Just realized my fish tape was bending wrong the whole time

I was pulling a run through an old conduit in a basement downtown and the tape kept binding up. After 45 minutes of fighting it I finally pulled it out and saw the tip was slightly bent from some job last week. Straightened it out with pliers and the pull went through in like 5 minutes flat. Anyone else ever waste time fighting a tool that just needed a quick fix?

3 comments

3 Comments

annajenkins15d ago

Blew a whole Saturday morning on a similar thing with my conduit bender last month. The shoe was just slightly off kilter, you know, not enough to notice at first but enough to make every bend look like garbage. Spent like two hours cussing at it before I realized it just needed a quick adjustment with an Allen key. Made me feel like a total goofball but man, that satisfying pull when the tool works right (even after you mess it up yourself) is pure gold.

claire_young7614d ago

Yeah, @amy_west, that's the same screw that made me toss mine across the garage once.

amy_west15d ago

The shoe alignment thing is a nightmare, I've been there. Took me an hour of checking every other possible problem before I even thought to look at that little set screw. Makes you wonder how many perfectly good afternoons we've all wasted on something that simple. But yeah, that first perfect bend after you fix it, you just stand there staring at it like you invented the wheel.