sparky tools

[strik9]

I am sheer amateur at wiring but we need sweat equity to make up for small bank accts.

   So I wired my own home  to save us several thousand pesos paying a pro.  It all works too.

  Daddy's little helpers evolved into a small group of tools following me through the house leaving others behind for completely arbitrary reasons.  At job's end this is the kit.    The wire snake and consumables didn't make the picture but it was a quantity.

Truper, Stanley, Asain stuff and an ancient German hammer involved.   I wired hot mostly so that black small tester could be used to tell hot from ground and how handy it was.  I bought two more later because they cost about two bucks.

[strik9]

The perfectly good stuff that wasn't there at the end.  A pile of test equiptment to be featured later.

[strik9]

The test equiptment.  The analog missing bit reads ac voltage and little else so I set it up to monitor house voltage during our frequent brownouts.  I was able to isolate what was part of it like that and we retired a refri on its last legs. 

  The Sanyo is pretty trick but came too late to be used much as those Harry Potter tech little black probes were used the most.  I got spares because they are cheap.    I used the lighted screwdrivers some too but the black digital things aced them.

[strik9]

Some DC testers for 6-24 VDC.  One is pretty cool and the other is a dollar store special that came with fuses I needed.    Both work as designed and more than my skill level requires.  The cheapy orange DMM kinda replaced these. 

[J.A.F.E.]

That orange DVM turns up a lot in various colors. HF sells/gives them away in red and someone sells a yellow version. Decent for the price but the probes are the real weak point.

[strik9]

Its not flimsy nor gives incorrect readings.   When I put a battery in it again its ready.  I park them all without.

  The Sanwa is most probable to be used as long as they eat no bread I can park them long term.   

[J.A.F.E.]

No it's not a bad meter. I use mine quite a bit and have several of them. I also have several other meters for where I need more precison. Just most of the ones I see sold here have leads that are flimsy but that may vary by brand. Replacement leads cost me more than the meters.

[strik9]

I just make my own leads.  I use them so infrequently now the work is done.

   I have a baggy of reused clips and stuff from wrecked leads to cobble something up quick. 

[Cruiser808]

Hi Strik9. Congratulations on wiring your own house. And that's a mighty fine collection of electrical tools you got there. I know how sweat equity goes. It's sustained me all my life.

[strik9]

When we moved in the wiring was just beyond dangerous and no fuses or breakers at all. 
   I undid the feeds first and installed fuses and breakers. 

 Using a worn out flea market driver that esd handy.  Whatever pliers and cutters were on top...

   I realized the scope of it all and did new wiring in four areas downstairs and five upstairs buying every pro-ish tool along the way just letting the kit evolve naturally.  I even bought a new alu ladder as there are 40 flush potted lights in the ceilings all needing wire pulls.

    Each area took less time than the last and by the time we were watching the builder leave everything was ready.
    And most of the tools had been set aside along the way leaving but a few.

   The star of that was the little black probe thingy.   Second place shared by a totally boring wire snake and the battered red Facom insulated driver. 
   And now all sets in a pouch buried in the currently messy shoppette.  An ignoble end for flawless services.

[TWX]

Its not flimsy nor gives incorrect readings.   When I put a battery in it again its ready.  I park them all without.

  The Sanwa is most probable to be used as long as they eat no bread I can park them long term.   

Consider yourself lucky, I have one from HF that reads over 140V in a conventional 120V receptacle while both Fluke and Craftsman meters read around 121V.  Basically I keep it as a "is this live or not?" tester.