I recently had to fish a wire down a wall chase and through a couple of joist bays, and I had to drill the holes through the joists at an awkward angle that was tough to hit with the fish wire. So I decided not to use the fish wire and got out the shop vacuum instead.
I had a helper hold the nozzle of the vacuum over the hole in the joist while I fed a small plastic bag tied to some light fishing line into the joist bay. The idea is to use something light that will catch air—tissue paper will work, too—for the suction to grab. Gravity can help here. Work from the top down.
As soon as the vacuum picks up the bait end, you will feel the sudden surge. Now from either end, pull a small but stronger line to use for pulling the wire.
Jeff Egner, Waterford, MI
Edited and Illustrated by Charles Miller
From Fine Homebuilding #217
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I recently needed to put a pulling string through about 20 feet of conduit with several bends and didn't have a fish wire with me, so I tied the string around a lump of spray foam that I mashed to fit the inside of the conduit, put it in at one end and put a vacuum on the other.
Took 20 seconds and as soon as the foam came out of the conduit, the vacuum stopped pulling, so I didn't even have to worry about accidentally pulling the string all the way through. I was using a shop vac with a big hose, but just cupping my hand around the conduit and against the hose was enough to pull the string.