How do you pull larger wire through conduit ?

[Allen Davis]

What equipment or pulling rope do you use to pull heavier wire through conduit ?



Lets say you wanted to pull (3) #00 wires 500' to hook up an Air Compressor in a factory, how would you go about it ?



Thanks !

 

[chico mendoza]

i just pushed mine through when i did my out side lights but that was only about 100ft

 

[Gary DiPietroSr]

You're going to need some wire pulling compound, sort of K-Y for wire. If there is wire in it now, you use one of those to pull nylon rope through, then the new wire. You might need pull boxes every 100 feet or so.

 

[Ron N]

One thing that has been used before is to take a ping pong ball, drill a hole in thru it and attach a string to it. Then start it in the conduit. Put a shop vacuum on the other end and suck it to that end. Make sure you have plenty of string. You may have to blow air in the other end where you started the ball at the same time to promote enough vaccuum. Once the ping pong ball and string make it to the other end. Tie your nylon pull cord to the string and pull it thru the conduit. Then tie the pull cord to your wire. I would also attach a second pull cord to it for future use if needed. Then spray the wire with your lubricant and pull it.I would have someone on one end feeding it into the conduit._Ron

 

[Dan gelb]

You will need atleast 1/4" nylon rope and a cable tugger or a few strongth backs.

if there is no rope or string currently in pipe and it is empty

you can make a small pouch out of a plastic bag and tie string on it then place a shop van on other end of pipe and let it suck it through then tie on rope pull through

and then tie on cable and use chinese fingers when tieing onto cable and tape rope on cable with duct tape and it wouldnt hurt to use some sort of wire lube

Yellow-77 or something similiar.



And yes run a trailer string behind you for future.

 

[Ryan Schaecher]

Pulling (3) #00 wire is going to be a chore in itself (it's pretty stiff stuff).



There are special machines that can probably be rented from an industrial electrical store that are specifically made to run this stuff. One machine will take a spool, strip the wire off the spool, straighten it and feed it that is controlled with a wired remote. There is another machine that will sned a plug down the conduit with string attached. It's similar to a shop vac, but is designed to do this job. It will feed string as it blows. There are special plug that are made of foam that work great for this type of stuff.



As others have said, you'll need to run a light-weight string on the plug first, then use that to pull a heavier rope, then your wire.



Having an assistant will also be all but required (one to pull the rope, one to feed the wire).