c/cable-installers

The day I stopped using a hammer on coax fittings after 8 years

I used to tap coax connectors in with my Klein hammer until a senior guy at a job in Dayton last fall showed me how a simple compression tool saves busted ends and your knuckles. Has anyone else wasted YEARS doing something the hard way before a coworker set them straight?

Been trimming coax connectors wrong for years until a Bell tech showed me the light

I always used to cut the jacket back with my snips and then strip the dielectric with that little ring on my compression tool. Left a ton of copper braid exposed half the time. Last Tuesday this old Bell guy watched me do one on a MDU job and just shook his head. He showed me one trick - score the jacket first with a knife, then snap it off clean before stripping. No more stray braids, no more intermittent signal issues. I had been making 200+ of these a month for almost 4 years doing it the hard way. Has anyone else had an old timer drop some wisdom on you that made you feel dumb?

Was skeptical about those expensive cable toner probes until my buddy proved me wrong in 5 minutes flat

Took a customer's complaint about slack to heart and changed my whole approach

That panel in a drop ceiling that took me 4 hours to fish one line through

Had a job last month at an old school in Ogden. Ran into a suspended ceiling grid where someone had laid cables every which way over the years. I needed to get one Cat6 from one end to the other. Figured 20 minutes tops. Four hours later I had pulled out three dead snakes, a coax loop back to itself, and a zip tie wrapped around every single data cable. Who actually signs off on these installs.

Picked up a $20 toner probe from Harbor Freight and it actually worked on a live run

I've been doing residential installs for about 5 years and always bought name brand test gear, but that cheap probe found a broken wire in under 2 minutes last week. My coworker swore it would just beep at everything and give false readings, but it nailed the exact spot. Any other installers here use budget tools for tone testing or should I stick with the pricey stuff?

Rant: Worst Tuesday I've had in 5 years

Had a job north of Phoenix where the customer's attic hit 130 degrees by noon. Crawled through fiberglass for 3 hours only to find a rat chewed through the main line. How do you guys handle extreme heat jobs without passing out?

Customer told me my crimps were 'lazy' - changed my whole approach

Had this older guy in Austin watch me terminate a coax run and he just said 'son, you're leaving too much slack in the fitting.' I was pissed at first, but he was right. I started measuring my strip length to exactly 3/8 inch and my signal loss dropped like crazy. Anyone else get a random tip from a customer that actually made sense?

Old timer taught me something on a job in Portland 8 years ago

He saw me struggling with a coax termination in a crawlspace and just said "stop fighting the cable, let it bend where it wants to go." That one line changed how I approach tight spots. Anyone else have a random bit of advice from a stranger that stuck with you?

Before and after I started pre-wiring for smart home stuff in 2020

I used to just pull coax and Cat5e to one wall plate in each room and call it done. Now I'm running three Cat6 drops to every TV location plus power for the blinds and sensors, and it's cut my callback rate from like 15% to maybe 2% over three years. Has anyone else seen their rework jobs drop after adding extra runs upfront?

Finally switched from coax compression to crimp connectors for RG6

After 8 years of using compression fittings on every job, I decided to give crimp connectors a try on a new build in Austin last week. My buddy swears by them and kept telling me I was wasting time with the compression tool. I was skeptical at first, but after 50 terminations, I noticed the crimp connectors held tighter and took about 15 seconds less per end. No signal loss issues so far on the three test runs I checked with the meter. Has anyone else made this switch and stuck with it long term?

Just found out most of my coax ends are probably garbage

I was at a supply house in Cleveland last Tuesday picking up some fittings and an old timer behind the counter asked me what I used for compression. I told him my Klein ratcheting tool and he just shook his head and showed me his collection of rejected ends from other guys he knows. Turns out a ton of those cheap generic compression connectors you grab in bulk packs have way too much variance in the inner diameter. He pulled out a caliper and measured three different ones from the same box and they were all off by like 0.005 inches. I went home and checked a handful of my recent jobs and I bet I got at least 10 percent that are gonna fail within a year. I never even thought to measure them before. Anyone else ever check their connector tolerances or just trust the package?

Why I finally stopped using cheap crimpers after 3 years on the job

I was out on a job last Tuesday in a new development over in Franklin. Had a customer's cable modem drop signal three times in one day. I kept checking the connectors and they looked fine to me. Then my lead guy came over, took one look at my crimp, and showed me how the cheap tool I was using wasn't seating the connector deep enough. He handed me his Klein crimper and the difference was night and day. Has anyone else had that moment where a simple tool change saved them hours of troubleshooting?

Blew a fuse box with a loose ground wire yesterday

Was finishing up a job in a basement in Oak Park, pushed the cable through a drop ceiling, and my ground wire nicked a live conduit. The whole panel sparked and tripped the main for the whole building. Took me 45 minutes to find the short and reset everything without getting fried. Has anyone else run into a hidden live wire where you least expect it?

Spent 3 hours tracking down a bad connector that looked fine

Had a job in Greenville last week where a customer's signal was dropping randomly every few minutes. Checked all the usual spots, splitters, amps, nothing wrong. Finally found a compression fitting on a drop that looked perfect but had a tiny crack inside the dielectric. Took me three hours to find that one stupid connector. Has anyone else run into a fitting that looked good but was actually garbage from the factory?

Hit 5,000 cable terminations last Tuesday and it hit me different

I was just finishing up a job at a new build in Arlington and happened to count my terminations for the year. 5,000 exactly. That's a lot of coax and ethernet I've touched this year alone. I remember struggling to get 20 good terminations in a day when I started 8 years ago. Has anyone else ever stopped to add up their numbers and gotten surprised by the total?

Hit 50 straight terminations without a single redo today

I know that's not a huge number for some of you, but for me it's a personal record. Been doing cable installs for about 2 years now, mostly residential. Usually I mess up at least one every 10 or so - bad crimp, forgot the boot, didn't seat the wire right. Today I was doing a new build in a townhouse complex near Denver and just had a good rhythm going. Double checked every strip length, tested each one before I moved on. By the 30th one I started noticing I hadn't screwed any up and got a little nervous honestly. 50 in a row with clean terminations and all passing on the tester. Maybe it's just me but that felt better than finishing early. Anyone else keep track of their clean run streaks?

My way of doing coax terminations finally failed me

I've always used the strip-and-fold method for center conductors on RG6, swore by it for 8 years. Last week on a job in Austin, I had three connections fail signal tests back to back, all from the same spool. Tried the straight-cut method instead and haven't had a single issue since. Anybody else run into a batch of cable that just doesn't play nice with your usual technique?

Had to pick between a D-ring and a mushroom anchor for a tricky wall in an old building yesterday

Tried a new way to fish cable through an old farmhouse near Lancaster

I was working on a 1920s farmhouse outside Lancaster last week and decided to try using glow rods instead of my usual fish tape. Figured it would be quicker since the walls were all plaster and lathe. Ended up snapping two rods and had to cut three holes in the ceiling to get the coax through. Has anyone else had bad luck with glow rods in older homes?

That moment I found out I'd been stripping coax wrong for years

I've been in this trade for about 8 years now. Last Tuesday I was on a job in Salem and an older installer watched me strip a cable with my coring tool. He just shook his head and showed me I was putting way too much pressure on the dielectric. I'd been nicking the center conductor on probably 1 out of 4 fittings without even noticing. Has anyone else had someone point out a basic habit you never questioned?

Just realized I had to pick between a Klein or a Southwire toner for a tricky apartment complex job.

Went with the Klein because my buddy said it handles bundled coax better, and it actually found the right line behind five others. Anyone have a different go-to for dense multi-dwelling units?

Honestly, the difference in my crawl space work from last year to now is crazy

Ngl, I used to dread those tight, dirty crawls and would just slap the cable down anywhere. About six months ago, a guy I work with in Tampa showed me his method: he uses a cheap plastic sled from the hardware store to pull his gear and a headlamp with a red light setting. I tried it on a job last week and finished a full house run in under two hours, which used to take me half a day. My clothes were way cleaner and I didn't bash my head once. Has anyone else found a simple tool change that cut their time down that much?

TIL a simple coax barrel connector can fix a whole house signal drop

Got a call in the West End neighborhood for a weak signal on every TV. The old line from the pole was fine, but the main splitter in the basement had a rusty input port. I swapped it for a new one, but the drop was still there. On a hunch, I put a fresh barrel connector between the ground block and the main line, and the signal jumped back to perfect levels in under a minute. Has anyone else had a bad barrel cause that much trouble?

A customer in Dayton told me my cable runs looked like spaghetti

I was finishing a triple play install in this old brick house, feeling good about the signal levels. The homeowner, an older lady, pointed at the bundle behind her TV and said, 'Young man, that looks like a plate of spaghetti my dog wouldn't eat.' She was right, it was a mess of slack. Now I always carry a few extra Velcro straps and take an extra minute to make the lines neat and parallel. Anyone else get called out on their cable dressing?