Let’s just admit it – we no longer know how to live or survive without electricity. However, appliances are not always infallible: they fail, they break down, they cause problems in the installations or they can even leave us without light! Luckily, in case there’s no place for a couple of electronic advances, we can always rely on the usefulness of electrician’s tool kits.
When performing these kinds of tasks at home, it’s simply required to have a series of basic tools and the major goal lies in performing the job in the best possible way. Some of them are commonly used in DIY projects and every house contains at least a couple of them – however, in these cases, we need some specific things that could be used properly only by professionals. That’s the only way to make sure that enough security is provided for the work performers.
Before we see the list of the instruments that linemen simply can’t function without, let’s outline the major point: they need to possess quite a significant feature in order to carry out such activities and not to take risks.
These must be insulating.
Meeting this condition is kind of crucial as otherwise, when dealing with cables that contain electricity, the absence of insulation might cause an accident – and nobody wants that. Also, it should always be verified that the cables with which the professional’s work don’t contain the current. Everything should always be kept clean, neat and stored in dry places. And everything needs to be of high quality in order to satisfy the needs of the required work performance.
And now, let’s see the list.
1. Screwdriver
No wonder it’s an essential tool – ‘cause it’s a fundamental one for many house crafts or activities. On the one hand, we need a common screwdriver with the handle and part of the blade covered by an insulating system, but the ideal would be to have several with different heads: star, slotted, etc. You never know what kind of nail you’re going to bump into, but the most used one is probably the slotted one. There are screwdrivers of various sizes and heads that allow adapting to many types of screws. In some of them, the head is interchangeable, while in others the handle and the tip are part of the same piece and, therefore, are fixed.
2. Tester screwdriver
Well, an immensely necessary tool when working in areas where there may be electric current – and, basically, that’s what repairmen do all the time. Test lights represent a very useful, practical and cheap security system – manufactured in the form of a screwdriver, with a translucent handle, they have a neon gas lamp with a resistor. When you touch a power cord or a socket with it and put your finger on the metal part, the lamp turns on if there’s electricity. Its function is to detect this current even in installations that may not be well insulated. They’re therefore a safety tool that shouldn’t be missing in your screwdriver kit.
It’s important to note that it’s not one of the pieces whose function is to screw or unscrew, but a tool whose objective is to verify the flow of current in both circuits and appliances.
3. Electrical test kit
A tester is a very simple measuring device and, depending on our needs, quite affordable. With the tester we can check if a bulb is burned out, the charge of a battery, the state of the socket in the house or small appliances functions.
The device consists of a digital screen which serves to show us the data and pliers that are used for taking the measurements. There’s no need to worry when putting the pliers in the sockets – they are completely and properly insulated.
4. Flashlight
Generally, repairmen in this area perform their activities without electricity and therefore without any light, so a flashlight might be one of the key items when doing this kind of job. It’s vitally important to have it in any home, especially if we need to remove the light to do some housework. So, if you’re trying to make some serious manoeuvres, make sure you always have batteries or at least know where the spare ones are! In addition to all this, in some DIY shops you can find solar power LED flashlights that don’t even need batteries.
5. Plies
The pliers have extra safety to ensure the user’s physical condition. It’s of paramount importance to be rather careful when buying an pliers kits since an incorrect choice can be quite dangerous. There are economic and high-quality models that might be found in the supermarket or craft shops, but it’s not always possible to find types that are specially designed for such works.
Plies are used when working with wires that might have active current. Although it’s recommended to work after having cut the power supply, this isn’t always the case, which means that professionals need to stock up on the right tools to ensure their physical condition. Thanks to the pliers and tweezers for those handy men you can easily cut, strip and bend cables.
6. Wire strippers
As the name implies, this utensil helps to strip wires easily and quickly. They are very useful because it saves professionals a lot of work. The stripping tongs are used to extract the insulation that the cables have to be protected. The wire stripper are the tools we use to remove the insulation or the outer shell, a tube of insulating material, which the cables are wrapped with in order to remain protected.
7. Rubber grommets
Such a small item – and such an important one. A rubber grommet is inserted into a hole in a metal one in order to protect the cable that goes through and that could otherwise get damaged against the edge of the metal item and make many more harms. Rubber grommets are often manufactured from high-quality NBR (nitrile butadiene rubber) and are often characterized by their black color. It’s possible to find them anywhere, but if you want to get the best ones, give your trust to steadily built manufacturers – so just go and learn more here.
8. Electrical tape
This tape is definitely the one preferred among the professionals as it’s able to withstand the current flow thanks to the material it was made of, making it adhere much better and not get easily damaged over time. It’s used to insulate the wires and provide security to the people who handle them. That is why it’s on the list of the most desirable items in the kit.
9. Electrician scissors
When dealing with cables requires delicacy and extra precision, instead of working with the brute force of the pliers, we need the quality of one of the most accurate hand tools that exist: the electrician scissors.
Depending on the brand and model, we can find scissors with different characteristics, such as the ones with a built-in wire stripper or various types of insulating coating. But something they all have in common is the incredible sharpness of their blade. From the most economical model to the most complete utensils, there’s no model that doesn’t have incredible performance in terms of cable cutting.
Well, those were the most common tools of electricians and also the most practical ones. If they still don’t form a part of your backpack or your handy kit, make sure to change that – it’s something every electrician, even if he’s a starter, needs to possess when performing any work related to this field.
