Talking to a retiree about tensioning changed how I run lines

I had a long chat with a retired installer named Ray at a diner in Dayton last Tuesday. He spent 35 years doing this work and said the biggest mistake he sees now is guys treating every cable pull like it's the same. He told me he always counts the number of bends and the total footage before he starts, then adjusts his pull tension off that, not off what the drum says. That hit different because I've been running the same tension setting for years and just dealing with the fallout when things bind. So I tried his approach on a three-story apartment job yesterday, and the cable went through smooth where I usually fight it. I still don't have his instinct for odd situations, but now I'm second guessing every pull I do. Anyone else ever get advice from an old timer that made you rework your whole setup?

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noahtaylor12d ago

Ngl, the first time I met a guy like Ray, he watched me set up a pull and just laughed for a solid minute. Turns out I was using the same tension for a straight shot through conduit as I would for something with like five 90s, which is honestly embarrassing to admit. I still don't count every bend on every job, but now I at least do the math in my head before I start, and it's saved me a ton of swearing. My back still hurts though, so some things never change.