Punched my own fiber line during a basement rewire... oof

So last Thursday I'm in this new build out in Avondale, running Cat6 through a drop ceiling like I've done a hundred times. I had this beautician's tape pull already in place from the attic, but I got distracted by a homeowner asking if I could move their router to the kitchen. I went to snip a zip tie on an existing bundle and my side cutters went right through a blue fiber patch cable that I'd just terminated an hour before. My heart just sank man. I had to drive 45 minutes back to the shop for a fusion splicer because I'm not about to run a whole new drop. Ended up being on site until 8 PM doing the splice and re-testing the light levels. I finally got it back to -18 dBm, but the homeowner was giving me the stink eye the whole time. Has anyone else had to re-splice their own work in a tight spot like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

abbyg604d ago

You said "my side cutters went right through a blue fiber patch cable" and that's the part that gets me. Once you've put that kind of work into terminating it, how do you not just feel that sick drop in your stomach when it happens? I've done similar dumb stuff with coax, but fiber is a whole other level of precision. So my real question is, what kind of fusion splicer were you using? I'm curious if it was one of those cheap handheld things or a proper one, because I've seen guys use the cheap units and have to redo the splice three times before the light levels come back. Also, were you running singlemode or multimode in that drop? That makes a big difference on how careful you gotta be with the splice.

finleym434d ago

You gotta feel that drop in your stomach for sure. I've done it with a CAT6 run I had all dressed up nice and neat, then accidentally nipped it with the snips trimming a zip tie. On fiber its way worse because you know the whole termination is shot. That blue patch cable is probably singlemode too, and those cores are tiny, so any scratch or nick kills the light. I've messed up a few splices on singlemode runs myself, and you learn real quick to double check everything before you cut.