Re: WAS Curtain Control NOW B&Q and Screwfix

["Ian Lowe" <ian@xxxxxxx>]

>>(the suggestion of using a magnet on a string to route
>>cables has been brilliant!) has been priceless.
>
>Sorry Ian
>
>my imagination has let me down with that one
>any chance of you explaing please - may be a trick I could use sometime
:)

no worries. it's basically an adaptation of the lum bob for dropping cables
down a wall where you attach a weight to a bit of string, and let the
weight
drop it down to where you need the new socket/whatever then cut a hole,
pull
the string thourgh, and use it to feed the cable.

The magnet variation allows you to run cables to a specific point rather
than straight down, and saves a lot of fishing around behind the wall for
your guide string.

you basicaly use a strong magnet (which will invariably be heavy) as your
weight, and use a flat ferromagnetic object like a steel saucepan to drag
the magnet through the gyproc to your desired location.

another variation I found on this is to use one string with a large iron
nut, and another with the magnet, allowing you to push your guide string
from one side as far as you can, then drop the magnet towards it.

The trick is getting a suitably strong magnet, which is where Hard Drives
come in!!

the magnet which is part of the drive head mechanism is hideously strong
(the stronger the magnet, the less current is needed to move the heads
>really< fast across the platter, so designers use magnets as strong
as they
possibly can, without causing data retention issues for the media surface)

The magnet from a Seagate 10Gb drive (which died in a spectacular way)
which
I use can lift a teaspoon off of the kitchen table from about 10-12cm away.

Useful for getting cables through bizzare shaped flooor/ceiling spaces,
where your rooms don't quite line up vertically

Ian.




Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/