Same here! I used to do PBXs and 5ESSs. I also did a lot of cryptography and government communications where we had to do all of that INSIDE of conduit; which we bent and installed first. I've gone through more bags of zip-ties/tie-wraps in my life than I have individual beers. The guy who was my mentor had a pair of yard pruning shears that were razor sharp. If he didn't like what you did; he sliced out all of your wiring, and ripped out all of the conduit with a portable bandsaw. For inspection, he'd kick you out of the room/building; and you would re-enter to him either nodding or walking away from a pile of $hit on the floor. One only had to see that pile of copper and steel one time to know you were not going to make that mistake again.

Consequently, I go a little overboard when installing anything in my house, barn, boat, truck; etc. etc. In my experience, you can't troubleshoot something down the road if you can't tell what you are looking at.

I started doing Nortel DMS-100 then moved into wireless. Wireless standards were pretty lax at the time so they brought a bunch of the landline guys over to clean up the wireless offices, spent a few years doing that. There was a guy similar to that in our area, same thing if it didn't pass his quality he just cut it out and you started over. If you failed an audit, you got fired. One thing it did was teach attention to detail and pride in work, and like you said it carries over into every other cabling, wiring, plumbing project you do from that point on. I still have bins of ty-wraps, lacing cord and flag-tags that I saved over the years.

wow this talk of PBX'z and Nortell realy takes me back to my Motorola days working on EMX2500's in R&D :D I still have bags of zip-ties in the garage! I haven't bought any in a good 15yrs now! LOL