Favorite Electrical Tool

[Eieio]

Electricians

What are your favorite tools of the Trade?

What is the tool that has saved you the most time or made your work easier?

[Allrounder]

I'm not a real sparky, but the Klein 1412 stripper would get my pick. It speeds up wiring considerably for me.

[sparkydave]

I use wirestrippers that strip 14/2 or 12/2 romex (nmd-90?) with a flick of the wrist. When i demonstrate them to the younger guys, they are not interested. Electricians are bad that way, they don't mind coming up with something themselves or copying, but tell them anything, fugetaboutit.
Saves a lot of time when tying in. Unlike almost every other guy on this orb, after hanging boxes and drilling, i pull wire around the outside walls, say, for a few plugs, strip the wire and tie in and staple as i work around the wall. When I cut the wire, I strip both ends and get them in the box, rather than pull wire in (2 ft waste) like i see a lot of guys doing.

At my age, I have to work smart to stay ahead of the young guys.

[sparkydave]

Another one is tone generator, clamp on and you can trace any wire in the house. Just started using one a few months ago, now I can't live without it. I had to sort out a big mess in a 7000 sqft house that the inspector wouldn't pass and the original contractor thought he couldn't be fired because he was the only one who knew where the wiring went. I found wires in walls behind drywall, tore the 400 amp service and lighting control panels apart and totally rebuilt them over several weeks. I don't think I could have done it without the Fluke tester, $134.00 CDN monopoly money at Home Depot, pay for itself one use. They've been around for a while, current models I beleive are more powerful.

Dave