Had a talk with an old timer that made me rethink how I run conduit

Was pulling pipe in a basement remodel in Portland last week and this 70 year old retired electrician walks by, watches me for a minute, then says 'you know you're fighting the pipe instead of letting it work for you'. I thought he was just some know-it-all at first but he showed me how to use the bender with more of a body rock instead of arm force. Cut my time on a 3/4 inch run by half after that. Anyone else had someone call out a bad habit you didn't even notice?

2 comments

2 Comments

garcia.laura25d ago

Oh man, that hit home hard. I got called out by this old timer once for how I was pulling Romex through studs, and he was right, I was just jamming it through instead of feeding it in a smooth motion. It felt like such a small thing but it saved me so much frustration and time. Sometimes we just get stuck in our own way and don't realize there's a better move until someone shows us. Good on you for actually listening, a lot of folks would have just brushed him off.

black.pat24d ago

Yeah, "good on you for actually listening" is about the rarest compliment in this trade.