Thin fiberglass rod locates wall headers in an attic area

Tom White, Equifax Payment Systems

problem

You are trying to find the wall crown in an insulated attic area over an office with a solid ceiling so you can drop down cable behind a jack cutout. One wrong guess and you're looking through a nice hole over someone's desk!

solution

Use a thin fiberglass rod about 3/32 inch in diameter to find the wall crown.

procedure

1. In the room in which you've been working, poke the fiberglass rod through the ceiling, flush with the wall surface that's directly above your jack cutout. (The fiberglass rod used by the author is actually a section of strength member from a fiber-optic cable scrap.)
2. Push the rod up into the attic high enough so it will clear about 2 feet of insulation.
3. Go to the attic, locate the rod, and measure in about 2 inches, which should put you at the center of the wall crown.
4. Drill the hole, and cleanly feed your cable to the jack cutout behind the wall in the room below.
5. If necessary, use a small amount of spackle to plug the discrete hole made by the fiberglass rod. In some cases, the hole won't even be noticeable.

   Tom White is manager of voice communications at Equifax Payment Systems (Madison, WI).

   When feeding cable to a new jack installation in a room with solid ceilings, use a super-thin fiberglass rod to poke a guide hole through the ceiling at its juncture to the wall. Then go to the attic area and measure about 2 inches away from the protruding rod to locate the wall to which you'll feed cable behind the installation.

   quick tip

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   Cleaning up a tangled mess at patch panel

   Jason Frerichs, C&C Technology Inc.

   problem

   After all the cables have been run and the punchdown process is slated to begin, the cables can become a tangled mess.

   solution

   Tie-wrap cables by position, which greatly improves the look of the cables going to 110/66-blocks/patch panels and saves time in the termination process.

   procedure

   
   

   1. Separate cables by cable numbers.
   2. Dress them into appropriate panel positions by tie-wrapping them neatly in place.
   3. Terminate the cables according to their corresponding panel locations.

   Jason Frerichs is a voice/data technician at C&C Technology Inc. (Lancaster, PA).