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I've managed to get a Snake stuck in ribbed conduit. I managed to get about 15 feet of the snake in the tube before it stopped advancing and now I can't get it out.

How can I remove it without damaging anything?

Picture of Snake, wire, and blue ribbed conduit

citadelgrad
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  • Did the conduit already have something in it? – Zoredache Feb 15 '11 at 19:26
  • Yes it has an 8 wire telephone cable. – citadelgrad Feb 15 '11 at 19:39
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    Not sure why everyone's jumping on the off-topic bandwagon here: Until we get an electricians StackExchange site I think SF is about the best place for this kind of question. – voretaq7 Feb 15 '11 at 20:31
  • @voretaq7 - Yeah, there's about a dozen other `wiring` questions on here, and 45 others in `cables`, and very few of those are closed. Though I'm sure they're far from the most populous topics on here, I'd still say it's fairly well established that such things are indeed on-topic. – Iszi Feb 15 '11 at 20:37
  • @voretaq7, there is absolutely nothing in this question to indicate that the OP is even working on wiring related to our profession. As such I suggest it should go to http://diy.stackexchange.com/ – John Gardeniers Feb 16 '11 at 23:45
  • @citadelgrad, although I've voted this as off-topic I do have a suggestion for the next time you try this. Coat the snake with French chalk first and you'll avoid 99% of such problems. – John Gardeniers Feb 16 '11 at 23:46
  • I just wanted to highlight that this is a valid topic as stated in the FAQ. "Server Fault is for system administrators and desktop support professionals, people who manage or maintain computers in a professional capacity. If you question is about... * Networks." **Wiring is a part of networking.** This was in a kitchen because I work for a hotel. – citadelgrad Feb 20 '11 at 21:36

1 Answers1

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Without sacrificing the existing wiring in the line there's very little you can do here that doesn't risk damaging what's in the conduit. Best suggestion I have is to twist the snake 1/4 turn left and right while working it back and forth to see if it will break free. You can also try Dyna-Blue or something similar, but that's best applied before trying the pull...

On occasions like this it is sometimes better to cut the snake and declare it a loss rather than risk destroying the existing wires and having a real repair project on your hands.

voretaq7
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    +1 I've found this situation happens most when the existing cable is looped around the snake. The following has worked on a few occasions for me: Push the snake back in a bit, pull on the existing cabling a bit (in the opposite direction of the snake pull; aka from the other end of the conduit), pull the snake through with short jerking motions. Simply pulling hard usually destroys the existing wiring. – Chris S Feb 15 '11 at 20:42
  • Chris's adivce is sound. I didn't say it before, but if you value your cable definitely **don't* yank on the snake. Of course if you don't value the existing cable you can use it as a pull rope ;) – voretaq7 Feb 15 '11 at 20:46
  • I didn't have any Dyna-Blue but I did have Olive Oil as it was in a kitchen. We use about 3-5 Tbsps of oil but I probably should have used less oil to start as it made a little bit of a mess. – citadelgrad Feb 16 '11 at 17:41