The Tools an Electrician Actually Carries

The first list

Linesman pliers, side cutters, needle nose, wire strippers, a set of screwdrivers including square drive, a utility knife, a tape measure, a torpedo level, a hacksaw, a pair of channel locks, a set of nut drivers and a headlamp.

Add a multimeter and a non contact voltage tester. A plug in receptacle tester is cheap and handy. These are the tools that live on you.

Testing, and why the meter wins

A non contact tester is fast and useful and it lies in both directions. It can read voltage on a wire that is only picking up a field from a neighbor, and it can miss a live conductor inside conduit.

The habit that keeps people alive is testing the meter on a known live source, testing the circuit, and testing the known source again to prove the meter still works. Live dead live, every time, no exceptions when you are tired.

Where to spend and where not to

Spend on strippers, linesman pliers, a meter and a headlamp. Those get used constantly and the difference is felt every hour. Spend on a belt and pouch that fits you, because the alternative shows up in your back at forty.

Do not buy a full set of bending tools, a hammer drill, a fish tape kit and a transit before day one. Most employers supply them and you will learn which ones you actually want.

Keep them marked and keep them close

Mark everything with a color or your initials on day one. Tools walk on job sites, usually by accident.

Clean and sort the pouch at the end of the week. A person who can produce the right tool in four seconds looks like a professional to the foreman handing out work.