First Place Tie: Catching drill filings When drilling into metal cabinets, troughs or control cabinets, put your magnetic torpedo level into a plastic bag and run it over the fiilings. In addition to a secure method of...

First place: Pulling with a tape measure In an insulated wall (where pink insulated blankets are installed between wood studs), use an old measuring tape with the end cut off to fish down inside the wall from the attic to a...

First place: Turn me on again After taking all appropriate steps to ensure you are working safely with circuits that are de-energized, and when work has been completed and circuits safely re-energized, write a Post-It note...

First Place: Protecting rebar tie wire When doing underground conduit work, you always seem to need rebar tie wire to secure conduit for the concrete pour. To protect the fresh coil of rebar wire, I cover it fully with duct...

First place: Don’t get wet When I work in a wet trench installing conduits, I’ll get quite dirty and have wet shoes and pants. This isn’t good, especially if I’m heading to a another job on the same day and don’t have the...

First Place Make your mark After completing rough on large-scale projects, we spray-paint the base of the walls at each box location. This allows us to find it later when it’s buried by sheet rock, and then we have the...

First Place Revisions If, by accident, I drill a hole too small with a hole saw, I take cardboard or a similar material and drill a bigger hole in it for a guide. Then I hold it over the existing smaller hole to guide a new...

First Place Keeping it pretty Like any service electrician, we have a box of receptacles and switches that are loose and ready to be installed in customers’ homes. However, the customers won’t believe that they’re brand new...

First Place Labeling bits I color-code my driver bits for quick selection: On my driver drill, I put a small niobium magnet epoxied to the top that holds the ¼-in. drive hex bits and drivers for quick change. A small rubber...

First place Tool protection My idea is to help protect one of the tools I use the most. As electricians, we still use the 6-foot, folding, wooden rulers for certain projects. When I get a new stick ruler, I take clear nail...

First Place Somewhere Safe My idea is to place your safety glasses in a boot cover to keep them clean and clear of scratches. This keeps them safe, and I always know where they are when I’m looking for them. They also hang up...

First Place Plan storage I use my leftover PVC as a plan holder. I simply mount the first set of straps on the plan desk and then mount them up from there. The only real cost is the straps. It helps organize the desk and it...

First Place Ladder stickers A great idea to make field workers think twice, and keep them safe, is to put a bright sticker on the second-to-top step of a ladder reading “suspended” and one on the top step reading “terminated...

First Place Scoop it all up For loose screws hiding at the bottom of my tool belt, I leave a magnet in the pouch to gather them up. It makes it easier to get them out and prevents them from rolling out if I put the belt down...

First place Know the weight To easily determine how much wire is left on a partial spool, buy a small luggage scale. Weighing a full spool so you can calculate the weight per foot for each wire gauge. We keep one on each...

First Place Tie Open Carefully When opening a bag of cable ties, I use a knife to cut a line in the middle running in the same direction as the cable ties rather than cutting the top off the bag. (Use a piece of duct tape to...

First Place Tie Clamp it on We keep a few of these inexpensive clamps on the truck all of the time. We clamp them on cables that need to be quickly identified. It is a really easy and inexpensive way to temporarily mark a...

First Place Plugging in color Have you ever tried to plug in something at a temporary power distribution center job site and forgot what cord goes to each power tool or other equipment? Depending on the length of the...

First Place Don’t get the point For anyone who has ever been stuck by the sharp tips of the needle tip probes when using a multimeter, this one’s for you. The protective rubber tips that come with the probes are usually lost...

First Place A clean heat When wiring control boxes, cabinets, electrical panels, etc., and using adhesive cable-tie mounts (sticky feet), it helps to clean the surface with alcohol wipes and heat the area. The wipes remove...