Electrician's fish tape

Claim 1

For use in an electrical fish tape reel assembly in which a reel includes a generally annular tape-receiving chamber peripherally bounded by a pair of axially opposed lips adapted to separate to permit winding and unwinding of a fish tape in the chamber, the improvement comprising a tape winder adapted to be mounted between the lips so as to project outside of the reel and constructed to be moved peripherally around the reel between the lips, a tape passage through the tape winder for passage of the tape therethrough, a counter chamber in the tape winder, a handle on the tape winder, the tape passage being directed outwardly through the winder at an oblique angle to the radius of the reel and extending through the counter chamber for passage of the tape therethrough, the tape passage including an inlet passage on the inside of the winder and an outlet passage on the outside thereof spaced from each other to provide an aligned rectilinear path for a free span of tape in the counter chamber, and a counter mechanism in the counter chamber mounted on one side of the tape passage including a rotary drive wheel in fixed position in the counter chamber, the radius of the drive wheel being greater than the distance between its axis and the rectilinear path for the free span of tape to provide a positive friction drive between the tape and the drive wheel so that the counter mechanism will indicate a linear measure for the tape fed to and from the reel.