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Shattered case on wire fish

install4you

Member
Joined
Jan 26, 2026
Messages
11
City & State/Province
Central Alabama
Greetings to all.

I have a coiled springy wire fish tape...50 ft I think.

After years of amateur use, the casing has completely shattered. Anyone have ideas about managing & using the coil? I'd rather not just toss it because, at my age, I can't justify the expense of replacing it. Surely someone has come up with a good method.

Thanks, Eddie
 
Once the sheath is gone, it becomes a very aggressive metal snake, handle carefully or it handles you.
 
Once the sheath is gone, it becomes a very aggressive metal snake, handle carefully or it handles you.
I'm using 2-3 hose clamps to keep it coiled. I loosen them a little to feed out what I need & tighten at least 1 while I'm using it. It's not ideal but better than replacing the whole thing.
 
At that point it’s basically a reusable hazard until you sleeve it or re-coil it carefully
 
Thanks Alan.
You said sleeve it. How would you do that? That sounds like it might be why I posted the question in the first place.

As it is, with the hose clamps a little loose, it's not hard to feed it back into the coil.

Thanks.
 
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