Monday, December 10, 2018

My Tool All-Stars

I began my career as an electrician in the year 1965 when Dad first paid me at the rate of $1.50 per hour to help him wire a cold storage warehouse. Soon after I started, Dad put together a tool pouch for me with a few carefully selected hand tools. It is amazing how little you can accomplish without a metal tool in your hand. Fingers are nearly useless for turning a simple screw. After working a few hundred hours with my tool pouch belted to my left hip (I am left-handed), these few tools became an extension of my body. My hand fell to the desired tool without looking and with little groping as each tool has its own unique feel. After more than 50 years of companionship, my tool pouch has changed very little from the one Dad first gave me. I've always used a leather pouch made by the Klein tool company, having eschewed the padded-nylon fabric pouches that are currently popular. Leather does a much better job of molding itself around the tool in response to its constant touch. They do a better job of holding the tools in place while bending over and crawling around in tight places. They are also a long-lived creature; I believe I am using only my 3rd pouch in all these decades. It's a good thing I am near the end of my career as I can no longer find my favorite pouch on the Klein website.



 Tool selection for a comfortable hip pouch is an critical compromise. Too many tools are a burden that impinges on the required athleticism of the all-round wireman. Too few and you'll be running back to the truck too often.  Dad's pouch included the following tools:

• Large straight-blade screwdriver. This is likely to be pressed into service as a pry bar or chisel.

• Small straight-blade screwdriver. Also good for punching small holes and probing behind drywall.

• Long-nose pliers. You simply can't be an electrician without these bionic fingertips - most often used to wrap the end of a wire around the head of a screw.

• Folding electrician's knife. Used for stripping insulation off wire and many other things.

• Diagonal cutters. Fondly referred to as "dikes." A good pair of high-leverage Kleins are worth their weight in gold and will cut nails almost as easily as copper wire.

• Lineman's Pliers. These have a broad, flat nose with generous knurled gripping surface and side cutters. Also, not bad as a little hammer to beat on the end of a screwdriver.

• Electrical tape. Uses are obvious - binding things together and insulating live parts.

To this basic assortment I soon added the Phillips screwdriver as we increasingly encountered this type of screw. Next was the 1/4" nut driver as we began using a hex-head screw to mount things on wood. After about 15 years of doing things Dad's way I began to make adaptations of my own. I changed to a different model of Klein leather pouch that included a hammer loop. I threw out the lineman's pliers because they are heavy and I found that 95% of the time I had been using them as a hammer against the end of my screwdriver. The only wire strippers Dad had were a bulky and complex contraption that gripped and stripped in one motion. Clever, but they didn't fit into a compact pouch so I either used a knife (slow) or made a trip to the truck to fetch the stripping gadget (inefficient).  Some cheap and simple wire strippers to the rescue. I doubt Dad would have approved of this as he exhibited a great fondness for excessively complex solutions to mechanical problems. I tired of running back to the truck to fetch my bulky multi-meter merely to determine if a wire was hot so I added a little volt-stick type non-contact tester. I'd love to carry some Channellock adjustable pliers but they are a bit too large for my favored pouch so I find myself gripping and twisting things with long-nose. Plus, they rattle when I walk and it was the rattle of the electrical tape chain that finally irked me enough to induce me to whack it from my pouch. It's good to sever oneself from these little annoyances.

 Tools in my current pouch.


Now I come to the selection of the tools that have made the most dramatic improvement in my professional life. These, I call my
 Tool All-Stars.

Whenever I encounter an electrical box fastened down with the old flat-head, straight-blade wood screws I nearly shriek in horror at the suffering they undoubtedly wrought upon the old-time electricians. Just removing one is bad enough. It must have been sometime in the late 70's that electrical wholesalers started offering the Robertson Head sheet metal screws and drivers. Also known as Locked Recessed or square drive, these screws have long been the standard screw in Canada and have made a huge difference in the lives of electricians. They are not perfect but will take a lot of torque without stripping out and stick on the end of the screwdriver better that any economical and practical screw I've tried.

Robertson Head screw and driver





My first cordless drill didn't see much use. An electrician wants a drill with good power and battery life. The early drills were not up to the task. My second drill was a Makita that proved very handy. While it had nowhere near the power of a corded drill it served well enough to revolutionize the jobsite. Later DeWalt drills were much improved but the old Makita was an All-Star tool in its time.

Makita 9.6-volt cordless drill


Speaking of Dewalts, my collection of 18-volt yellow tools has proved to be much more robust than I would have imagined. The oldest drill is still going strong after 2 decades of heavy use and abuse. The Ni-cad batteries tend to last about 3 years before they become too week for hard industrial use. I try to have at least 3 good batteries in the truck ready to go. We've used them for driving screws more than drilling holes since much of our drilling involves 1/2" and larger holes through 2 or 3 layers of 2-by material but they have been a huge time saver. We also use them for cutting conduit holes on metal cabinets with carbide bits.




As a sub-category to the cordless drill I should give honorable mention to the keyless chuck. This invention has saved me almost as much time as the cord-free drill itself. Once exposed to this time-saver I began to loath the chucks on my corded drills. I managed to find a 1/2" DeWalt pistol-style corded drill with a keyless chuck and a button on the side to lock the rotor while applying a goodly amount of torque to the chuck collar. My only real complaint with this drill is that it has almost too much power for one-handed use. This has forced me depend on the big right-angle Timberwolf for heavy drilling.


Dad always bought GMC pickup trucks and had a service body installed. These had 6 or more compartments on the outside making for easy access to tools and parts. The wide horizontal door swung down to form a very useful work bench. When I talked to electricians working out of a standard cargo van I always got negative reviews. They had to crawl over a pile of parts to get to anything. The problem we had with our service bodies was the low, Dad-built canopies which required us to crawl over a pile of parts to get to the items too large to fit into the side compartments. I tried going without the canopy but an open truck parked outside in a snowfall made for a real mess.  When driving down the highway boxes holding lightweight parts had a habit blowing out in the wind.

As a solution I thought I might purchase a 10' box van and build doors and compartments into the side walls. This would give me a 6' ceiling inside plus all the utility of the service body. I was only beginning an internet search when I came across a box van that already had the side compartments. I knew the moment I saw the photo I had to have one. I was only able to locate this one used van for sale on a truck lot in Palo Alto. I flew down the next day and drove it home. This truck made electrical work almost fun. I can't imagine the agony of going back to the old trucks. It holds my conduit, 10' extension ladder and has 40 feet of shelving above a 4' X 10' floor.




Next on the list is a great cordless circular saw with an All-Star blade. I saw a new Milwaukee cordless, metal-cutting  circular saw being demonstrated and knew I needed one. This saw was basically their standard cordless wood saw with an extended shroud over the blade to cut down on the flying metal shavings. It was fairly expensive so I reasoned that I might put up with  the flying shrapnel and put the Milwaukee blade in a standard DeWalt saw I already had the batteries for. This has worked so well I haven't used a hacksaw once in over 10 years. It will cut 2" rigid conduit, uni-strut, re-bar and just about anything else, metal or plastic. It doesn't have enough "set" in the teeth for wood but is usable for short cuts.
 
 The key is getting the expensive metal-cutting blade.


Here is a tool I didn't think I really needed but now I use it all the time. A home handyman told me his impact driver "changed his life" so I thought it deserved a second look. It works like an compressed-air impact wrench on a smaller scale, using our existing DeWalt batteries. The really handy feature of this tool is the 1/4" snap-in chuck that accepts our numerous screwdriver and nut driver bits. It now drives most of our screws and uses less battery power doing it. I also found that snapping in a 1/2" socket drive adapter and 1" socket, it has enough beans to use with a 2" Knock-Out punch. This saves a lot of arm work wrenching on a big ratchet handle.

 


Battery technology has made great strides since I bought my first 18-volt DeWalt tool. Manufacturers have upped the ante with higher voltages, amp-hour ratings and lithium technology. I saw no reason to ditch my trusty DeWalts when they were serving so well and I had a lot invested in tools, batteries and chargers.

Then it happened. A plumber showed up at the job site with a drill that rocked my cordless world. Plumbers drill a lot of very large holes. It was plumbers that lifted the original 1970 Milwaukee Hole-Hawg to its reign as king of 1/2" drill motors. I never owned one but instead opted for the newer Black & Decker Timberwolf as it had a bit more power and worked in tighter spaces.

 Enter the drill of my dreams -- the Milwaukee M18 FUEL cordless Hole Hawg. When the plumber told me he never gets out his old corded drill when drilling out a new house I was totally captivated. I watched him buzz through a double 2X6 with a 4-1/4" hole saw in mere seconds and I came down with a severe case of power tool envy. It was only when I learned the price that I had to take a deep breath and ponder the necessity of owning such a piece.

This new drill is amazing and worth the price. We drilled out an entire 3-bedroom house on 2 battery charges! It runs through 6 stacked studs with a 3/4" auger bit faster than the mighty Timberwolf! How is this possible? I don't really know but I think it has something to do with the new brushless DC motor technology. I went for the big 9 amp-hour battery and this drill just rocks. If that wasn't enough, it comes with a snap-in chuck that accepts all my newer auger bits and a hole saw arbor. No more fumbling for the chuck key. No more time spent twisting and wrenching to insure the bit is held tight in the chuck. This drill is so impressive I bought a second one. How many times have I climbed a ladder only to find the extension cord is caught on something forcing me to climb back down and back up again? They should eventually pay for themselves in increased productivity. Until then they make the work a lot less aggravating and that is worth a lot.


Wonder Drill of the AGE




Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Pirsig's Wisdom

From   Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig



“Peace of mind isn’t at all superficial, really,” I expound. “It’s the whole thing. That which produces it is good maintenance; that which disturbs it is poor maintenance. What we call workability of the machine is just an objectification of this peace of mind. The ultimate test’s always your own serenity. If you don’t have this when you start and maintain it while you’re working you’re likely to build your personal problems right into the machine itself.”

“The test of the machine is the satisfaction it gives you. There isn’t any other test. If the machine produces tranquility it’s right. If it disturbs you, it’s wrong until either the machine or your mind is changed. The test of the machine’s always your own mind. There isn’t any other test.”

“The craftsman isn’t ever following a single line of instruction. He’s making decisions as he goes along. For that reason he’ll be absorbed and attentive to what he’s doing even though he doesn’t deliberately contrive this. His motions and the machine are in a kind of harmony. He isn’t following any set of written instructions because the nature of the material at hand determines his thoughts and motions, which simultaneously change the nature of the material at hand. The material and his thoughts are changing together in a progression of changes until his mind’s at rest at the same time the material’s right.”

“Sounds like art,” the instructor says.

“Well, it is art,” I say. “This divorce of art from technology is completely unnatural. It’s just that it’s gone on so long you have to be an archeologist to find out where the two separated.”


Sunday, July 12, 2009

Necessary Evil

I think of government as a necessary evil. It is both necessary and evil. Without it there is usually anarchy, chaos and rampant evil as the strong rule over the week. With a carefully measured amount of it there is a chance for justice, peace and prosperity. Government is evil because it’s only action is one of force. When the amount of government grows beyond what is necessary to achieve this balance of justice, the element of necessity recedes leaving the other element to dominate – that being evil. With excessively powerful government, whether by dictatorship or democratic majority, the strong are again found to rule over the weak. Only at the balance point of necessity do we avoid the concentration of evil at either end.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

What is Torture?

The definition of torture is in the news these days. The United Nations has a fairly loose definition that includes this key phrase: “…any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted…” Mental pain could easily include a wide universe of emotional and psychological effects. Personally, I imagine that being sent to a maximum-security prison, where I would be very much in fear of being beaten, raped or killed by fellow inmates, would be a kind of “severe” mental pain. Can we safely say that inflicting such fear in a person is humane while other forms of mental pain, such as sleep deprivation, are not? Is mental pain acceptable if it is less extreme but spread over a longer period of time? In my profession I have had occasion to receive many accidental electrical shocks. The pain is quite severe but very short in duration. I much prefer this kind of momentary pain to the extended emotional pain experienced during family strife or in anticipation of a government audit.

When I was young and first exposed to stories of medieval torture techniques, I saw the deliberate mutilation of the victim’s body as being the unconscionable core element of torture. The infamous Thumbscrews, Rack and Iron Maiden seemed horrific beyond my curiosity to even imagine the suffering. But it is not the initial pain alone that makes me shudder; it is the lasting agony of damaged flesh and bones should one be allowed to live on. This is definitely torture.

Watching the controversy unfold over interrogation techniques used on terrorists in an attempt to save more lives from being lost in the future attacks likely to come, I have attempted to arrive at my own definition of torture. For now I am satisfied with the notion that inflicting lasting physical damage to a person’s body for the purposes of coercion or punishment is torture. Making a person fear for their life does not seem to qualify. If it did we would not be able to incarcerate criminals into the general prison population. Inflicting mental anguish, in most cases that I can imagine, would not qualify for the same reason. If the treatment went on to the extent of causing a person to be permanently mentally debilitated, then I would say the line has been crossed. I have recently learned that we have waterboarded thousands of our own agents and soldiers as part of their training! It sounds extremely unpleasant but in such extreme situations as we have found ourselves in following the 9/11 attacks, I wouldn’t call it unconscionable or torture. Now, if it’s driving sticks under the fingernails, then yes.

When news broke of prisoners being taken to our base on Cuba, my immediate thought was that this was a big mistake. These kinds of ideological warriors cannot be rehabilitated and released to their homes. I thought it would have been much better if they had died in a firefight -- that we should have made sure that they did. Now I am aware of the vitally important information we were able to obtain from some of these prisoners. Getting this information has likely saved many lives but I can’t help but believe there was a better way to handle the whole situation as the resulting quagmire is far from being resolved.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Inauguration Day

They say we are swearing in our first "black" president today. Obama is black because his father is African? What if Africans had settled America and for a time enslaved captured Europeans? Would we be calling Obama our first white president? Africans have brown skin and Europeans have an odd light tan color. Calling us black and white seems like a bizarre exaggeration designed to perpetuate racism. When I look at Obama on TV he appears to have a slightly darker shade of tan than many of the people around him. So what? When will this preoccupation with skin color and ethnic origin end so we can talk about things that really matter? We often hear that Obama is the most leftward leaning member of the Senate and I never hear anybody disagree with that. Where he will lead this nation is vitally important. His skin is not.

Friday, December 5, 2008

The Sinister Signpost

Our governor Gregoire was on national TV tonight. She has allowed a sign listing a vitriolic atheist manifesto against religion to be placed next to a nativity display in our state capital. This in the name of what? Equal time/space? I think we can see where this kind of silliness will lead. In a nation made up largely of Christians we have a long tradition under attack. Should the Nativities have been allowed in the first place? I'm not going to define separation of church and state here. I have to wonder though, why the teachings of Jesus do not have a legitimate place in our national consciousness alongside those of Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King. We have a paid holiday in Jesus' honor. We don't need to accept the miracles to recognize the immensity of his contribution to our heritage of brotherly love and mutual respect. One could argue that much of what makes America great is due in no small part to Jesus. Why should the government not sponsor a display depicting this important birth? Are the atheists really so offended by his teachings? Should the Neo Nazis be offered space in our capital to explain what offends them? I might like to put up a board myself.

Correction

California's vote on Proposition 8 was essentially a test to see if homosexual "marriage" is politically correct. The answer is no, it is not politically correct. Not in California. Not at this time. The body politic has spoken. A bit of a twist.