Kaaron Lee-Wah is an electrician with Zed Electric in Toronto, Ontario. These are the five tools he can’t do his job without.
Steelman Pliers
“These are great for tying down our electrical conduit and core line,” Lee-Wah said. However, such a tool, when stripped of its insultation, is not to be used with live electricity. “You will electrocute yourself,” Lee-Wah said.
Chalk Writer
Lee-Wah said this item is his “secret weapon.” This writing tool is great for marking surfaces. It’s weatherproof and bright, making its marks easy to see from far away. “A lot of guys use your typical construction crayon,” Lee-Wah said, “and half of those don’t work on an oil or wet surface, they’re hard to read sometimes in the dark or on a cloudy day, and I find these work perfectly.”
Pea Shooter
This device comes in handy when outfitting electrical devices into a building when multiple layers of steel are involved. “A lot of times, after the steelmen finish their first and second layer of steel, and as electricians, let’s say we missed a plug in a hallway, it’s hard to hammer down that device with two layers of steel,” Lee-Wah said. Often electricians like Lee-Wah use a pea shooter to hammer the nail into the device when there is steel in between.
Chalk Line
This tool, known as the fastest way to mark straight guidelines on flat surfaces, Lee-Wah uses to transfer gridlines from drawings to the deck itself when it’s time for layout.
Meter
This is an extremely important and crucial tool for electricians like Lee-Wah. “Before a jobsite begins, contractors and builders would normally want temp power done and set up,” Lee-Wah said. “So that’s why your meter is one of the most important tools to get the job going.”
