The Design of the KUSH-PULL™

My name is William Kushnick and I am the designer of the KUSH-PULL wire pulling device. I am a Certified Master Locksmith, Certified Professional Safe Technician and a Certified Forensic Locksmith. I do mostly industrial and commercial work, and I install access control systems.

When I install these systems, I mainly enjoy installing the hardware. I can do a fair job of programming the system, and although I do an excellent job pulling the wire, I find that aspect to be the most tedious. One reason I do such a good job pulling the wire, locating it and securing it is because I do not want to have to look at it again. If there is a component that malfunctions, so be it, but my idea of a good time is not searching through several hundred feet of a wire run to find a break .

Over the years, I have purchased many labor saving devices for pulling wire through ceilings in office buildings, but there were still problems doing it quickly and efficiently. Sometimes, while pulling the wire up from the spools into the drop ceiling, the wire would snag or the jacket would get scraped on the drop ceiling grid. A friend of mine who pulls miles of wire told me that he wedged a Bic pen into the corner of the ceiling tile grid to get past that problem. Not the greatest, but it worked for him.

There were also problems with my wires getting tangled in other wires that were already in the ceiling. Sometimes going over ductwork, the wires would snag or get scraped.

There had to be a better way.

I was aware of beam clamps that support pipe hangers, ductwork and other such hardware. I thought that that was the best way to attack the problem of securing a device temporarily to the bar joists. Bar joists are what we most commonly find supporting the floor or roof above, inside of the drop ceilings. Beam clamps would work very well for this.

I then in my travels came across the clevis assembly that you will see utilized in the KUSH-PULL design. It happens to be a good stout unit that is forged steel. I attached this with Grade 8 bolts welded to a ¼” thick steel plate. Since it only required adding the second bolt perpendicular to the first, I realized that I could now pull wire not just vertically, but horizontally as well.

The clevises came with cotter pins, because the devices for which they were built were a semi-permanent fixture. I used hitch pins so the wire could easily be removed from the KUSH-PULL when the pull was done.

Then, I thought, what about wood frame construction? Do I need to make a second device to work just for that. Not necessary. I drilled two holes in the steel plate of the KUSH-PULL to secure it to wood beams, joists or trusses with two sheet metal screws. With a screw gun–zip, zip. It’s installed.

Once the wire is pulled, just secure it and remove your KUSH-PULLs.

There are several benefits when using the KUSH-PULL. The wire moves smoothly through the rollers. The wires are protected from snagging and scraping on sharp edges and corners. You can go over ductwork and other impediments in the ceiling and you can run long spans if you have several KUSH-PULLs. Also, your wires are kept isolated from others in the drop ceiling.

When I first wanted to test some of my prototype models, I had a 150 foot wire run, then a left turn and 30 more feet of run to do in an open warehouse. My assistant and I had access to a scissor lift and the two of us went on it. We set one KUSH-PULL on the bar joist directly above the 6 boxes of low voltage wire. I inserted the 6 cables through it and he drove the lift while I held the cables. The wire followed smoothly behind us and about halfway down the 150 foot run, we stopped and added a second KUSH-PULL. We then continued and the wire spooled out evenly and smoothly until we got to the end of the 150 foot run. We then added a third KUSH-PULL, this time using the bolt on the horizontal axis, so we could make the left hand turn. The wire followed along smoothly even around the corner.

At this point, we started securing the wire with tie wraps and removing the three KUSH-PULLs. The entire wire run took all of about 20 minutes. It worked great!

Finally, I would like to say that the KUSH-PULL is made to last. Nothing annoys me more than paying my hard earned money to buy a tool and it is made like crap. The KUSH-PULL is made from ¼” steel plate for the backing, ½”-20 fine thread, Grade 8 bolts and the best beam clamps I could find. All the permanent connections are MIG welded together for longevity. It should last a lifetime.