Electrician Tools: The Vital Ones You Need in Your Kitty

Electrical tools are vital commodities for professional electricians as much as households. While the latter usually stores the basic ones, some of the modern devices can only be found with the pros. For electricians, the job of accomplishing their task can become painstaking if they do not have the access to the right tools. Having the exact ones for their need actually allow them to perform their roles efficiently and most importantly, conforming to set safety standards.

Think of installation or fixing of wires, fixtures, and you will know the necessity of stocking basic tools. Particularly for electricians, basic tools include safety tools, diagnostic tools and functional tools. Under safety tools you have protective gear, ladders and lighting while voltages and stud measure comes under diagnostic tools. For power tools like screwdrivers and pliers, one must look for functional tools.

Why use tools at all? – Electrician Tools

Electrical job can be a painstaking if the choice of tools is incorrect. Over the years, electricians have used an array of machines to perform their job. In fact, few were recognized to be ideal in using from homes, so homeowners also incorporate few with them, especially keeping in mind that emergencies can arise and expert help cannot always be had.

Now that both house members and electricians have added to their toolboxes with newer gadgets, few of them being quite expensive or some branded ones having high end features, it is imperative that they help in finishing work faster and better than before.

Besides, brick and mortar stores when added to certain online retailers make the availability and purchase of these vital tools easier.

Must have tools for electricians and electrical contractors

Any person involved with electrical work will certainly carry a kit or a bag with his essentials. Though most basic tools are nowadays stored by households, yet professionals carry their own for safety reasons. Regardless of the type of job they need to finish, here are few essential tools considered ‘must have’ for them:

– Hammer: Not that wood cutters are only in dire need of them, but electricians use hammer to fix certain straps on gadgets or when servicing some other one.

– Torpedo level: Using a level will actually ensure in making the work level and plumb. A proper installation begins with straight switch and outlet covers.

– Cutting pliers: Often called side snips, the wires are best cut using these specially designed tools. Even the tightest areas where wires need to be trimmed can accommodate the pliers.

– Voltage detector: For a quick safety check, the voltage or current flow can be checked using these. Most of them are automatic and can be turned on using a switch.

– Voltmeter: In order to find whether circuits are ‘live’ or not, there are plenty of volt meters to serve the need.

– Tape measure: If heights for switches and outlets need to be measured, the tape measure is the ideal fit. It can also be used to center the lighting fixture boxes.

Here’s taking a look at some of the most common types of electrician tools used:

Cable Tools – Electrician Tools

For cable installation, several wires that supply electric power are needed. Besides, line installers and repairers know that frequent repairs are common, so the demand for modern tools that complete the job timely increases.

Few common ones are enlisted below:

– Termination kits and components
– Plastic cable installation tools
– Duct cutting tools
– Terminal crimping tools
– Cable cutters
– Multipurpose wiring tools
– Punch down tools

Hand Tools – Electrician Tools

While hand tools are mostly used by woodworkers, electricians are not far behind. If measuring needs to be precise, the selection of hand powered tools must also be supreme. Plenty of such can be found in stores, like the following:

– Screwdrivers of electrician tools: Perhaps the most common of all the hand tools used by electricians is the screwdriver. Available in varied shank lengths, handles, styles and shapes, the screws are best fit using this equipment for almost every electrical job.

• Handles: These can be either of plastic or hardwood. Most come in a rubber grip meant for electrical needs, like rendering better comfort and protection or few with large flutes are highly ergonomic.
• Driver Styles: Regardless of the configurations of screw heads, driver style meant for electrical jobs are generally the standard ones called blade (2mm, 3mm, 4mm, 5mm, 6mm, 9mm), Philips and hexagonal (Allen).
• Shank: Usually this is a steel alloy that can bear any distortion produced by torque. The cross section can be either a round or square (sever cases only). With lengths varying anywhere between 8cm to 40cm, for normal assembly and repair, 25cm lengths are preferred.

– Few sets called power screwdrivers are meant for removing or inserting several screws at the time of assembling or servicing. The common applications include offset stubby and magnetic. On the other hand, jeweler screwdriver sets can be used for delicate jobs.

– Nut drivers: These resemble screwdrivers a lot and are usually designed to include the hexagonal style machine nuts or screw heads. The sizes are aplenty like 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 12, 12, 16 and 18. Those above ½ inches are best meant for switches and potentiometers.

– Wrenches of electrician tools: When the correct size nut driver is unavailable or unfit to use, the wrenches are commonly used for larger nuts in switches, binding posts and potentiometers. The common ones for electrical jobs are box-end, open-end and adjustable.

• Open-end: The length in the jaws’ faces must be snug against both the opposite flats of the nut, so as to minimize nut rounding and slips. The design is such that work can be done in a confined area that allow partial turning of the nut. Generally, the size varies anywhere between 3/16 to 1 inch while lengths of 3 usually come around ½ to 10 inches.
• Box end: Much like nut drivers, the grip is firm. The contact is so tight that any possibility of rounding the nut’s points is minimized considerably. Another similarity with the nut driver is the size, though larger ones are also available but not meant for electricians.
• Adjustable: In this, one jaw of the wrench must be adjusted using a thumb while adjusting the screw fixed at the head of the wrench. Unlike the box end or open end ones, this wrench however, does not offer a very secure grip. At the time of using, one must be sure that the pulling force lies at the jaw lying stationary.

– Pliers: There are two types commonly used for electrical jobs- long nose and slip joint.

• Long Nose: The long and narrow tapered jaws can be smooth or consist of serrations to facilitate better grip. These are most commonly used for PCB assembly.
• Slip Joint: This is particularly designed to hold extremely heavy hardware so that it can be pushed in the chassis. Rib joint pliers can also be used like the slip joint counterparts. The only difference is in the latter’s larger jaw to accommodate larger hardware.

– Fish tapes and poles of electrician tools: The best of fish tapes are large and comfortable to be used for they offer a secure grip, even when someone works wearing hand gloves. The fish poles installation tools help in the wire pulling job in down walls, drop ceilings and few under raised floors.

– Wire strippers: When removing insulation wires or preparing them for some connection involving electricity at the time of repairing or servicing the equipment, the wire strippers come handy. The most common one used is the ‘Miller Stripper‘.

– Diagonal cutters of electrician tools: These are generally used for removing excess wire length and also solder accumulation that builds up on the wire after some soldering work. One thing is that these must not be used like strippers for they can weaken the conductor at the time of insulation.

Power Tools – Electrician Tools

Be it corded or cordless, power tools for electric uses are usually small and lightweight. The common ones used are saw and drills, and also hammers. Depending on the use, the selection of the correct tool is made.

– Saws of electrician tools: There are different kinds of power saws that electricians choose on the basis of the nature of their work. For something versatile and reliable, handheld reciprocating saws are highly popular. Spiral saws are quite similar to the former, but they resort to the blade for cutting with downward, parabolic fluting. Few other types are cut off saws, hole saws and portable band saws (for example, the Milwaukee Deep Cut portable band saw).

– Power drills of electrician tools: Electricians are quite dependent on drills, but the exact tool depends considerably on the kind of application it is used for. The power needed depends on the material used for drilling. In case the use is for fastening work, the lower voltage cordless models fit the bill while drilling into something concrete means a hammer or drill that makes holes faster.

Lighting tools – Electrician Tools

Some of the most innovative lighting tools are currently hot favorites for electricians.

Here’s taking a look at few:

– LED pen lights of electrician tools: Battery powered LED pen lights score in terms of ergonomics and are extremely portable. The shape resembles a standard cuboid and the pen, which makes it look classy. Pen lights can prove extremely handy when installing or fixing a small job owing to its size and easy fit inside the pocket. Talking about brightness, the light comes with while/ SMD/ CO LED providing bright illumination from compact shaped light.

– LED work lights of electrician tools: Whether rechargeable or the flex ones that comes with great linear rotation capacity, the work lights are equipped with advanced technology and offer considerable light to work sites. As the name implies, these are basically the work lights that are best used for core work. Varieties like the folding lights, stick work lights, magnetic lights are common.

– LED flashlights of electrician tools: There are telescoping LED flash lights as well as magnetic ones. Depending on the electrician’s use, the varieties are endless and can be picked at one’s free will. At the time of servicing or repairing a wire, electricians very often resort to these lights for the simple fact they provide immense light and help accomplish the job faster than many others.

– LED indoor lights of electrician tools: With high quality LED indoor lights, one can get the required level of efficiency, performance and styling meant for retail or office lighting purposes. The motion sensor ones are battery operated and look elegant in their compact square designs while the magnetic puck lights are multi functional and are usually oblong or rectangular in shape. As an electrical tool, the high end technology helps in its fixing.

– LED headlamps of electrician tools: Interesting designs characterize these lights. They look great as light gear worn for the head, especially when performing critical electrical work and come with standard batteries. Aside the work purposes, these lights have so much of extra power that one can use it as a biking safety light during expeditions or when crossing rugged terrains. With brightness reaching 20 lumens, another plus pint is the slip design switch making it easier for riders.

– Other LED lights of electrician tools: Few flashlights like the dynamo with lifesaving hammer have 3 LEDs and the output is almost 6 lumens. There’s one switch meant for on and off purposes. These types of lights are multi functional and electricians are saved the hassle of carrying additional tools for they come with hammer and cutter! In much the same way, the octopus lights is fixed on a tri stand so that it can be mounted to serve others’ needs. The practical design and an extreme brightness of 85 lumens generated by 3 PCS AAA batteries help with difficult electrical jobs.

Since electrical parts and the related work have become extremely complex of late, the lighting tools have also witnessed a drastic demand. After all, working with age old machines and tools cannot serve the purpose of fixing or installing electrical aspects. Hence, these lights in particular the LED are supplying high power illumination work wonders to help electricians complete their job, in a jiffy.