My 1st layout also had 2" foam for the wire. Most are essentially saying the same thing, so I can echo the value of using something sturdy--even an unfolded paper clip--to poke a hole.
Anyone who has had to fish wire through drywall knows what I'm referring to by the above. Easy. No need to buy anything.
Get a crochet hook a little bigger than the wire you are using. Push it through the foam. Strip some wire and loop it through the hook then a few wraps around itself and pull the hook back through. Or, just loop the wire over the hook so there is enough to go through the foam on both sides of the hook. If you have a helper this is just super fast.
You can find these dirt cheap at second hand stores quite often, not that they are a budget breaker to begin with.
Drill hole, slide COCKTAIL STRAW into hole. Slide wire thru, pull out straw (or don't, but if you don't, glue from ballasting and scenery will drip onto whatever is below - ask how I know that). Joel
I don't see the problem either. I use stranded wire with the insulation still on, and drill a 1/8" hole. Stick the wire through the hole. The hole will fill with ballast so it won't even show.
Genesee Terminal, freelanced HO in Upstate NY ...hosting Loon Bay Transit Authority and CSX Intermodal. Interchange with CSX (CR)(NYC).
CP/D&H, N scale, somewhere on the Canadian Shield
One thing (quick and easy) that I did on running feeders through 2” foam and 1/4” ply... you know those twist ties on bread? Wrap tip around wire loop and feed tie through the hole. Since the tie has a strand of wire, it holds straight and draws the wire through.
use a plastic straw
greg - Philadelphia & Reading / Reading
I used the K&S square tube Bigdaddy recommended. I did put a 45 degree angle on one side. But I also used a metal skewer from the dollar store and put in in the square tube put in the spot and pushed it through the foam. I‘ve done hundreds of holes and I also use twisted wire with no issues. Good luck.
TomO
I don't understand how this is a problem, I don't get it
Poke a nail or something through the hole to clear out junks of foam from drilling.
Whats under foam? wood? maybe check for , and remove any splinters from the "drilling through" process.
Wrap the end of the wire with tape.
If it's stranded wire, twist it together with your fingers.
Mike.
My You Tube
Something to keep in mind for future reference. There are such things as "Installer Bits" which have a small hole near the point. Sometimes these are flexible for running inside walls for threading wire.
Drill through, fasten a pull string, pull the bit back out then pull your wire with the string. Usually these bits start at 1/4" but I have one that is 3/16" It might be an Irwin.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Bosch-1-4-in-x-18-in-Installer-Drill-Bit-BH2001T/204415237
Good Luck, Ed
Another reason I use solid as feeders. Just pokes on through. If it catches a little on the sides of the hole you drilled, twist it as you push it down the hole.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
I tape it to a turkey skewer and run it through!
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
I punch a hole through with an awl, then push a drinking straw through the hole. This acts as a conduit and lets you easily push the wire through.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
I've never ''drilled'' a hole. Just push a pointy thing thru{if no plywood}. You should be able to just slide wire thru.
I have at times made a needle from a stiffer wire.
If you should happen to enlarge the hole ,a little caulk will keep ballest from falling thru
i used a bit a little larger than the minimum, and stranded wire [from an old pc printer cable], and it went down the hole fairly nicely, 3/8 plywood under up to 9" of foam .. down, not up, and hole a bit on the larger size, about a hundred holes, from 1" to 9" in height
try wraping the wire into the sprials of the bit before you pull it back up
Three step process.
Step 1: Drill hole.
Step 2: Solder wire to web of rail near the end of a scrap piece.
Step 3: slide rail through the hole, pull rail out other side with wire attached. No need to buy anything.
Be careful of any sharp edges.
crisco1 Hi, Does anyone have any suggestions on how you would run 20 gauge wire down a hole? I am using a 6" drill bit. My wire keeps on getting stuck. Thanks, Chris
Hi,
Does anyone have any suggestions on how you would run 20 gauge
wire down a hole? I am using a 6" drill bit. My wire keeps on getting
stuck.
Thanks,
Chris
Solid or stranded wire? Stranded is tough to fish through...
I found foam is rough and grabs the wire, so I would run a piece of brass tubing through the foam and pass the wire through it. You can pull the tubing out when you're done. Or else you could make a needle of sorts out of stiff wire, like a coathanger or music wire, and pull it through. You could tape the wire to it.
Gary
Go to the hobby store and get some KS brass or aluminyum tubing the size of your drill bit. Cut the tubing a inch or two longer than the thickness of your foam.
If it's foam on top plywood, you may have to drill the plywood from the bottom with a slightly larger bit.
Thread the wire into the tubing. It just has to reach most of the way. Pull the tubing out and it will drag enough wire with it through the hole.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley