Draw Wires (also commonly known as fish tapes or drawing tape) is an essential hand tool found in many electrician's tool bags. The purpose of the tool is simple, to carefully guide wiring through confined spaces, typically, wall cavities, electrical conduits pipes and cable run. If you need to run wiring in your home or commercial space through walls, ceilings or floors, it would not be ideal to start tearing down walls or lifting floorboards. This is where a draw wire would be handy to use, as it allows to pull wires through tight spaces and bends over short and long distances.
The design of a draw wire or fish tape is usually, a long, thin, flat spring steel wire coiled inside a circular-shaped plastic reel, usually fitted with a sturdy handle grip and ABS plastic housing.
Draw wires and fish tapes come in a variety of materials, such as fibreglass, stranded steel, stainless steel and nylon.
The tape will usually have a hook, loop or specialised fastener fixture at the end, thus, allowing the user to attach the tape to the guide string before pulling. Typically, draw wires range between 25-400 feet in length and 3-4mm in diameter.