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: Preparing armored cable Armored cable has a metallic armor between two cable jackets. To remove the jackets, it is necessary to cut the armor. Specialized tools are available to cut armor, but a standard plumbing...

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: Vaseline’s many uses Whenever I’m working on outdoor outlets and covers, I always use a petroleum jelly (like Vaseline) on the screws as I’m inserting them into the boxes or covers. This helps with getting the...

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: Wire protection While it is better to have a dedicated person feeding the wire and protecting it from damage during installation, I do have a labor-saving tip. While wiring up a string of 8-foot T12 lamp fixtures...

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: Unclog the holders When using magnetic bit holders, I find that metal filings clog the holder. So I keep a small piece of duct seal putty nearby. Just pushing the bit holder into the duct seal cleans all the...

First Place: Plan ahead Working with plans in the field today usually entails buying an expensive tablet device and trying to keep it clean and safe. The advantage is that users can blow up detailed areas to see them better...