That one customer who actually showed me something useful

I was out in Oakmont last Tuesday doing a standard cable drop for a new customer. Older guy, maybe 70, comes out to the truck and starts watching me run the line. Most people just stand there or ask how long it'll take. But he noticed I was fighting with a tight bend around a corner and asked if he could show me something. He pulls out this homemade plastic sleeve, just a cut piece of PVC with a slit down the side. Said he used to work for the phone company back in the 80s. I popped the line into that sleeve and it slid around the corner like nothing. I've been doing this gig for six years and never thought of that. Anyone else run into old timers with tricks like that? I've been making my own sleeves out of scrap conduit now.

2 comments

2 Comments

lewis.mila8d ago

That thing about the homemade PVC sleeve is genius. My grandpa had a similar trick, he was a mechanic for like 40 years and he showed me how to use an old brake line as a makeshift wire guide inside a wall. Said they used to do that all the time before all those fancy tools came out. It's wild how much stuff from back then is just as good now, you just have to know about it. I've got a coffee can full of random old parts he gave me, half of them I don't even know what they do but they've saved me more times than I can count.

emery2908d ago

And you know what, my buddy Mark had the exact same thing happen. His dad was a plumber for 30 years, and when Mark was wiring up his basement, his dad pulled out this old copper tubing. Used it to fish speaker wire through a finished ceiling. Worked like a charm, no fancy tools needed. That coffee can your grandpa gave you, @lewis.mila, that's gold. Those old parts are like secret weapons nobody talks about anymore.