Found out my fish tape was the problem after 3 hours of frustration

I was working a job in a 1970s house in Denver last Tuesday. I kept snagging on something in the wall and couldn't get the coax through to the living room. Turns out my fish tape had a tiny burr on the tip from a previous job that kept catching drywall. I filed it down with a pocket knife and the run went smooth in 10 minutes. Anyone else ever wasted time on a dull or damaged fish tape?

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the_alex6d ago

Might be worth checking if it was actually a burr though. Sometimes those old steel tapes can get a little bent near the tip from being shoved into tight spots, and that bend can catch on things in ways a burr wouldn't. I've had that happen with a Klein tape where I spent an hour thinking it was a nail or something, but it was just a slight kink an inch from the tip. A quick straighten with some pliers fixed it right up, but filing wouldn't have done anything for that.