Feeding Long wires through Conduit

[Preciousthings111]

I have a Mill in France that has a new Borehole, located circa 40 metres away, the Large size conduit (circa 5 inch) is already buried in the ground, I am going to fit a Borehole pump 20 metres down the hole, then run the wire through the conduit to the Mill. But how do I get the wire to feed 40 metres down the conduit?, I have read on the net that I could use curtain wire, but will this feed 40 metres without Kinking? I am reluctant to purchase a Quick cable set as they come in 10 metre lengths and I would need to buy 4 of them for a one off job. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Paul

[John]

Vacuum cleaner on the far end and suck a string through. Use the string to pull the cable through.

John

[Grumpy owd man]

Get some suspended ceiling hanging wire. Run out a 45m length [it is now like a giant slinky!!] fasten one end to a gate post or local peasant and fasten the other end in the chuck of a 'DECENT' mains electric drill. Pull the trigger until you get the wire straight [keep tension on the wire]. This will straighten all the kinks and twists out of the wire, but it may take a couple of mins to do so. Stop drill, allow torque on wire to go and Voila!!40m of dead straight wire. Then shove it through your orifice. Tie on new cable and a rope and pull your wire!

[gort]

Mouse and food. Tie light string to mouse, put mouse in one end of conduit and food at the other end. Wait!!

Dave

[Simon]

I used a vacuum cleaner to pull 20 metres of hairy green garden string through some 18mm garden hose - that worked OK. You would need a huge vacuum cleaner to get decent airflow through a 5" conduit. It's almost big enough for a small well-trained dog.

[John]

You could tie the string to a piece of foam / polystyrene / ball to help it along. Failing that, go for the dog.

John

[Andrew Mawson]

string

It should work with a biggish vac if you make up a ball of rags that are a loosish fit in the pipe.

AWEM

[Owain]

Tie a string to a ferret?

Owain

[Mike Barnes]

Hire half an hour of a professional drain inspector's time? He could just tie a bit of string to his camera and poke it through. If there's any possibility of a blockage or discontinuity in the conduit, this procedure has obvious advantages.

You might offer to hose down his reel before starting. :-)

[dom]

Hire a drain rod set. You can get a little wheel contraption that screws onto the head to help it through.

[Bob Eager]

40 metres of drain rods????

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

Do you know anyone with a *Ferret*? tie some string to its tail put a rabbit at the other end of the conduit and shove the *Ferret* down the house side of the conduit. ;-)

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

Damn,you beat me to it.

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

This is provided the water can drain out and dry out? Option 2 : tie a plastic ball with some string push the ball down the conduit as far as possible then make sure the string cannot get obstructed and start hosing water into the conduit,preferably with a good water pressure or pressure washer.

[Guy King]

The message from " [e-mail]" contains these words:

Ferret.

[Guy King]

The message from Owain contains these words:

Compo-rays!

[Guy King]

The message from "The3rd Earl Of Derby" contains these words:

Flood it and send a goldfish down.

[Preciousthings111]

I havent got a ferret! I havent got a Goldfish! I havent got a small dog! I cant use a pressure washer cos I aint got water yet!!!!!!!!! You would need a vacum cleaner with more vacum than whats in Tony B liars head, to suck 40 metres! Any sensible suggestions?

[Steve]

As a cable jointer on BT I've seen the way our gang lads get cables into ducts. If the duct is empty (in your case it is) they would tie a string to the handles of a plastic carrier bag, put the bag in the duct and then use an air compressor to blow the bag down the duct.

When it gets to the distant end, use the string to draw through a stronger rope, and then use the rope to pull in the cables.

Steve.

[Adrian Brentnall]

Depending on how deep the conduit is - don't suppose some kind of radio-controlled car / tank / whatever could be used to 'tow' a thin line (?string?) down the conduit - then use the thin string to pull something useful down behind it....?

When you do eventually solve it - make sure to leave a cord down there for the next poor person who is faced with the same problem.

You probably could do it with drain rods - used to have trouble with a communal drain along the back of 10 semi-detached houses - and it was 'just' possible to rod from one end to the other - but it meant going up & down the street scrounging drain rods - and the 'wheel thing' on the end was a definite must... It'll be no consolation - but the person who installed the conduit should have left you a draw cord.....

HTH Adrian Suffolk UK ======return email munged================= take out the papers and the trash to reply