Cool Electrician Tricks

Can you drill a hole without dust?

Yes, gadgets on the market can extract dust when the electrician is drilling. They can even extract the dust from hole cutters when a fan needs to be installed in a wall.

No dust means no cleanup, and if you have ever drilled through a wall, you will know how much red brick dust there is to clean up and how long it takes.

You can check out the Bosch Tools HDC250, there is a smaller size, but the bigger version works well enough even with the largest hole cutter you are likely to use.

The HDC250 is connected to a vacuum cleaner with sufficient capacity and enough vacuum to perform the task.

The vacuum holds the HDC250 to the wall freeing up your hands to apply pressure to the drill and keep it running straight.

Do you find it hard to locate the cables?

It’s easy. Why mess around fishing around for 30 minutes trying to hook onto a cable? It is not a fairground game. Get the job done, smart.

Use a borescope, yes, a borescope. These endospores are illuminated so you can see easily, and it only tackles seconds to locate your cable. You could attach a small hook to the endoscope for cable retrieval.

For around £25.00, you can buy a wifi Draper Endoscope from Amazon.co.uk. It’s compatible with IOS and android, so you can use your mobile device while locating the cable. It’s a valuable piece of kit at a cheap price that sparks don’t take advantage of.

How much time is spent marking sockets to comply with building regs?

Too long. If you can shave off minutes for every socket, you mark out during a rewire, you could be knocking off as much as thirty minutes or more from a mundane job.

Check out the Speedy Spark. It’s new to the market and will enable you to save time marking out sockets. It’s compliant with building regulations and is easy to use.

It comes with a spirit level bumble incorporated, so you don’t need to break out the laser for a small job.

Use a new light bulb to replace an old one

It’s an old trick, but it’s still worth knowing. Before starting, make sure the circuit is dead by switching off the main breaker in the consumer unit.

After taking this step to clean out the broken glass from the old light bulb, you may need piers for this step, so you don’t risk cutting your fingers.

You can now screw the new bulb into the old socket purchased on the bayonet and pull it out.

It may seem redundant, but plenty of bayonet light bulbs are still in use today.

Need to track a cable across from one light fitting to another?

You can attach some light chain to the end of a string and tie the cable to the string ( leave the distance of the lights for just the string). 

Use a strong magnet to pull the string across the ceiling. Once retrieved, you can pull your cable through.

If you can find a rare earth magnet for this job, nothing will stop you from retrieving your chain and string.

Did you lose your insulated screwdriver?

This is not a replacement for a VDE screwdriver. If you have lost your screwdriver and don’t want to get zapped from the screwdriver, wrap the shaft with insulation tape.

But remember, this is a get you out of jail fix and nothing permanent.

Use some old-time tricks

Paintbrushes. The use of paint bruises is not normally the domain of the electrician, but they should be part of the electrician’s tool kit.

Paint Brushes can be a time after when you notice that small piece of debris from drilling or a bit of dust you missed during the cleanup.

Simply whip out the paintbrushes and reach deep into areas a vacuum may miss for the ultimate clean and tidy installation.

Use a heat gun

For being the conduit. Plastic conduits can be a pain to manipulate and bend, so you can heat sufficiently with a heat gun and make the conduit fit for easy bending.

Dodgy screw heads

Stripped PZs. It happens to most of you. The head strips and you can either unscrew the screw, or it’s stuck, and you can’t apply any more torque because the head will strip further.

Cover the head of the screwdriver with an elastic band and push the screwdriver head into the screw. The elastic band should enable you to remove the screw so it can be replaced.

Pulling cables

Let them sit in the sun. If you need to pull a lot of cables and it’s a nice warm day outside, let the cable sit in the sun for 30 minutes.

The cables will be more pliable when warm and easier to pul. If it’s the winter, try to bring the cables indoors overnight so they can warm through.

Use duct tape to clean adhesive

Another golden oldie. There is nothing more irritation than peeling off a label only to find an adhesive residue. 

Use duct tape. The adhesive side is very sticky and should pull off the adhesive residue from the component.

The best tricks of the trade

The best tricks are discovered to help the electrician out during the working day. If you can speed up the installation process by implementing a few tried and tested tricks of the trade, then do so.