An American Success Story
By Arthur Folsom
When you meet William Ames you are greeted with a winning smile and a ‘can do’ attitude. He made his living as a union electrician for the better part of his career. I met him via a mutual friend, which you will find is a common occurrence with William. He is gifted at the art of networking among other things. When asked how he came up with the idea, he has no trouble relating the story.
“About ten years ago, I was working on a job site, where we were pulling some undergroun d wire (350MCM) and on the last 90 coming up into the switchgear, the wire sock we were using let go, leaving us in quite a bad spot. It was a situation that every electrician dreads. We could see the wire in the conduit, but we had no way of getting a hold of it to pull it out. I remember talking with my friend James Stcyr about why there wasn’t a tool designed to reach down and grab the wire, so we could finish the pull. As it was, we had to pull the wire out and start the entire wire pull all over again. The contractor lost a lot of money.
That night I had a dream about a new type of tool for rescuing the wire. I woke up at about 3am and sketched it out. The next day I showed it to my friend James and he said I might have something, so I decided to move forward on the design. I spent some time developing the idea. I met with Jeremy Wheaton via a friend. At the time he was making his living as a graphic designer. We worked for about a week on creating a virtual model of the tool and how it worked, an d when it was complete, I realize d what I really had. I spent the next 3-5 years refining the tool and designing it to be the only rescue tool on the market. It was during this time that I realized it could be used as the primary pulling tool with some minor modifications.”
When I asked William to expand on the history of his invention, he made sure to credit those members of his team that assisted him in realizing this American dream, success story.
Ames goes on to say, “Just in the design alone, there were over a hundred different changes in body and tooth configurations before a viable solution was reached. After that the tool went through about six months of refinement and R&D. It took me over nine and a half years to bring this to the market with a reliability that the contractors must have. It started out as a bar of aluminum and progressed to forged aluminum, but neither had the tensile strength that the job required. We very quickly ended up at the stainless steel solution we use today. As I said, it was originally created for a wire rescue tool, not a main pulling device. As time and thought progressed I realized that we had no need of rescue tool if the “Wire Snagger” could be used as a main pulling device. I reconfigured the tool to make it a primary pulling tool. After we ( Jeremy Wheaton and I) decide d we were ready to file for a patent, we brought in another friend of mine, who happened to be a top notch business consultant, George Cassell of UTT Consulting. He helped Jeremy and I us form the corporation known as BendyCo. George laid the groun d work and helped us me complete the market research that showed just how much value in time and labor the tool saves in the field. I started making prototypes. At that point we were still not telling anyone anything about what we were working on. All of us were working at other jobs, so everything we were doing was done in the spare time that none of us had. Once we had viable prototypes, we brought on M.B.A. Ben Waidhofer, whose extensive background in marketing and business, allowed us Waidhoffer to take on the development and capitalization of the company. It was a little rough at first, but once Ben and George where on board, the momentum started to feel unstoppable. It was a fun ride from that point on. In September of 2004 the BendyCo store opened allowing for distributors or consumers to purchase Wire Snaggers direct from BendyCo. Ben and Jeremy set up the store to have comprehensive eCommerce capabilities including tracking, payment history and order status. In October of ‘04, BendyCo Incorporated demonstrated the Wire Snagger at N.E.C.A. 2004 in Los Angeles, CA an d won the “N.E.C.A. Show Stopper” award. December of ‘04 we filmed the Wire Snagger 2000 onsite at a Light Rail project in Folsom, CA where a veteran crew running 500 MCM 5kV cable was amazed at how much time and effort was saved. Then in January of ‘05 we launched a new website that was more customer friendly and in February, we were contacted by Rectorseal Corp. RectorSeal who was interested in purchasing the design and taking it national. All the while, the R&D never stopped and I eventually came to the current design that I felt would best serve the industry. Now I am consulting for Rectorseal RectorSeal Sales and Development. I have since come up with more future modifications that will be up for consideration implemented in the near future.”
Per the economist, value is the key to understanding any market. When I asked William to explain how the Wire Snagger provides value, his reply was enthusiastic:
“The tool works on the principal of progressive applied force and “One-way action”. The basic action is multiple rows of teeth aligned in opposition to the resistance and the weight of the wire when being pulled, not unlike the teeth of a snake which only allow the mouse to go one way once caught. As the pull begins, the teeth are set into the insulation and as the force increases they pierce the insulation and begin biting into the copper or aluminum underneath. The more force is applied; the deeper the teeth bite in. A simple concept and principle that supports uses in other industries not originally conceived of.
“The value of the tool comes from the time and effort that it replaces. When we did our first field research, we came up with a scenario that most electricians had experience with. It goes like this: You are looking at a 200 ft. main feeder 500 MCM wire pull. The wire reels are set up behind you, and you are ready to attach your standard pulling sock. The task before you includes: grouping the wires together, taping that bundle together as tightly as possible, and then covering them with in a wire sock . Care must be taken to prevent injury from cable burrs as you work. and threading and tying the wires, which must then be taped. You are likely sitting in the excavation or kneeling in the dirt or gravel. Care must be taken to prevent injury from cable burrs as you work. The base of the pulling sock must now be tie wired to the feeder cables, and then the whole project must be taped together. Changes in wire size will increase the time needed to secure the sock slightly.
“Based on our national research, which included members from local unions across the U.S., the associated time for this part of the project worked out to be from no less than fifteen minutes up to 45 minutes just for set up. For three journeymen electricians at an average cost of $62.70 per hour, with an estimated 30 minutes set up time, that is approximately equal to a labor cost of $94.05 (Based on 3 journeymen, 1 pulling, 2 feeding. Multiply that by an average of 150 pulls in a year and you have a cost of over $14,000.00 per year in savings, not including breaking down the wire head after the pull, which is also faster with the Snagger). Some electricians may pull more, some less, but it saves you money anytime you use it and eliminates one of the duties that most electricians hate anyway.
“The value of the Snagger device is best seen when used together in a 4X assembly as your main pulling device wire connector. For example, given the same 200 ft. main feeder pull using 500 MCM, depending on the amount of angles, your tugger should not exceed 4000 lbs. 3000lbs of pulling force. Because the Snagger device has been engineered to accommodate multiple sizes of wire, and in this scenario, each 1625 Snagger device which covers 500 MCM size wire is individually rated to handle 2000 lbs. of pulling force, pulling four 500mcm cables with a ground won’t be a problem given that you have 8000 lbs. of pulling capability available. Further, the time needed to perform the procedure does not change with wire size like it does with a sock, and since pulling strength increases geometrically given an increase in the size of the Snagger snagger there are virtually no limits to the size or type of wire that can be pulled as long as the teeth have some type of insulation to get them started.
“The associated cost of labor for the Snagger, just to give you an idea of contrast, works out like this: time is approximately 10-15 seconds. Even at the same labor cost of three electricians at the same rate of $62.70 per hour each, your total cost of labor for the same process is $0.50 to $0.80. Because our device accommodates varying sizes of wire, the procedure does not change with wire size. The devices are engineered for superior grip and pulling strength collectively individually, and can be rigged to use a single device multiple devices to accommodate a smaller the pull. We are continuing to search for ways to improve the device, save time and money and reduce the chance of repetitive stress injuries on the job.”
William Ames currently works as a consultant for RectorSeal Corporation, who has since purchased the rights to manufacture the Wire Snagger, where he continues to search for ways to make the chores of the working man a little easier, more efficient and less expensive. When reviewing how the tool is being received by the electrical industry, it seemed like a good idea to leave the reviews in the words of the individuals who have used it in the field.
“This is the best tool I have seen come down the pike in 10 years” -- Distributor Mgr.
“We would have to have our head examined if we didn’t buy these tools”. -- Forman; National Electrical Contracting Firm.
“I think it’s a great idea whose time has come” -- Dave; 30 year Journeyman.
So there you have it, an American success story about a man with a good idea who, with a great deal of perseverance, perspiration and the help of a few good friends, built a tool that fulfilled the need for improvement in a process and attracted the attention of contractors, distributors and investors alike and, in my opinion, will likely change the wire pulling industry altogether.
