Episode 2 - Tools Every Apprentice Electrician Needs To Start Their Job

hey everyone its destined from electrician you and today we're going to talk about apprentice electrician tools so I've had a lot of questions recently people that are getting into the trade that want to figure out what kind of tools they need to buy for the trades so in this episode we're going to talk tools not going to go crazy in depth with all the tools you could get just this is the core this is what every apprentice should start out with alright so this is my basic set up that I think that every apprentice should have first thing to start out with is you want to have a good bag so this is the bag that I use in it let's see if I can get this whole thing open all right in it I've got basic stuff like I always have a huge screwdriver that I get a massive flat head good for prying on things you have a lot of like big flathead stuff that you get a screw open it's just a really handy thing to have next on the list is a multi-tool the one that I recommend that you guys get it's a long shaft there's some that are like short chef's but this thing's cool because it's got flathead and Phillips they make a couple of different models so that you can get like a small flathead big flathead or small Phillips big Phillips this one actually has two square bits on it Square bits as an electrician is a really good thing to have as well so either model is great it's a six in one I use these I don't use actually like independent flathead and Phillips because it's just more [ __ ] that you got to carry the other cool thing about this is that it acts as a 5/16 nut driver and a quarter-inch nut driver as well so that's one two three four five six different tools in one that's why I recommend people get these instead of having to have six handles sticking out of here for six different tools next thing you need like doesn't matter if you do in residential or commercial you need to have a good sheetrock knife Stanley is the brand that I use I just like the feel and the grip of this one better than the little tiny wooden handle ones plus like this is really rigid the blade is some of those like weak ones you have a hard time like stabbing it into stuff because the bait the blade will Bend on you so get one that's pretty solid a pair of clients these are trade name we call these clients but they're actually lineman's players everything that I get is climb Tools climbs just the [ __ ] man like if you get Greenlee or commercial Electric Southwire like a lot of these off brands they haven't been in business as long as client house climbs and making stuff for a really long time and so if night x its KN IP x but those brands are like time tested and true another thing to get is side cutting players again klein brand but you're going to use these for like rip and staples out of stuff or cut and wire try to keep the the actual blade good you can tell on mine that I've welded it and I've cut some stuff live and I've blown you know this is just a crappy pair the shitty thing is these are like 35 bucks apiece and you're going to go through them you're going to cut a hot wire at the same time you cut a neutral and you're going to weld with it and it's going to screw your cutting surface up so take good care of these but they're a really good thing to have next thing that I keep is I like these really small tripperz again you can see that cuz an extra little divot there a lot of these are just old tools that I've got that I that I've just kept throughout the years that a lot of them are spares but uh this will go from ten gauge down to eighteen gauge and I like it because it's small and it fits right in your hand it's not like big so there are some other styles and brands out there these are still Klein same kind of thing these actually have the added function of being able to crimp with them and you have strippers or not strippers you have threader's inside of here so you can stick bolts inside of here thread them in and then cut them if you've got a bolt that's too long and you're screwing into something and you need it to be more shallow you can just take it out stick it in there and you've got six different sizes these the specific one actually doesn't have any threader's so it's kind of a pain in the butt but still really handy I use these far more off and I only use these if I'm doing something on a countertop and I need to cut screws because there's a tile backsplash or something like that but I do keep these with me so if you notice too like I've got this whole other bag of stuff over here I suggest you get a bag that you wear and a bag that you keep extra stuff in because you're going to need all of this stuff that pretty much every job especially when you're just jumping in and out of some guy's truck every day um next thing I like this style you don't have to get the needlenose that have the different strippers in them but I find that it's handy to have in case you dropped these or like you threw these in your your back pocket to go up into an attic this has the threading tool as well it's got a cutting edge it's needlenose and it's got a stripper so it's like multiple tools and one plus I've never broken one I mean they're like really rigid and sturdy so I like these a lot these are probably like 35 bucks these clients are probably like 45 bucks this I don't know maybe ten multi-tool ten this is like ten to twelve these are probably about ten you need to get a good multimeter this is something as an a brand new apprentice you don't really need to spend the money on if you just wanted to be a step ahead of the game then cool go for it but this is like a hundred to one hundred and twenty-five bucks really worthwhile to have you you can't be an electrician unless you've got a tester like there's some guys that carry these little wands around and call themselves electricians this is not a tester this is the thing that tells you if there's power present or power not present but it doesn't tell you anything about the circuit this thing actually tells you whether or not you have a difference of potential between two wires whether or not you have current on a wire if there's continuity you know or if there's a break in the line it tells you if there's a certain resistance on wire I mean it tells you a lot of things so this is an actual tester this is what electrician's carry but as an apprentice you probably don't need one of these if you just got an extra hundred bucks after you've bought all the rest of the stuff do you go get one of these for sure because you will need one before you're a journeyman or if you're like a second or third year apprentice everybody needs one of these though so probably the most important tool to have but as an apprentice you're not going to know what the [ __ ] to do with it for a few years so it's okay if you don't get one next thing is a square driver so if you can tell the tip of this and you see if I can get that on cameras or is it yeah again for the light background anyways if you can tell that's square most of our like panels and the keynotes are not enough panels and screws panel covers devices things like that like they have the option of being flat head or square and some of them are even Phillips or square so like you'll know what I mean once you get there but these things are pretty cheap it's a number two the number two's weren't off of here by the number two square as a really handy tool to have it's probably like eight bucks um this is a 3/8 you can't tell because I have beaten it on the top of it off so much but anytime you use anchors with anything you're going to want a 3/8 nut driver so 3/8 is a good one to have and actually I would just spend the time and go get like a full set of nut drivers that are all the way it's from like no like 9/16 7/16 1/2 inch 3/8 quarter inch 11 30 seconds that's probably all you're going to need you could get a 3/4 but you're done you're not really going to use that so those are the sizes that I'd get make sure that you get one of them if you can get the long chef's there's some that are actually like this long so if you can get the long chefs then you'll even be in better shape because I just put you further away from being inside of a panel a live surface but I would get a short one of these as well for any time that you're going to be putting an anchor into masonry so like sometimes you have to you have to like drill out a rock and you'll have to put an anchor inside of it and take this and beat on it and then you'll have to tighten that anchor in place so a short one of these that you can beat on every once in a while is a good thing to have a set of these little itty-bitty terminating screwdrivers in Phillips and flathead are a really good thing to carry around I usually keep a flathead one in here I don't know why this Phillips is in here I think I was doing something with LED drivers recently that I needed two Phillips for it but I usually keep a flat in here and it's actually usually right next to that guy the other thing I've got on this side is a utility knife I like these little fold-out ones you can get three for like ten bucks but I just like them because I can whip them out I don't know put them back in but I usually keep it always open inside of there you're going to use a utility knife Smike all the time actually every one of these things you're going to use all the time and I would get a pouch that makes sure that you have this little chain on it because then you can get electrical tape you can put on there and then you just pop it out when you need one pop it back in when you're done and that way you can keep multiple kinds of tape on you and they're not taking up your slots inside your pouch next thing you're going to use the crap out of is let me see if I can next thing you're going to use the crap out of - the tape measure I would get a phat max tape measure see how thick this thing is if you run this out let me see if I can do this right now so I can run this thing out like super far before the tape breaks right now I'm at 12 feet 13300 just broke it about 13 ft but let me get set up anyways this helps you because a lot of this stuff that we do is overhead so we're like holding tape measures over our head to try to measure things and we need like six to eight feet without this thing you know breaking on us we need it to be pretty rigid so the fat max by Stanley is really good 25 feet is more than enough I wouldn't get a 16-footer you could get a 30-footer if you wanted to like they're just a little bit bigger but 25 is what I usually use I got these at Home Depot 2 for $19 which is a steal because they're usually 1 for 20 anyways good brand another one to have they have a magnetic tip that's not what this is but magnetic tips really cool because you can go stick it to a metal stud if you're working in a commercial environment and it'll stay there which helps out a lot but I just that's not that I'm going to have on me always keep a sharpie marker on you because you're going to be marking stuff constantly you're going to be marking pipe to cut it you're going to be marking on studs where to place recessed can lights and where to put plugs and switches and just a sharpie like buy buy 10 of them and just keep one in your pouch at all times oh yeah here's my flat yeah this style is cool too because it actually has like a swivel head on it so you can pull this in place and like actually you know twist it but these Cline's ones do that too just different brands this is craftsman another thing to keep on you is what we call a ticker or a sniffer or a piece of [ __ ] let's call these different things but this basically like you can go up to a wire and test whether or not the wire is hot or not I wouldn't use this as a tester I don't call it a tester because all it does is tell you whether or not there's a power present or not but it doesn't tell you which wire in a box is hot necessarily and if the batteries are running low they start acting weird there's a lot of times where these are not super accurate but if you have somebody standing at a panel and you're trying to identify a wire they can turn breakers on and off and this thing will disturb BBB BBB BBB pin at you um actually yeah like see I've got the cord plugged in right now and it lights up red kind of that tells me it's hot so you know like if I'm going to stick my hand in something that I need to watch out but you always take your actual meter out after you've found something hot like that and test it don't just rely on these four to answer I would keep masonry bits and paddle bits you're going to use these a lot these are for drilling into stone they're actually like if you can tell the tips on them are not like a normal drill bit they've kind of got like this Spade it out portion they're made for drilling through stone specifically paddle bits I would get something that gets you like a quarter inch all the way up to about an inch and a quarter get like a full set of them for 20 bucks you can probably get like 10 to 15 bits get it as a complete set I just have a couple of those in here inside of this pouch I recommend that you get I can get them out get a quarter-inch and 5/16 drill nut drivers you'll use the crap out of these 5/16 s more than anything but it's handy to have one of each I keep a whole bunch of these like different tips with you know one of them I'll keep a Phillips another one I'll keep with Torx or Starr whatever you call it we call it Torx one of them with a square like a number two square one of them with a flat head you know like keep several of these around you and keep different tips in them right now my Phillips actually goes in there haha what else a plug tester is another really good thing and I would make sure you get a plug tester that has a GFI button on it that way you can test ufi circuits to make sure your GF is work but this is something you'll use the crap out of what else a head lamp electricians work often in really dark environments so having a surplus of flashlights around very very good idea but definitely use one on your head so that while you're working you don't you can be hands-free and still have light in front of you this is how much like if you want to see what's in my pouches this is usually the one I keep stapled and this is the one I keep wire nuts and miscellaneous light just miscellaneous connectors and straps and stuff like that if you want to be super zealous you can get a Univ it these are four good ones they're like 50 to 60 bucks apiece you could go to Harbor Freight or somewhere that has like second hand tools has cheaper [ __ ] and you can get a like three of them for 50 bucks it doesn't really matter they're going to burn out you got to know that over time but this is for drilling through metal so it steps up you drill a small hole and that hole eventually just gets chewed out and shoot out and it becomes a bigger hole so thank you break though this one recently broke I bought it from Home Depot this is Klein brand we got about three holes into a piece of metal and it just busted the tip right off so it little pissed about that 50 bucks but home people take that back you know what else do I got in here oh this thing is cool too this is another six in one but it's a stubby so it's the exact same thing it's got two two different sized Phillips two different sized flat heads we've got a quarter inch it's got 5/16 s really handy for like if you're working on I'm trying to hang a fan and you're trying to get like a screw under a canopy and you just need to be in like a really tight space this is a good thing to have I think that's it for my actual bag I like to get a belt that has a thick strap on it the thin straps tend to just cut into your sides a little bit more so having a thick strap you know I got this strap from Home Depot I think I just bought it extra and I had to punch some of my own holes into it because it was just too long so I ended up cutting off the excess and then just punching two new holes in it so it's pretty sturdy good little good little bag next thing a drill so the drills don't really matter you know like what kind you get they do and they don't there's an upper echelon of drills and it's Makita Milwaukee rigid D Walt that those four brands have the best like reviews they spend the most time competing building the exact same [ __ ] and marketing it with different colors so doesn't really matter Makita I can't tell you how many batteries I've gone through because with from a cube the batteries don't just shut off well the newer style does a lot of these batteries though you'll be able to use the battery on until it's completely dead whereas like some of the newer stuff I know that Milwaukee and rigid has it and even the newer Makita stuff has it but there's a cut-off switch so when you're drilling through something at a certain point if the battery dies it'll cut off to save the battery life but in any event you're still looking at like you're still looking at probably like 150 bucks for a good drill a really good 18 volt 4 or 5 amp hour thick sturdy drill this has a hammer drill on it I highly recommend getting that anytime you're drilling through stone which you're going to come across a lot we're drilling into a concrete wall to try to hang some conduit or something you have to have a hammer drill it won't drill through otherwise so this is the one that I use it's pretty heavy-duty then I've got a small drill that I use as well this is just something that like I can actually keep in my pouch and I can go around and take plugs and switches apart and things like that it's really lightweight really small the downside of this guy is like I'll clip this onto my pouch usually in there but it's so damn heavy that after a while I just didn't block and crook it because it just hurts so I don't like to keep this thing on me all the time I keep a smaller drill I've actually got like five or six different drills there in my truck and like different models I've got like impact drills and all kinds of different stuff that I keep that these are just what I keep on me day to day and then last but not least I keep a separate bag of stuff so I have like one of those bags you can get four of these different colors or like ten bucks at Home Depot but I think all kinds of different real bits all my paddle did I keep these little extenders because sometimes looks like your bit is not long enough so you need to put an extension on it but these are all different tips spare tips spare drill bits you know stern nut drivers like I've got all kinds of crap in here more Unibet these are really handy to have this is like so you can attach a socket set to a drill which is really handy when you're trying to build a service or something like that or put a rack together but that's a nice little thing to have I already showed you this having a good set of gloves some guys like the fingerless gloves I don't really like the fingerless gloves and I like actual gloves depending on what I'm doing if I'm if I'm like wiring a house and I have to keep reaching into my pouch to grab staples it's nice to have fingers free because with the the glove ends like you can't feel anything so you end up dropping a lot so it's nice to have like fingerless gloves but you know ten dollar gloves from Home Depot are only going to last you like a month or two they're going to they're going to like rip up the fingers you're going to rip out and stuff like that so I would get some nice or like maybe twenty five dollar gloves from like a supply house or something like that that has a were that nice or gloves I'm every electrician needed to have a level you're going to put a lot of panels up and plugs in place and all kinds of stuff that you need to level things out with this you don't have to get this is another meter that I keep the other meter that I had it has a little amp probe on it but it'll only fit around wires that are small enough to fit through there to be able to check the current going through a wire so I've got this big one that I can actually open up and put like some massive wires through there Plus this one like checks capacitance so it's just a little bit nicer model but I you don't have to get like two meters I would get one if you're going to get one at all this just happened to be in my bag like I said earlier electricians and flashlights go hand-in-hand so I would keep some really good flashlights and keep extras of them and keep batteries around because you're always going to be in some kind of like dark place up in an attic or a basement or in some kind of electrical room or something you know like we you need flashlights so flashlights are great things keep on this brand Nebo is pretty decent they make a bunch of different types these are two different models but I think this is Nebo also yeah kneeble makes pretty decent stuff I think obviously my charger for my little drill and my little batteries going here but this is a bag that I carry everywhere and it keeps all of this stuff in it and I bring that bag also so I can carry in both hands everything that I need into a job another thing you need to get is allen wrenches there's a lot of different configurations of Allen wrenches that you can use this is just an example of one I've got like ten different kinds and brands of these things but just get something like they make metric and standard as well like these are all standard but they make metric ones and they make like the sizes that are all smaller than this and exercises that are bigger than this they make some that RT handles that are like full feet handles that you can use little trinkets and contraptions this thing's pretty cool you can stick that on a drill and get into a really tight place and I'll actually drill with the Phillips at a ninety handy little thing to have this thing's pretty cool too same kind of thing you put a drill bit in there and it's flexible so you can put that on your drill and get into like really weird hard-to-reach places always keep a whole bunch of extra drill bits on me because you're going to lose the tips not fit I'm sorry you're going to keep the extra tips because you're going to lose the tips and I keep extra of all of these extensions because again like one of them you'll lose I like these ones because they actually have a slide on them like when you put this in you can pull this slide out and it keeps screws in there from falling out so if that's pretty handy a couple of sets of channel locks you're going to want at least two channel locks when you're doing pipe work you need to work with both hands and be able to tighten couplings to the same size is a good idea I wouldn't get the smallest ones there's they're small they're medium there's large and there's like super wicked large I would just get the like the second size not the smallest but like the second cut I don't think these have a should I do they probably have like some kind of Sighs on them this is for 40 channellock for 40 oh if that means anything I don't really pay attention to that [ __ ] I just look for the size of them anyways that's it it's my whole my whole list of everything that you should need is an apprentice going into this alright so that was my my whole list of tools that I think as an apprentice you need to have I'll put a description down below I like list all of these things and the brands and everything but if you have any questions or if you're a journeyman or master and you think that I missed something that you would like your guys to have let me know and I'll try to get this get that fitted in a description down below but be safe guys have a good day and for you guys that are getting into this trade dude have fun have a blast [Music]

Channel: Electrician U

Views: 940,197

Keywords: Apprentice Electrician, Tools, Apprentice Electrician Tools, Tool List, Electrician, Electrical, Electricity, Electrical Tools, Kleins, Lineman Pliers, Dykes, Klein Tools, Side-cutting pliers, Electrician Podcast, Electrician Vlog, Electrician Videos, Electrical Podcast, Electrical Vlog, Electrical Videos, Electrical Courses, Dustin Stelzer, Journey 2 Master, electrical training, electrician training

Id: qQcVyh1LGwo

Length: 26min 43sec (1603 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 04 2017