All the Tools Apprentice Electricians ABSOLUTELY Need!

today we're going to talk about what tools you need to start as an apprentice electrician [Music] so the first thing you need is a set of drills the cool thing is that you can get a combo set this comes with a impact driver it's got multiple different speed and torque settings and this is a regular drill but it has a hammer drill setting so sometimes you want to drill things you want something lightweight that you can carry on you know you're putting plugs and switches and stuff like that it doesn't weigh a lot but you also want the torque and the hammering behind this impact driver other times you're boring holes and you need a you know high speed or you're gonna be drilling into masonry like you know concrete like this so you're going to want something that can go through masonry as well so two different drills if you only had one and you can only afford one i would say just go with the impact this is a good starter drill and let your journeyman have to go through all the different you know heavier duty or stuff but if you can get them both you'll use them both next up every electrician needs a tape measure and the type of tape measure you get is really really important most people can get by with just any old tape measure but electricians need wide tape measures so you can see how wide the track is on this thing and the reason is is like if we're measuring something we need to be able to pull this tape out and measure really far away especially over our heads as we'll be climbing up on ladders and we need to measure lighting up above our head up on the ladder so we need something that's not going to break and the cool thing is when you stretch this out this has got like a really long break to it most tape measures don't have that what i also like about this is that it's got a magnetic tip so you can actually see on the tip of this thing that it's magnetic it'll stick to metal so if you're in a commercial environment instead of in wood studs like this if you've got metal studs everywhere you can stick this thing up to something metal and it'll hang up there so it's not going to fall so having magnetic tip just a personal choice some people love them some people hate them but i also find it really helpful to find something that has measurements on the front and the back because a lot of times you're going to be below or above so anyways get yourself a good wide tape measure that has a long break on it i think this has got like a 13 foot break it's also a 25 foot tape measure so don't get like a 16 foot or a 12 foot tape measure you're gonna measure in long distances very often you're gonna be measuring things are like 20 22 feet something like that you could get a 30 but then it starts getting bulkier so i don't think that's quite necessary i like the hand size of the 25 it's perfect all right next up the often most used electricians tool out in the market is a stripper you got to have a wire stripper there's tons of different types of these some of them are really small they fit in your hand some of them are a lot bigger most of them will do common sizes like 12 gauge 14 gauge 16 gauge stuff like that some of them will have bigger holes some will have smaller but if you can do anything from like 10 to 20 you're fine most of the time electricians are using number 10 number 12 number 14 that's about it so uh what i like about a set of strippers is you notice there's little holes here and these holes are what you bend your wire with but also these have little threaded holes so you can cut bolts you can thread an actual number six or a number eight bolt which we use all the time as electricians you thread it in there cut it and then unthread it and it doesn't muck up the ends of your thread it actually gives you a perfectly threaded cut bolt so these are really handy i use the crap out of these you will definitely need one next thing electricians use like crazy is the lineman's pliers so these are actually high leverage lineman's pliers they have a long handle which is good because when you go to cut wire uh you want longer handles because if if you don't have long handles it's gonna be really hard to cut through wire some of the wire we cut is really really thick so you want something with longer handles so you can really cut down on something and it doesn't kill your hand these actually have a little crimping tool on the inside and they've got this little cleated grip on the inside of here so it helps if you grab on things and you want to pull with this tool you can but not just a set of normal set of pliers this is a lineman's pliers all right next up is going to be the diagonal cutting pliers so diagonal cutters are pretty much just a snip tool it's just a large cutting edge you could use this to like ream out the end of conduit it's got this nice cleated outside so sometimes i will use that for like half inch or three quarter conduit just to make sure that it's smooth but this a lot of times you'll use for prying things too so if we have like a staple or something that's driven in you can actually grab on and you can pry it out with this tool so this thing comes in really handy you can cut staples you can cut nails you cut wire you can do all kinds of stuff you can kind of pinch into different things but it's a really handy tool you're going to use the crap out of these so make sure you have a diagonal cutting pliers next up is going to be a needle nose pliers needle nose pliers you're going to be able to fit into really tight spaces so if you have a box and you need to get really far in this inside of something helps when you're grabbing wire when you're trying to pull things into really weird environments sometimes even just bending wires and trying to work in fine places that's what you're going to use these for so most of the time like all of these tools electricians are using because we're trying to grip wire inside of stuff we're trying to like pry something inside of something else so having something that's really slimline that has a long nose to it is really helpful also has a cutting edge so you could still cut this if you notice all these things i just took out they all have a cutting edge so there's all there's some kind of sharp edge on every single one of these that you can cut wire with so they're kind of multi-purpose a lot of them are but it's mainly because you're working with wire so anything you need to do with wire um you're going to need to do but definitely get needle nose pliers then there's kind of a specialty tool which um this is like a multi-tool it's got a cutting edge it's got strippers but it also looks like a needle nose it's got a slim tip so instead of it being like this guy just a different shape you know this is really skinny this is actually wide just like a set of needle nose would be so you can still ring pipe with it these are cleated out on the outside so you can still ream still has bolt cutting options which are normal needle nose doesn't have so it's kind of like a multi-tool i'm a huge fan of getting like three or four tools in one tool that way you have to carry less because this stuff gets really heavy especially once you start putting couplings and fittings and staples wire nuts and all kinds of stuff in here you just get really really weighted down fast so trying to put multiple different tools in one is a good pro tip next up a level this is specifically a magnetic level for doing conduit so well really anything metal as electricians we're constantly setting like new uh panels um we're hanging light fixtures we're putting metal pipe up we're doing all kinds of stuff that having a magnet is really good this has an extremely strong magnet on it so this thing will stick to almost anything you'll notice that it has a zero degree which is just a horizontal bubble it's got a 90 degree vertical it's got a 45 and it's got a 30 degree so a lot of times you'll be putting this on conduit too this there's one side of this that's kind of rounded or dished so that will sit on your your conduit so if you're bending conduit and say you wanted to get a 30 degree bend you know that the 30 degree just needs to be straight up and down or be sideways whatever but they give you all of these four different uh different angles that we use in electrical and we use 30 and 45 degrees quite frequently so getting a level that you can work with conduit that is magnetic that has multiple different bubbles is a really great idea next up i would say a full assortment of screwdrivers so one that i use all the time i always keep a really really large i think this is probably like an 11 inch flathead screwdriver i think it's probably 3 8 5 16 to 3 8 on the end you're gonna pry with this thing sometimes like the screws we deal with are flat head but they'll be like really on there tight and if you try to use like a smaller flat head you'll actually end up damaging it and you'll end up like breaking the tip of it so you want something super heavy duty to like really be able to drive sometimes i keep this one's in a little rough shape like it's not sharp at the end anymore i'll use this as a beater i'll just like beat into wood or like stone or whatever i need to and then i've got a good one that's got a fresh tip on it that i don't do that with i actually keep it really nice then these are multi-tools so this is an 11-1 and this is a six in one so you don't need both of them but i just like having them this one's actually magnetic so every one of these attachments is magnetic but as you pull it out you have tons of different options so we use square tipped nut drivers square tip drivers they call them robbies or robertsons or squares because a lot of electrical devices have these little squares indented in them so you can use this square tip to screw things in it also has phillips it has flat it has a 3 8 nut driver has a 5 16 nut driver has a quarter inch nut driver it has all kinds of tools in one so rather than you having like 16 handles sticking up here with all these different tools you can combine everything and put it all into just a couple of tools and then anything that you need you've just got at your disposal so i love having those another thing that we use all the time you don't have to get these this is kind of something if you just want to splurge a little bit there's all kinds of different tipped miniature terminating screwdrivers so we call these terminating screwdrivers but you can see like this is a 1 16 this is a 332nd so they're just different tips some of them are really small some of them are you know a little bit bigger they make them in phillips they make them flat but a lot of the like relays and controllers and things that we do inside of boxes usually in like commercial environments or low voltage equipment we'll need really tiny screwdrivers like this so having a set of terminating screwdrivers is a really really good idea i don't use them often but when i do need one i have one right here and i don't know probably once a month or so i'll probably need to use those next thing you're going to need a jab saw or a sheetrock knife or a drywall saw this is specifically just for cutting drywall so if you're cutting in some new box and we've got drywall you can you know cut out um and i like this because this one's like a really sturdy one sometimes you'll find them that are like really bendy and as you're cutting it's just like wobbling all over the place this thing i can get so much leverage behind it's just got a thick stout handle the blades super thick just really happy with this one so i would try to get one that's a little bit more stout if you can find it you use the crap out of those next up you need to have some kind of way to test whether or not a wire is hot whether there's current on it or not this is a tick tracer some people call it a ticker some people call it a sniffer you can hold this up to a wire and it will tell you if if that wire is hot or not this one has multiple different functions so like this one i actually have a laser pointer i like that because i can sit and tell all my helpers like yo go over there and do that and i don't have to walk anywhere but some of them have like flashlight settings some of them don't you know they just have the ticker these things are kind of dangerous if you don't know how to use them though because of how they work so these require a little bit of training so once you get out in the field ask your journeyman like what's the deal with these and how should we be using them and when should you trust them and when shouldn't you trust them because a lot of people don't use them correctly next test equipment that you're gonna want is a plug tester or a receptacle tester um this plugs into a receptacle these lights will light up if the the receptacle has power but also we'll show you on the front if if there's different ways that these are lit up that your receptacle could be wired reverse your pot could be on the neutral side neutral would be on the hot side your ground could be hooked up to the hot something so all these lights will actually tell you something different depending on how it's hooked up this one has a button and i highly recommend the ones that you get have a button as well because it tests gfci circuits so a lot of inspectors will go in once we finish a house and they'll go into a place where we're supposed to have a gfci circuit and they'll plug in and they'll trip this to see if the circuit trips somewhere so you need to be able to replicate that and test whether or not a gfci circuit is working so a gfci plug tester is a really good thing to have then you need a multimeter so this is a a really good like starter multimeter it's got every function on it that you could want but you're going to be testing for voltage um you're going to be testing for amperage you're going to be doing continuity tests to make sure that there's a complete loop from the meter all the way back to the meter on specific wires or equipment um but there's a bunch of features on here like this one has fahrenheit you know it has a hertz rating it has capacitance there's all kinds of things that you probably won't use as an apprentice but something that has voltage amperage and resistance or continuity is like all you need the clamp ones are really awesome because you can clamp onto really big wire and see how much current is flowing through them so i really like this style but definitely getting a multimeter it's not essential if you if there's a tool in this whole list that you don't have to have on day one a multimeter is it because you're gonna need somebody to train you and actually show you how to use them and what settings do what how to do all the little tips and tricks with these but you will eventually have to have one so uh if you can get one for you know that's not like hundreds of dollars i recommend getting that next thing that you're going to want is a hammer and you want to get a hammer that has a flat blade on it you don't want something that's really curved the claws really curved we use this for prying all kinds of stuff so the flatter it is the more like behind something you can get to pry against it plus sometimes you need to like dig in dirt or you need to like claw into something to tear with it so just having a good flat surface something that's got like a really big front end too you don't want something that's got a super small face because the chances of you hitting a nail as you decrease the size of the face obviously go down there's two different types of like fronts you can either get a waffled front like i have this has a little bit more grip when you're hitting things it's not going to move or slide when you hit the surface of something so much but if you're not careful this can damage wire really easily if you're putting staples on and you hit the wire so a lot of people don't like using waffling they want something that's flat and just smooth because then it's not going to damage wire so much if you do come in contact with it but i tend to go with something that's like 22 ounces 24 ounces that's just the weight that i like and the leverage that i like i don't like short hammers i don't like anything that's 16 ounces because then i feel like i've got this tiny little thing and i can't get leverage i want like 22 24 ounces so like baseball player i can get a whole bunch of leverage behind my swings so lots of different brands stiletto makes really good ones that are they look identical to this but compared to any other hammer they're actually lighter so they look the same they look just as cool they function the exact same way they just don't have the same kind of weight to them some people like the weight they want to be able to really ranch down and the weight allows you to do that so it's just your preference on what kind of hammer you want and then the last thing we should talk about some different kinds of bits so for drills you're gonna need something like this this has got a slide on it you can put different tips in it it just snaps in place um but you probably a couple of these because you're going to lose a few of them get some replacement tips they bought you can get full containers that milwaukee makes or a whole bunch of different tips and every time you lose one just pull a new one out but definitely get some extra tips for yourself because if you lose this one thing the next day you go to work you can't use this tool at all you know so you want to have extras around you and these things are like five bucks so um another thing is getting a set of paddle bits there's tons of different kinds um some of them are just flat like this some of them are spiraled but this is a spade spade bit or a um paddle bit some people call them but there's tons of different sizes this is a one inch so you can usually get like a kit and they'll probably go from like inch and a quarter all the way down to like 3 16 of an inch in different sizes so i would definitely get a full set of them some people rather than getting a full set they'll just get certain sizes and they'll get like five three quarter inch ones and then they'll get like five half inch ones that's fine too you're gonna hit nails with these and you're gonna like destroy them so just understand this is something you're gonna be replacing um another blade another bit that might be good to get this is a masonry bit so it's a very specific kind of drill bit and it's got a tip on it that is meant to go through concrete so if you're drilling down on something like this you want to actually have the hammer setting on your drill set for hammer drilling and you want a masonry bit specifically designed to drill through masonry you don't want to use like a steel bit or you don't want to use like a wood drill bit you want to use a concrete bit the other ones will burn up immediately so this when you have the hammer setting on it actually bounces up and down while it rotates and it hammers and that's what you need when you're going through masonry so you can hear that it actually goes through the mainstream so masonry bit would be a really good bit to have and then the last bit i think everybody should have is a 5 16 nut driver for your drill so 5 16 drill driver you're going to use these all the time a lot of electricians deal with are 5 16 screws so we'll either have wood screws that have a 5 16 hex head on them um or we'll have like self tappers or we'll be putting panels up we do all kinds of stuff that require a 5 16 head so 5 16 you could even get a quarter inch one of these as well you probably won't use it as often but you will find that if you use them so that is all i got for the tools i think you should get as an apprentice electrician obviously this is an investment right where does this go um it's an investment so as you see like getting a full set of these is not going to be cheap you don't have to get every single one of them i do think having most of these hand tools and these drivers and a drill that is a good drill like this milwaukee trail this best drill i've ever had in my life this is such a stout drill i drop this thing all the time it still keeps going my batteries don't just like wear down they actually shut off so it saves battery life like really quality quality drill it's going to be a lot more expensive so you could start out with like a cheaper brand just to kind of get into something but you got to know that you're going to be replacing it because you're going to be burning motors up whereas something that's really heavy duty or not so definitely get a good drill definitely get all of the hand tools that i just talked about and definitely get the uh the screwdrivers and the tape measure and a hammer those like absolutely have to have but all the rest of the stuff is stuff that you're gonna buy anyway so if you can afford it go for it so thank you guys so much for watching and i will see you next one

Channel: Electrician U

Views: 239,388

Keywords: electrician, electrical, electricity, dustin stelzer, electrician vlog, construction, commercial, residential, electrical vlog, electrical courses, electrician courses, electrical class, electrician class, electrician school, electrician life, electrician job, electrician tools 2022, electricians tool belt, commercial electrician, electrician tool belt, electrical contractor, insulated tools for electricians, journeyman tips, residential vs commercial, terms of trade, power issues

Id: QQlOmW0D7Zs

Length: 19min 32sec (1172 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 04 2022