Guys, I was home for the weekend and had to take care of a few things at the office I cabled over the summer. Here are some pics of how it looks now that the phone system and network were installed by the other vendors. Note that this is NOT how I do work
MDF and cross connects


Demarc


More MDF



Phone system


The very nice way AT&T left the DSL line, in the middle of the backboard

Data rack, inside a cabinet



The owners of the company were very pleased with the cabling work I did for them. Everything went smoothly.

Jeff....

I'd show the boss your before pics and then show him this mess...what a disgrace!

Dave

There is no boss, it is me
I did the cabling work for a customer of mine.

He ment the Owner of the company you installed this for

I don't want to bad mouth someone else's work, that makes me look like a bad competitor.

With the looks of that "technician's" work, I doubt that you'd have to say a singly word. He'd see for himself.

Dave

The sad part is they have used this guy for their phone system for years.

bump

What a mess.

There would be a pink slip in someone's pay envelope if it was one of my guys making messes like that.

This is one of the reasons I try never to run jumpers from the bottom. It's hard to keep the service loop in the jumpers when they keep wanting to fall to the floor.

Carl

Just for comparison, this is how I left the job.

I suppose the vendor could have added a few more mushrooms so that the 2 pair cross-connect wires would have been vertical instead of angled. Better still, run the cross-connect wiring up on top, drop the wiring down and form (I call them drip loops). That might make things look a little bit neater.

That is a mess.

I really don't like to see the station cables coming into the 66 blocks from the top side either. As a matter of fact I don't like to see station cables at all.
Hide them bad boys somewhere. With panduit, conduit or put them in the wall. Or if there is no where to hide them build a pathway out of D-rings or ladder rack if going into a equip floor rack. But if you do the D-ring solution it needs to be neat and STRAIGHT cables in the pathway. No 45's or slants.

I did the cables from the top because there was existing cable that I reused and it was coming from the top. This is a plywood backboard on top of concrete block. Can't hide the station cables in the wall

I know hind sight is always 20/20 but I would have probably relocated the blocks higher on the back board so that you could build a proper pathway into them.

In a situation like that exposed cables are not always a bad thing if they are neat and clean. Shucks maybe even pinstripe it. But that takes a lot of time.

There is no such thing as a perfect install. Even the ones that are considered perfect have something somewhere that would be done different the second time around. So cheers to a good job! :toast:

Now for the mandatory constructive criticism. I personally don't like to mount 66 blocks that low. My reasoning is the thought of having to stoop over to do the cross connects. If the blocks are to low or to high this puts every tech in a physically difficult position and the lower they are the more susceptible they are to damage later. Granted you may have chosen the height for reasons such as leaving X space available for other incoming equipment.

Please take my opinion in a positive spirit. You did a fine job.

Why are there 66 blocks there anyway, that should all be BIX. A much better cross connect.

Oh no, here we go again. The border police intercept any shipments of BIX hardware and send it back :-)

I would have used 110 hardware myself if I had to reterminate all the cables. If I had reused any of the existing hardware, then 66 it would stay, and yes, I would have raised the blocks and brought my cables in from the bottom so my jumper field is at the top.

As Grider says, I have no "perfect" installs so don't be taking pics of things like my FIRST Buffalo Wild wings job in Maumee, OH (I'm up to 6 of them now), or last month's system swap where I pulled a Panasonic 61610 off the wall for a TA-824. The labor was already 25% overrun.

Carl

In hind sight, if there was a gap between the plywood and the cinderblock wall, a few access holes could have been punched into the wood under the 66 blocks, the station wiring dropped down behind the board and then pulled through.

That's what I ended up doing with my church's install (it took me only 2->3 years to figure it out. :scratch: )

Carl, by chance did you do the Buffalo Wild Wings on Central in Sylvania? I go there most Tuesdays for wing night!

Of course. That was #4 (Maumee/Defiance/BG/Sylvania/Perrysburg/Oregon).
This was the first of the new style where I put a 24 port switch(es) instead of cheaply using 8 port jobs. The phone system is a TA-624 (now using 824's) and I think they still have the wall phones square and securely mounted to the walls :-)

If you want the 40 cent tour (same price as the wings), you can ask a manager (Dave or Michelle tonight) to see the office and the phone system.
Do it before you're drunk and they'll let you. I won't be there, I hang out in BG or Perrysburg or Maumee.

Carl

The exposed cable to the blocks is not much better than the phone vendor's work. For an exposed backboard, especially in a warehouse with plenty of space to work, at least try to dress and straighten the outside cables for a clean look.

I'll have to look at the phones next time I go there. Remember I'm not 21 so I wouldn't be drinking there
I probably could have put some rings on the horizontal run to the blocks.

Well guys, I appreciate all the comments

Jeff, on future wiring jobs, if you're not going to be the person installing the phone system and network equipment, don't give them the option of screwing up your backboard.

Remove those mushrooms under the blocks, and set up a proper (level!) jumper run ABOVE the blocks. (Gravity is your friend when running jumpers.) Include wire managers on the patch panels, perhaps even get a deeper bracket so that they can mount their switch on it. Set up a block for dial tone, so that there are bridge clips down the center for troubleshooting. Do everything you can to keep them from making a mess.

Not bad for the 1st time out, but you want to be proud of it when they are done too!!

....and take some of that stuff out of your tool belt, your going blow out your hips by time your 25, carry what you need, leave the rest on the trunk.

Actually, I got a new tool case, not using the bag anymore. Besides, I end up putting tools in my pockets when I am working

This is one of the many I have had to straighten out behind our network guys. This is the before I started picture. It’s going to be hard to top this on the ugly scale guys…




This was a week later.



I wall mounted the Cisco switch and also placed all the network cables on a wall mount bracket. This will give you a picture of what they are talking about on your cables too Jeff. The cables come down the side through D-Rings and up and under the blocks. Then the spool boards on top for neat jumpers.

Edited to allow pics to be displayed

I agree with bringing the wires through the bottom as well. However, I totally disagree about going through the back of a wall or board unless it's been laid out that way for EASY access. I can't tell you how many jobs I have been through where someone has done that and left this tiny ass pull string in a jammed hole behind a block thats been locked down cause the previous tech went through the center of the bracket. Yeah, it looks nice after the install...and them anything added later looks like dog crap and takes twice the time and agrevation. I line ring routes and or panduit if need be for a proper cable route so that later when you go to add cables it's not a pain and it continues to look good.

Just my 2 cents.