchet mechanism just stopped catching on my Klein crimper. Had to borrow a rusty backup from the electrician on site to finish the day. Anyone else had a main tool fail at the worst possible time?
He handed me a piece of PVC pipe with a notch cut in it and said "use this as a guide, kid" and I cut my time on that job in half, has anyone else used something like that?
The homeowner had updated the wiring in the 70s and tangled it all up with coaxial runs, took me twice as long as a normal house because every outlet I checked had some weird voltage drop, has anyone else run into this kind of mess with older homes?
The studs were so hard that my impact just cammed out every screw, and the super watched me struggle for 20 minutes before handing me a rusty hand ratchet that worked perfectly, has anyone else run into old buildings where you just have to slow way down?
I dropped $400 on a fancy Fluke toner and probe set last month after my cheap $30 one kept giving me false readings on a big commercial job downtown. It literally saved my butt when I had to trace 50 runs in a ceiling that was packed with old wires and some new ones mixed in. But now I'm looking at my bank account wondering if I shoulda just stuck with my old one and dealt with the hassle. The signal pickup is way better though, no joke, I found a run in 2 minutes that woulda taken me 20 minutes before. On the flip side, my coworker swears by his $80 Klein setup and says I overpaid for a name. Anyone else drop serious cash on a tool and feel like it either paid off or was a total waste?
I was out on a service call yesterday at an old apartment complex over on the west side. Lady says her internet keeps dropping. I'm checking the line and she's on the phone with someone, says "just toner him up and he'll figure it out." It hit me that I've been using my toner wrong for years. I knew it could find wires but I never used it to trace out a bad splice before. Tried it on a line I was about to replace and found the spot right away. Saved me an hour of pulling new line. Any of you guys use toner as a diagnostic tool or just for identifying cables?
Old guy in Phoenix last week watched me work. He said "you're wasting time making those ends look pretty inside the wall." It hit different because he was right. I was spending 5 extra minutes per drop on neatness that nobody sees. Now I just focus on the connection being solid. Anyone else had a customer teach them something?
Back in 2019 I had a job at a complicated apartment complex near the I-17 in Phoenix. The walls were all concrete block and the attic was barely two feet high. I spent 6 hours trying to fish a single coax line through a firestop that had steel studs and plywood blocking every path. After that job I bought a good flex bit set and started asking building managers about their construction type first thing. Has anyone else run into those weird firestop blocks that just ruin your whole day?
I dropped $250 on a Klein crimper last year for the coax work I do around here in Phoenix. Thing feels solid, no complaints. But my buddy uses a cheap one he got online for $40 and says his connections pass signal just fine. I'm wondering if I wasted my money or if the Klein will actually hold up longer. Anyone have a cheap crimper fail on them after a few months?
Was pulling through a 2 inch conduit under a new strip mall, about 80 feet of line. The tape went taut, then just broke clean in half. Shoved my hand back into the pull box and got fiberglass splinters so bad I had to go to urgent care. Switched to steel tape the next week. Anyone else ditch fiberglass after a bad break?
The homeowner didn't mention the smell at all when I showed up, and it took me 45 minutes to track down where it was coming from. Has anyone else dealt with animal carcasses in attics during cable runs?
Was swapping out a bad drop for an old lady in a condo complex near Tampa last Tuesday. She had a whole shelf of those long tube lights right above her TV. Her picture was cutting out every 15 minutes, and I almost blamed the tap until I looked up and saw the ballast buzzing 2 inches from the line. Moved the cable over a foot and ran a new piece, and now it's solid. Has anyone else run into weird interference from something that's not even supposed to be a problem?
I figured I'd save some cash and bought a cheap toner probe from Amazon instead of my usual Fluke. Hooked it up to what I thought was a dead coax line but it was actually sharing a conduit with a live 240v circuit at an apartment complex in Phoenix. Let's just say my eyebrows are a little singed now so has anyone else had a cheap tool do something completely unexpected?
After 5 years of doing this, I realized I was stripping too much jacket off before crimping. A guy I worked with in Denver last week showed me his method - leave about 1/4 inch of jacket on the connector and it holds way tighter. Has anyone else had that lightbulb moment on something so basic?
Was installing a new coax drop in a 1970s house in Phoenix and the old panel was so rusted I accidentally shorted something. $150 out of my pocket to get an electrician out there to fix it. How do you guys handle old electrical panels that look like they came from a salvage yard?
I was up in a crawlspace last week redoing old coax runs from 2014, and the before was a tangled mess of dusty cables with no labels. The after was my tidy work with Velcro ties and a clear junction box, which took me about three hours to straighten out. Has anyone else noticed how customers never see what their attic looks like until it's too late?