Lowe’s has placed the Gardner Bender Circuit Alert wire stripper on clearance. This little gem of a wire stripper packs an AC current detector in the handle. Its clearance price of $12 brings it down to the price range of more frugal Toolmongers such as myself.
Check out your local Lowe’s to see if you can snatch one up before they’re all gone.
Store Locater [Lowe’s]
To cut a hole in drywall for an electrical box, you measure X, then measure Y, transfer those to the drywall, and cut out as needed with a saw or rotary cutter. It’s simple in theory — but in practice there’s a lot of room for error, especially if you’re a DIYer for whom this isn’t your regular job. The Blind Mark Electrical Cutout Tool system, with its two-part magnetic template, takes out the guesswork and helps you avoid costly mistakes.
Lee Valley’s offering an eight piece insulated screwdriver set with carrying case for $8. They describe them as “made for the German market,” with no other information on the make. Lee Valley put the drivers on sale because the European certification for the insulation has expired. This deal ends when they sell out of the remaining stock.
Screwdriver Clearance [Lee Valley]
You’re trying to pull some wire through a hole with wire from a previous installation, but the hole just isn’t large enough. How the heck do you enlarge the hole without pushing the wire back through and losing it in the wall? The Rebore-Zit comes to the rescue. From the makers of the previously posted Base-Boar-Zit and other various -Zit products, the Rebore-Zit’s free-spinning swivel-eyelet allows you to keep the wire attached to the drill bit while you ream out the hole. (more…)
Have you ever ended up ripping open a wall because you just couldn’t get the fish tape to the right place? You tried again and again, guessing where the damn tape leader was by sound and feel, but just couldn’t direct it where you needed it to go. B.E.S. Manufacturing aims to stop this insanity with the Magnafish.
Pulling wire, whether it be for speakers, cable, or network, can be a pain in the ass — any tool that makes this job quicker and easier deserves a look. Labor Saving Devices designed the Base-Boar-Zit to drill a hole through the baseboard below the carpet line. The hole then curves upward into the center of the floor plate and into the wall cavity to provide an invisible and professional installation. (more…)
Fluke markets its LVD1 as a non-contact voltage detector (”volt sniffer”), but I’ve found that the bright LED at the end makes a perfectly competent flashlight, too. The LVD1’s voltage-sensor indicator light glows when the unit is close to an AC field, as you’ll see after the jump.
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Portable generators rule, but in some situations they aren’t the ideal power source. For example, you can’t use your noisy, messy, and fume-spewing gas generator indoors. That’s when you need a battery-powered solution like Xantrex’s XPower Powerpack 1500.
This year, Amazon Santa dropped a Gardner Bender SE-94 automatic wire stripper in my stocking. The SE-94’s jaws automatically adjust to strip 10 to 26 gauge wire. One set of jaws grips and cuts the wire while the other set pulls back the insulation — all with one squeeze. I’ve enjoyed it so much, I spent the last 36 hours looking for wire to strip.
Garnder Bender also included an integrated blade-and-anvil type wirecutter as well as a set of crimpers. If you want a really nice, super useful tool, cash in those gift cards and get yourself one of these for about $14.
Automatic Wire Stripper [Gardner Bender]
Street Price [Google Products]
Via Amazon
My dad’s “everyday tool” was a pocket knife he carried since Boy Scouts — until he surrendered it to the TSA on a recent airline trip. Personally, my “everyday tool” is a pair of electrician’s snips. I grew quite fond of them while doing telecom equipment installation, and I still use them for everything. They’re sharp, durable, and I can’t seem to keep enough of them around.
I think with that $5 off $5 coupon at Sears, it might be time to pick up a spare pair — or three.
Electrician’s Scissors [Google Products]
Via Amazon
Klein Electrician’s Scissors [Sears]
Velcro self-gripping straps are a great alternative to cable ties, especially when you’re dealing with delicate materials such as AV wires. They’re strong, lightweight, reusable, and available in several different colors and sizes.
Last month Stanley Proto introduced a new line of electricians’ tools — over 350 different products insulated against up to 1,000 volts. The line is broken down into two “series:” the VE series which Proto says “are designed for Craftsmen who install and maintain standard electrical equipment and wiring, such as that found in buildings” and the VSE series, which “are for use around the highest live voltages, such as those found in electrical power plants.”
Sorry for the grainy photograph, but I actually saw this at a buddy’s house and snapped a pic to share. The extension cord went behind that wall to the boiler room where he has his network devices — router, Vonage VOIP box, etc. – installed and wired out to the rest of the house.
He said he used what he had on hand — an extension cord and hole saw. I’m hoping seeing it on Toolmonger will shame him to remedy this. Feel free to help shame him in comments by, say, explaining why this is prohibited by code.
Here’s an automatic power switch with a twist: Toolmonger has covered a number of such products before, and they all work by turning accessories (monitor and speakers, dust collection vacuum, etc) on and off when the device plugged into the main outlet (computer, saw) is turned on or off. The WattStopper uses a passive infrared (PIR) motion sensor to tell when you’re in the area, and turns things off when you’ve been gone for a while. It’s a different approach that seems well suited to soldering irons and other tools that’re easily forgotten about but might be dangerous if left unattended.
Here’s the great part: The model pictured is discontinued, and WeirdStuff has ‘em for ten bucks, which is somewhere between a third and a tenth of normal retail. (Shipping starts around $9.) I’m getting one to plug my soldering station into, though I might press it into service as a trick-or-treater detector first.
WattStopper Legrand makes all sort of PIR-based occupancy sensors and lighting control products, and their site is thick with technical info. If building automation interests you, it’s worth stopping in for a read.
WattStopper Legrand [Corporate Site]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Other WattStopper Products [Google Products]
WattStopper Isole IDP-1000 [WeirdStuff]
It’s a good idea to keep dangerous power tools and appliances out of the hands of people who don’t know how to use them correctly, but who wants to keep everything in a tool crib like your shop teacher did? The Stopower cap offers a better solution, firmly locking onto any 115V American-style two- or three- pronged plug, requiring removal (with a key) before you can plug the attached tool into an outlet.
Sears is offering a deal right now on this Craftsman digital multimeter with auto-ranging and non-contact voltage detector. It’s listed at $40 but when you add it to your shopping cart the price drops to $25, a handsome $15 savings. Besides auto-ranging, the multimeter features non-contact voltage measurement from 100 to 600 VAC, AC/DC voltage measurement with a 0.5% accuracy, resistance measurement, diode and continuity testing, and a back-lit LCD screen. It also comes with test stand, rubber holster and test leads.
82314 Digital Multimeter [Sears]
Although it’s primarily popular among electricians, Greenlee’s Slug-Buster punch works beautifully for cutting a perfect hole in sheet metal while exerting minimal effort — something almost anyone will end up needing to do at one time or another. And at around $30 for a basic set, there’s really no excuse not to own one.
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