33klfan Posted March 4, 2007 Share Posted March 4, 2007 I am trying to fish speaker wire for the surrounds up the wall, and i can't get it. I only have a 3/8" hole in the drywall and through the subfloor, but i can't see the wire at all. I don't want to cut a big hole in the drywall but i'm afraid that is next. I am using a steel fishing line and i can't get it to go to either hole. I know it's like trying to find a needle in a haystack, but i don't know what to do. I don't know how people do this for a profession. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InVeNtOr Posted March 4, 2007 Share Posted March 4, 2007 okay, not too sure about how the house is built or where you are running it from, but here is an idea. take the wire and wrap it with a paper clip, several times if you have to. then take a good high powered magnet. see where i am going with this one...when you put the wire in the hole, place the magnet over it, the pull the wire with the magnet. just an idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Speedball Posted March 4, 2007 Share Posted March 4, 2007 fish tapes work very well and are not very expensive at your local home store, might also use it again in the future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
33klfan Posted March 4, 2007 Author Share Posted March 4, 2007 Well, i fixed the problem. I was told about that magnet trick but i tried using that along with the steel fishing line, and i don't think it was strong enough. It was a wreath holder that you put on a metal door, which is strong, but not strong enough. I don't know what you would use to go through 1/2" drywall with plaster. However, luckily our extra room is behind that wall, so the only thing we could think of was cutting a small hole near the bottom of the wall. We put the fish line through the hole drilled in the wall where the speaker would be, then i could find it and i stuck it through the hole down through the floor, taped the wire to the line and pulled it up. It worked pretty slick. Being a carpenter, it won't be too much to fix those holes, plus they are covered up anyhow. We figured it was better to do that in that room than the living room. After that, it's a pretty clean installation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrWho Posted March 4, 2007 Share Posted March 4, 2007 The trick to fishtape is learning how to bend the leading end so that it ends up bending in the direction you want it to go. If you're having trouble getting it to go around corners, then start twisting it all crazy style while feeding the wire - eventually it will slip and start to move again. Unwind and continue fishing like normal. I used to run wires for a company and we would have competitions on trying to get a fish tape to run the whole distance and make it out through some crazy small holes a few hundred feet away. I was never very good, but picked up a bunch of tricks from the old guys that had been doing it way too long. If you're certain that you have the fishline going near the correct spot, then one thing we would always do is bend up a coathanger so that it would expand out into a "circle" behind the hole...fish the tape way up through the circle and then use the coat hanger to pull the fish line towards the hole. Usually the fish line head is slightly bigger so if you pull on the hangar while the fish tape is retracted you can usually get the head to pop through the hole. We had a fancy tool for this, but any piece of stiff wire is generally suitable. Btw, would it be easier to fish the tape through the 3/8" hole and then down through the subfloor? Is there a basement underneathe that you'll be running the wire through? If so, it would prob be less intrusive to make a big hole in the subfloor versus the drywall. If you end up cutting a larger hole in the wall, then I would recommend cutting it to the size of a standard electrical box that way you can just put on one of them fancy plastic face plates when it comes time to move or whatever. You can use it as a selling point as "prewired for surround sound". And then during normal use, you can put on one of them fancy audio faceplate jacks to make it all perty like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arky Posted March 4, 2007 Share Posted March 4, 2007 You wasted your 9000 th post with that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrench722 Posted March 4, 2007 Share Posted March 4, 2007 Use a light string first and a vacuum. Then pull the wire.[^o)] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrWho Posted March 5, 2007 Share Posted March 5, 2007 You wasted your 9000 th post with that? lol, overlapping posts....classic [] But for the record, this was my 9000th post: http://forums.klipsch.com/forums/permalink/880743/880743/ShowThread.aspx#880743 Apparently still not as exciting. How in the world did so many posts happen??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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