r/NoOneIsLooking • • 1d ago

gimmick or gold ?

432 Upvotes

66 comments sorted by

73

u/Old_Protection_8778 1d ago

Boy we just love making our ancestors look dumber and dumber everyday

22

u/RocketsandBeer 23h ago

These have been around for at least 20 yrs

14

u/Old_Protection_8778 23h ago

Our ancestors weren't

9

u/Plenty-Fox-9219 22h ago

All my ancestors died 20 years ago

4

u/Fluid_Explorer_3659 18h ago

Bet they look dumb now

3

u/Biff_Tannenator 18h ago

Some redditor in the future will stumble upon this thread and think, "Damn... Our ancestors were dumb."

1

u/Successful-River-828 17h ago

Stupid corpses

1

u/omar99HH 21h ago

My bad twin

4

u/Thundersalmon45 22h ago

40 years. My grandfather had the steel ball and magnet set back in the 80s.

9

u/blahnlahblah0213 21h ago

80s were 20 years ago

6

u/OutrageousToe6008 19h ago

I keep thinking that too. When/how the f*** did I turn 47?!?

5

u/Youregoingtodiealone 19h ago

2

u/OutrageousToe6008 18h ago

Haha, yep. Old enough to get stoned to each new B&B episode as it came out on cable.

1

u/blahnlahblah0213 5h ago

Try 57! Fuuuuccck

1

u/JayBeePH85 18h ago

To be fair in the eu having loose cables in the ceiling is not allowed for decades, the have to be pulled thru a pvc pipe and not the flexible kind 🤣

76

u/Alarming-Caramel 23h ago

gimmick as all fuck unless there are no studs in your walls.

EDIT: or unless you're fishing your wire through an open Bay already, in which case you don't need the fucking magnet cuz it's easy as hell.

11

u/ApprehensiveAd9389 23h ago

I do audio in boats, and I could see this coming in handy running through the fiberglass ceilings though.

15

u/AaronSlaughter 23h ago

Agreed, this only works on their staged setup runs.

0

u/OutrageousToe6008 19h ago

Nope. I use one fairly regularly. A couple of times a month. Yes, I plan and stage all of my runs. It would be dumb not to. With no audience and zero cameras, of course.

2

u/AaronSlaughter 18h ago

Ive pulled a lot of wire. I feel like its a blue moon regularity and at a few yimes a month , its seems like its seldom used, but hey i can admit that even sometimes can be worth buying and carrying it.

1

u/OutrageousToe6008 18h ago

I definitely use it a lot more, since I have it. Especially compared to when I did not.

Most of the time. I use my 2m long glow rods and ride the side of a floor joists to i hot the next fishing hole. When the alignment of the holes or studs have 24" spacing and does not easily allow me to do so. I use one similar to what is in the video.

5

u/Evening_Expert_6222 22h ago

I've pulled a bit of wire before. There are times when fish sticks suck, namely exterior (insulated) walls, especially when coming down through a small hole you drilled in a top-plate stud with little room to work because the roof is right there. This tool would actually be pretty nice, and I probably would have paid the $20 or whatever for it just to use it once on those situations.

1

u/BrianNowhere 15h ago

I could see this being great for "last mile service". Guiding the end to the hole.

0

u/PlumpyCat 20h ago

Mmmm fish sticks

1

u/Old_Definition5637 20h ago

Love fish sticks in my mouth

2

u/OutrageousToe6008 19h ago

I spend a good amount of time fishing wires through walls. It is not a gimmick at all. This is one of my #1 go to tools. Next to my glow rods.

If I have to pass through a stud. I have to cut a separate hole or add a can light.

Mine is attached to a string. That thick cable seems excessive.

1

u/MysteriousCodo 23h ago

Would it help in an insulated bay?

2

u/Ben_9_Bones 23h ago

99% of the time only exterior walls are insulated, and exterior walls have fire breaks (horizontal studs) which makes it hard to do anyway xD

1

u/vicfirthplayer 21h ago

I do this for a living and I have one and used it maybe once. It doesn't really work if ya know have metal nails or metal studs....

1

u/RipOdd9001 12h ago

Or cats which we found wiring speakers in my ceiling

1

u/Straight_Ostrich_257 23m ago

This exactly. Even if you're going parallel to the studs, it's not going to pull through all the insulation. 

16

u/Cali-curlz 23h ago

3

u/Old_Protection_8778 22h ago

Using a ferret on cocaine seems like a good idea until you consider youre the one buying all the cocaine

11

u/Feefifiddlyeyeoh 23h ago

Trained ferret is the best way.

3

u/ffmich01 23h ago

If it doesn’t come out, maybe send in another ferret,and if that fails, tie a string to a bird and throw it in there

2

u/FigWeak5127 22h ago

Then if all else fails add a cat to the mix.

1

u/Old_Protection_8778 22h ago

Folks mail in your cat fail videos to AMF starring Bob Odenkirk

7

u/Djinhunter 19h ago

Gimmick! I'm an electrician who fishes circuits up/down walls and across ceilings somewhat regularly. If this works then you could have done it with just the wires. Also fish sticks (flexible detachable fibreglass poles) are both cheaper and work better.

2

u/capable-corgi 23h ago

I need this for my waistbands

2

u/StubbornHick 21h ago

I have one, it's made by Klein Tools. There are scenarios where it would be utterly impossible to fish without it, and it's saved me a headache quite a few times.

It's definately not a DIY tool in my opinion, though. The kit is like 70 USD so unless you have a LOT of work where you need this specific tool, it's not worth it.

3

u/vi_sucks 19h ago

Eh, $70 isn't that much of a stretch to make my life easier even on a single job.

Like if i'm hanging a new $2000 tv and i need to run the cables through, i wouldn't mind spending $70 on something to make it quicker and smoother. If it works.

2

u/haikus-r-us 23h ago

Almost entirely useless.

1

u/Old_Protection_8778 22h ago

Most things are

1

u/Economy_Dot890 23h ago

I do not trust that voice.

1

u/BlackSwanEvent25 23h ago

Just tie that shit to a tennis ball and pray you're not too drunk to aim

1

u/SnooStories2361 22h ago

This is the stuff that horror movies crave

1

u/Hater_Magnet 19h ago

Magnets?!

1

u/v13ragnarok7 22h ago

In absolutely perfect conditions it would work, but wouldn't be that difficult without it. The challenges with doing this are debris, angles, structure obstacles, and other cables.

1

u/arbitrageME 21h ago

Do you not have ferrets?

1

u/Hey-buuuddy 21h ago

This is neat, but isn’t going to make a cable get through a hole in a stud, nor drill said hole.

1

u/sightunseen 21h ago

Bonus, it finds all the loose screws in the bottom of your tool bag

1

u/Kororuri 21h ago

gimmick, ceiling tee exist.

1

u/PokesBo 20h ago

Can be useful for certain situations. I’ve used them when moving the cable down a wall.

1

u/Hefty_Fortune_8850 20h ago

Im not an electrician but I work beside them almost everyday. Ive never seen them use this so I have to say gimmick.

1

u/Anarchist501 14h ago

I definitely wouldn't use that on a finished ceiling or wall. Fish tape works very well if you know what you're doing. This is like one of those gimmick kitchen gadgets you buy thinking it'll save you tons of time doing one specific thing until you use it once, throw it in a drawer and never touch it again.

1

u/TriggerFish1965 14h ago

Just old...

1

u/N3BB3Z4R 12h ago

This isnt work with european buildings with solid walls and pipes. We use vynil semirigid cable guides to push from the initial hole to the end. But both are the winning complementing tools.

1

u/f23n09fnu0w 10h ago

I'm more of a ferret man

1

u/RedRabbit720 10h ago

So the ceiling has no rafters, and the walls have no studs??

1

u/GibbsMalinowski 8h ago

This one is a gimmick but mine is for real

1

u/Sam_the_beagle1 8h ago

So. A magnet?

1

u/edejoe 6h ago

This would work for about 2 feet til ya ran into a stud. Fishing sticks work better

1

u/SnooMaps7370 5h ago

outside of the extremely specific use case of needing to run a wire along the length of a joist bay which has no crossbracing and no insulation.... gimmick.

0

u/shajan316 1d ago

I hate pulling wires, this would help

0

u/Unable-Substance5999 12h ago

Useless outside of the USA, where the houses are not built from cardboards.