I bought the HF fiberglass push poles (with a 20% off coupon) about a year ago. We have drop ceiling in part of our basement that is finished, I use them for fishing wires in the ceiling. They work good for that purpose. I have steel and flexible fiberglass/plastic fishtape for other jobs as well.
Got my cellphone that my son dropped down a sewage drain using this fiberglass pole set and a hard drive neodymium magnet. It was about 30' down, and I had it about 5 feet from the top, and the magnet let go, dropped it again. this time it was upside down and the magnet wouldn't grab it again, through the otter case, so I had to go get a ladder. . . was SO CLOSE. Testament to the otter case, 2x 30 foot drops to concrete, no damage to phone.
I could have used this when I was installing dash cams in my wifes and my car, I got a dual (front and rear) dash cam for each car and needed to run the cable through the headliner from the back to the front. First I tried my trusty metal fish tape (just like the one your video) and that didn't work at all because the tapes propensity to coil. I ended up using some solid core electrical wiring which did eventually work but it was a PITA, something like this would have saved me a bunch of time.
These are great for the price. Go easy with them, I broke a couple of the brass joints by pushing a little too hard against an obstruction (I thought it might glance off and continue the run...I was wrong).
I have a couple sets of these....I also have set of these from a name brand that were easily six or eight times the cost of the Harbor Freight sticks when I bought them probably 15 years ago (before I knew about HF). The HF push pole rods are slightly more brittle than the name brand sticks I have, but for the price and my needs the HF set is very, very nice.
I've used both sets from HF a few times. One of the longer rods snapped near the fitting and a fitting came off another rod. In both incidents, very little tension was applied. In short, they're low quality and not very durable. If you're going to use them extensively, I recommend investing in better quality rods, it's not worth the aggravation and waste of time.
An unlimited number can be attached to each other, and although I was quick about it in the video I also showed that they have a 33 foot kit with three foot long sections
My grandma had to go to the store so I used these to push her across the street but now I'm worried if I pull back at the wrong time I could end up losing her! Perhaps they have some sort of cameras tool attachment?
Mine did, too, but I was definitely shoving too hard. I assumed it would stand up to that, but it didn't. Still had enough sections to finish the job, though.
I’ve heard them called fish sticks in the field occasionally but we generally just call them push poles or push rods. Not really considered a type of fish tape.
