Romex is my Bitch

There is nothing like buying a bigger tool than you think you need. Because you will always end up needing it.

When I decided to get a cordless drill, I opted for a hammer drill. Because it drills AND hammer-drills. Duh. And I could have gone for a 3/8" chuck and 12 volts. But the price of 18 volts and a 1/2" chuck wasn't much higher, so I got a big Bosch.

Well, today I had to drill a 5/8" hole through what turned out to be nearly 12" of concrete. No air space. And that bitch went through it in about 5 minutes without even wearing down the battery. Sweet. Seems like the 12" Bosch bit I bought is a hell of a lot better than the cheap ones I've been wearing out.

You have to picture the situation I faced. I drilled parallel to, and into, a foot-wide space between two parallel walls. There was a doorway under me, through both walls, with a solid jamb you can't see through.So I was drilling into the wall over the doorway. A foot past that doorway, there is a second doorway, with the same deal. A foot past that doorway, one one of the walls that are a foot apart, there are electrical boxes five feet off the ground. You access them through small hinged wooden doors in the outermost of the two walls. So once I had the hole drilled, I had to push Romex over the first doorway and the second doorway--maybe ten feet--into the space where the panels were. And the tops of the doorways had all sorts of irregularities and wires and galvanized mesh on them, so the Romex was not likely to want to slide over them. And 8/3 Romex is heavy and limp.

Here is my solution. I had two skinny bamboo poles I bought for tomato stakes. I fastened them end to end with package tape. I used a knot similar to an Albright Special to tie 50 lb. mono to the end of the poles. I ran the poles through the holes until the tip popped out near the panels, and I pulled the mono through. At first, I tried shoving the poles through with the mono attached to the rearmost pole, but then I realized that was stupid, so I turned it around. That put the mono up front, so I could grab it as soon as the poles got through.

I tied the Romex to the mono using the same knot, taped it over to streamline the front end of the Romex, and shoved the Romex in the hole. Then I pulled and fiddled with the other side until the Romex finally made it.

HA! That was when I realized this was going to work. Now the square box is installed on the garage wall, the stripped Romex is waiting for the connectors and THHT or whatever it is wire, and the other end of the Romex is hanging out by the 220 panel. All I have to do is connect wires, add 15 feet of conduit and a receptacle, install a 40A slow-blow breaker, and turn on the welder and burn the house down.

I feel fantastic. This is going to cost under a hundred bucks, including that sweet bit. An electrician would have charged three or five times that much. And now that I've looked in the walls and seen their work, I realize I'm safer doing it myself. Those guys are idiots. It's a wonder more houses don't burn.

I have to get my ass to HD to buy more stuff. I only bought the Romex and the box the first time, because I figured there was a good chance this wouldn't work.

Maybe I'll manage to weld something tomorrow.