CodeStore.net comments on "Network Conduit In Place"

Reply from Louis Piano

Louis Piano — Thu, 16 Sep 2004 22:37:00 +0100

Looking at the pictures, I have to say that this does not look like conduit for electrical work. The right angles look to tight the kind for water and gas lines. Electrical conduit has "sweeping" right angles - very wide which allows for the pulling of wires. Also, the main trunk of the line should be real width conduit that then tappers off at the drop points. In my application the main trunk is 1 1/2 inch PVC that tappers down to 1/2 at the drop points. There is also a wire grease that I used when pulling the wires through. I also place junction boxes along what I figured were key point for future access or expansion. Another point, when assembling the conduit the joints should follow the direction of the wire pull. The PVC I used has one flared end for the connection that fits over the non flared end. Most time you will not get a get solid connection inside the PVC and if this is against the direction of the wire pull, the wire will bind against it. Another trick I learned from expericence is if possible pull the wire through has you assemble the line.

Good luck, looking good so far

Reply from Patrick

Patrick — Wed, 15 Sep 2004 16:03:00 +0100

I'd use dental floss instead of cotton: it has a much greater tensile strength.

Reply from Jake Howlett

Jake Howlett — Wed, 15 Sep 2004 16:00:00 +0100

Thanks guys. All good to know stuff. Hopefully, tomorrow, when I describe my requirements you'll be able to point me in the right direction...

Reply from Dragon Cotterill

Dragon Cotterill — Wed, 15 Sep 2004 12:47:00 +0100

Bends, shmends.

Got a fan? Then blow a piece of cotton through the pipe. It's light enough to get round any bends. Once it pops out the end, tie a piece of light string to it and pull it back. Then once that is through you can tape or tie your cable to it, and pull the whole lot back again.

We did this when wiring up a tropical fish house. The cable piping was buried underground (with about 10 tons of cement on top) it was afterwards that the "Doh" factor hit us. Actually we used a compressed gas cylinder to force the cotton through. I dread to think how many bends were in the pipes. But it all worked in the end.

Good luck!

Reply from Thomas Schulte

Thomas Schulte — Wed, 15 Sep 2004 08:52:00 +0100

Well we did a complete cabling troughout the new part of our house 2 years ago. As it was brand new and we did everything from plumbering to electric installation by ourselves we managed to build a complete structured Cat5+ Cat6 copper network that gives access to the network from every single room.

Each room (only the bath has none) has two fully patched network accesses so that we can run up to two computer devices or phones or mixed environment. The center where the servers reside has a wall mounted rack with 4 HE that is filled with one switch panel for 24 Units (needed some reserves) one 100Mbit Network Switch, the DSL Modem and one FW/Router Unit.

That fits my current needs and has some reserves for the future too.

What i'm planning right now for the old (1936 build and 1996 renovated, without networking gear, stupid me) part of the hause is using some of the power line adapters. A test installation worked great, better then WLAN does. Oh and Wlan is planned for the outside. Think i'll be doing this next year.

Reply from Tim

Tim — Wed, 15 Sep 2004 05:02:00 +0100

When I fitted up my home-net, I had the same problem with bends, but whipping the inspection covers off the bends allowed my to pull thru each section easily. I managed 2 network cables plus 5 6-core telephone wires (I have a digital PBX system). Howebver, I used 25mm conduit and wouldn't be surprised if you could get your 2 lots of 20mm conduit contents into one 25mm run!

As for infra-structure, my approach was to fit an twin-net router ADSL hub near to tel-point, then two single feeds to switched hubs - 1 downstairs and one upstairs, each with a further hub off the main one. Works fine. Bought wireless too, but got brain-damage trying to find out how to bridge it to the main network, so parked that one for a while. Looks like I can live without wireless, but would be nice.

Good luck +Tim+