Archive for the 'Electrical' Category
Monday, June 15th, 2009
If you can’t see what you’re doing or where you’re going on the work site, you’re asking for an accident. Rather than cluttering up the site with a bunch of stand-mounted lights, shed some light on the situation with a temporary string of lights like this one from Woods.
This string of work lights features ten protected light enclosures with standard light bulb sockets connected by 100 feet of yellow 14/2 wire. The string is rated for 1,500W at 120V, which means theoretically you could use ten 150W bulbs, but to be on the safe side you probably don’t want to exceed 100W bulbs.
Pricing for this string of lights start in the mid $70s.
Woods [Corporate Site]
Street Pricing [Google]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]
Posted in Ace Hardware, Amazon, Electrical, Woods | 3 Comments »
Monday, May 18th, 2009
If you don’t own a surge suppressor for your whole house or building, the next best thing might be surge suppressors built right into key outlets around your home or office. There’s less clutter without the power strips, and you’re protected even if you plug your electronics right into the wall.
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Posted in Amazon, Electrical, Leviton, Safety | 15 Comments »
Tuesday, April 28th, 2009
So many devices nowadays have those big transformer-type plugs — power tools, computer equipment, cell phones, you name it — and you can’t plug ‘em into an outlet without blocking another outlet. This happens to me all the time at home and work, and usually I just run a surge strip or a short extension cord, but the Rotator might be a better solution.
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Posted in Electrical, Rotator Electric | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009
Everybody has their favorite method of keeping cable clutter under control, whether it’s Velcro straps, cable trays, zip ties, or even cable lacing. Here’s another method to add to your cable-organizing repertoire: Wirestraps. These clear straps keep cords together, keep them in position, and blend into the background.
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Posted in Adhesives, Computer, Electrical, Electronics | 6 Comments »
Thursday, April 16th, 2009
In situations where I need to calculate wire size, breaker size, or some other electrical value, I usually have to break out the electrical handbooks or hunt on the web to double-check my work. If, like me, you can never remember the codes and values for electrical wiring, the ElectriCalc Pro can help.
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Posted in Accessories, Electrical, Electronics, Spectrum Research | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 15th, 2009
You pay a ton of money for a good crimper and it’ll only crimp one style of connector. Knipex feels your pain, so with their MultiCrimp crimping pliers you get either three or five common, interchangeable crimping dies in a quick-change magazine.
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Posted in Electrical, Knipex, Newark | 6 Comments »
Thursday, April 9th, 2009
Normally when I’m testing one of the vehicles in my aging “fleet,” I’m lucky if I can stick a ground or a hot lead on a fuse box or something and have it stay there — more likely I’ll be balancing both voltmeter probes and trying to turn a switch while having to scratch my nose. It’s just a pain at times. These heavy-duty test hooks from E-Z-Hook can help test those wires.
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Posted in E-Z-Hook, Electrical, Electronics | 9 Comments »
Friday, March 27th, 2009
I do a lot of work on my own cars, mainly because I’m cheap and I enjoy the work. I own a couple of test lights to verify that circuits are working, and I keep a small array of test wires that serve as jumpers, but the Power Probe III jumped out at me because it performs those functions plus many more.
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Posted in Automotive, Electrical, Electronics | 10 Comments »
Friday, March 27th, 2009
Programmable thermostats can save you money, but what if you only have a window air conditioner — are you left out in the cold? Maybe not if you plug your AC unit into the WIN100 programmable thermostat from Lux. The thermostat plugs into the wall and cycles the power to a window AC unit or space heater depending on the current temperature set point.
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Posted in Amazon, Electrical | 5 Comments »
Friday, March 13th, 2009
Are modular receptacles an answer to a problem nobody had? Instead of attaching your hot, neutral, and ground to the receptacle, you connect them to a wiring module that twists onto the back of Leviton’s special receptacles. We’re not exactly sure how that saves you any time or money — especially at a $15 to $30 premium price — but maybe somebody can set us straight.
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Posted in Electrical | 26 Comments »
Monday, March 9th, 2009
Here’s another solution for helter-skelter cables: the Signum cable organizer from Ikea. The idea is to “trunk” your cables — you screw the organizer to the bottom of your work area, throw a power strip in, and plug in the cables, then wrap the excess on the rack, letting the cables exit at the proper location. This has helped me get my workbench super-clean-looking, without all those cables hanging all over the place and getting in my way, and I’m never searching for a place to plug things in.
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Posted in Electrical, Ikea | 5 Comments »
Thursday, February 26th, 2009
I saw this setup over at a friend’s house: He has a lamp on his nightstand that’s situated so it’s a pain to turn on or off, but he rigged it with this Good Earth Lighting Kit so at the end of a long day he can dim it or turn it off, just by touching a 2″ touch-sensitive pad.
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Posted in Amazon, Electrical | 3 Comments »
Thursday, February 12th, 2009
The Fluke 62 Mini Infrared Thermometer will allow you to read temperatures from -20 to 932 degrees Fahrenheit — while keeping at a safe distance. Great for motor maintenance, electrical, heating, and many other uses, the Fluke 62 stores the maximum temperature so you don’t have to write it down, and the built-in laser shows you what you’re shooting at.
Fluke is well-known and respected for very high-quality electronic testing products, so $90 for the Fluke 62 and a nylon belt holster seems like a good deal.
Fluke 62 [Fluke]
Street Pricing [Google]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]
Posted in Electrical, Electronics, Fluke | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, February 4th, 2009
A few weeks ago we posted stubby spade bits, but today we noticed that Greenlee has announced a line of stubby auger bits. One big difference between the two types of bits is that auger bits tend to leave much cleaner holes with less tear-out than spade bits. The trade-off: Auger bits also tend to cost more.
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Posted in Drills/Bits, Electrical, Greenlee, Plumbing Tools | 7 Comments »
Monday, February 2nd, 2009
You come back to trim out a house, and you discover the drywall guys have mudded in half your boxes — now you have to spend extra time digging out joint compound when you could be doing your job. If you’d used SmartGuard protective plates over your boxes you wouldn’t be having this problem.
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Posted in Cooper Tools, Electrical | 7 Comments »
Friday, January 30th, 2009
A popular woodworking magazine published a letter a few months ago from a guy whose doctor said he could no longer use his woodworking machinery because of his pacemaker. If that was me, I don’t know if I’d take that advice sitting down — I’d probably try to measure the fields with a meter like this one from AlphaLab to see if there actually was a danger or if I could shield the machinery somehow.
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Posted in Amazon, Electrical | 12 Comments »
Thursday, January 29th, 2009
Cut a 2″ knockout in four seconds flat with the Maxis Max Punch. Rather than using hydraulic ratcheting, the Max Punch harnesses the power of your standard cordless drill to pull common punch dies together to quickly and accurately cut knockouts in electrical panels.
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Posted in Electrical | 8 Comments »
