Hi,
Just looking for time saving tips on getting a speaker wire from a crawl space up the wall (specifically, drilling thru the bottom plate). Laying flat on your back or stomach and trying to hold a big drill to go thru the plate...sometimes you can't get enough leverage to get thru before your arm gives out.

Do you have some kind of bit that will bite enough to "pull" itself thru so you don't have to fight the drill so much.

Appreciate the inside tips.
=Tom

Use a High Torque Low Speed drill and a Forstner Style Drill Bit.

[Link: coastaltool.com]

I've never used the above brand, but it was the first hit on a google search.

So the Forstner bit bites and pulls its way thru?

Check this out...

[Link: lsdinc.com]

Depending on where you need to end up, it's generally easier to drill down. Use a flexible 3/8" bit to pop into the crawlspace then use a glow rod to fish back up.

IF the wall isn't wood, tiled, or faux painted, just cut a very small hole done low and drill from there down into your crawl space. Patch it with light weight spackle, sand, and paint. If you are good at patching you will never know you did it.

Tom, I'm 6'3" and 300 lbs, + or -, so I have no trouble drilling with my DeWalt 24v. cordless and an 18" ship auger, which does pull itself through.

You must have the strength and endurance, of course, but even my fiancé, who is 5'2" and 140 lbs can handle it.

Larry
www.fineelectricco.com

McNasty's response will work well if it is your own house and you are sure it will not be exposed later. Years later.

My preference, since I mostly do this in someone else's home, is to take my four foot long 1/2" paddle, blade, butterfly, whatever you want to call it drill bit, start a hole sloping down a bit just above the molding, then once the hole is started into the bottom plate, raise the drill so the hole goes down almost vertically. You have to take care that you don't raise the drill too soon and push the molding off the wall (meanwhile jamming drill detritus behind the molding that will keep it from EVER laying flat on the wall again), but this works quite well. I developed this approach starting from the idea that you can always patch and paint wall, but you can't patch and paint floor.

For going through the bottom plate, I often cut a hole at electrical outlet height -- center about 12" above the floor -- and single gang size, then take that 1/2" bit to drill down.

The four foot length and the flexibility of the drill allow me to put the hole in the bottom plate. I have drilled as many as six holes through the botom plate this way.

Yes, So will the Bits Matt Linked to. The LSD bits are very nice as well, but expensive.

Yo Tom,
Is this wire for in wall speakers? If so, simply cut your speaker holes and use your long bit and go down.

If you know how to patch a wall correctly it will not be exposed even years later. Any hole bigger than the size of a dime, I always fill with a hard plaster all the way until the last 1/16th of an inch or so. Then fill the rest with Light Weight spackle, sand, and paint. If you don't have the paint, chip off a piece and get a match made. When you paint it don't just paint where you patched. You want to paint usually 1 square foot, do it with a bunch of very thin coats, and feather out the edges. There is absolutely nothing wrong with making holes as lond as they are drilled or cut neatly and patched right. We work in old brownstone buildings in Boston thet were built in the 17 and 1800's very frequently, and this is usually the only way to go. You think it's bad to do on a drywall and plaster wall? Try it on one of those Brownstone's horsehair and lathe walls. It takes a long time to know how to patch those walls properly.

Hosehair?

No, Tom, not hosehair. That would be painful! McNasty is talking about plaster that has hoRsehair added to it. It acts much like the fiberglass strands added to concrete, which behaves kind of like miniature rebar. It helps hold the plaster together.

Larry
www.fineelectricco.com

It is very common to find in homes at least out here in MA. Basically it is very grainy plaster (More like cement) with Horse (like giddy up horsey) Hair in it. It is spread over 1" wide by 1/4" thick boards that are nailed about 3/8" apart from each other. It's a real pain in the ass to deal with. Keyhole saws are not optional as the stuff is so old it will crumble. A rotozip with a carbide tip works best, but then you have to switch to a wood bit to cut the lathe out. If you look closely at the edges of this hole we we were starting out you can see the boards in the plaster

The challenging part on this last one and many I do is that the bottom plate sits flat on the concrete foundation. How do I angle my flexi drill bit to come back (30-40 degrees?) and exit that plate ABOVE the foundation?

I can see catching the edge of it if drilling from up high with the in-wall speaker opening available; but down low, where the entry into the wall and the sharp turn (back under the crawlspace) may be only 8 or 10 inches max...I can't see how the bit can be directed like that. Entry into the wall is going away from the crawlspace toward the outside.

It would be nice to always be able to drill from up above and then just fish the wire thru. The crawl is enough fun without the added weight of the drill and bit.