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That day I tried the reverse wrap on a stubborn flue tile
I was working a job in an old house built in 1928 near downtown St. Louis. The flue tile had a nasty offset that kept catching my brush head every third pull. After fighting it for about 45 minutes I remembered an old guy at a trade show mentioning wrapping the cable the opposite direction around the anchor. Threw a reverse wrap on there and it glided through on the first pass. Saved me from having to rod from the bottom which would have taken another hour. Has anyone else tried this on tricky offset flues?
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the_kim1mo ago
Whoa, that's a great trick but I bet a lot of people don't think about the cable condition before trying it! If your cable has any kinks or rust spots, that reverse wrap can actually make the problem worse by putting uneven stress on those weak points (ask me how I learned that one, haha). I always check my cable by running it through my gloved hand first, looking for any snags or flat spots where the wire's starting to fray. Once you've got a clean cable though, that reverse wrap is like magic for those awkward offset flues, especially in old clay tile like you had.
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miles_roberts1mo ago
Used to skip that check, @the_kim. You just changed how I'll prep cables from now on.
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rubyshah1mo ago
Oh wow @miles_roberts, @the_kim's point about checking the cable first is so spot on. It's like when you're untangling a garden hose or a charging cord, you gotta smooth out the kinks before you try any fancy wrapping or it just gets worse. That's just how things work with anything that has a curve, right?
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