Attn: Those new to the trade.

[DanZ]

Remember... they have a spare battery.

They just can't take it out of the jobsite radio.

Now, why is it that if the battery in the radio dies, they seem to have a spare handy for that, but not for tools?

It's not just EC's with this problem, if that makes you feel better, it's pretty much every contractor.

 

[whillis]

To most people it's just a job, the tools belong to someone else, and if stuff breaks someone else will fix it.

If employees supply their own hand tools and then break them, lose them, or whatever their productivity drops and then their pay follows suit. It doesn't take long for that to sink in.

As for company tools, the cost of repair or replacement (outside of normal wear and tear) comes out of the bonus structure: the labor portion of the job is quoted fairly using standard methods, however, if the employees can find ways of saving time without cutting corners then the savings are passed back as bonuses.

This is the same psychological system that stores use to get their shopping carts returned. Once you invest a quarter to get a cart your attitude towards it changes and you take ownership.

Just my $0.02

 

[76nemo]

Mabey. But tool care is a hard concept to get accross, and I don't know why. It baffles me.

Excuse me son. Mind telling me why the mud wasn't wiped off the tools before you put them back in the truck?

Pardon me kid, but where are the missing drill bits that were in the index this morning.

Hey dude, why have all the batteries be discharged, and why didn't you set up the charger after the fisrt one died?

Hey, numbnutts, when were you planning to clear those round pieces of wood out of the hole saws? Wait...I'll do it the next time I need to use it.

Excuse me for a moment kid, I'm going to have a nervous breakdown. Oh yea, where is the flashlight. Excuse me? I don't think I heard you correctly. Did you say at the last job we were at?

:-?

Ditto, ditto, and ditto. I have hurt many o' feelings by saying "no", or offering to do the task myself, like I would do it better, and that wasn't the case. Nope, sorry, I don't let people use my gear

 

[electricalperson]

Ditto, ditto, and ditto. I have hurt many o' feelings by saying "no", or offering to do the task myself, like I would do it better, and that wasn't the case. Nope, sorry, I don't let people use my gear

i have to mark every one of my tools and put a lock on my tool bag or else my bag becomes the jobsite tool crib. people just grab whatever they want and when i need it i need to track it down. that ended pretty quick with the lock

another problem is helpers with no tools. they never seem to have the right tools. i tell them to look at my bag and buy whatever i have in there and then they will have the right stuff.

helpers drive me crazy most of the time its much better to work alone sometimes. less headaches

 

[frizbeedog]

Thanks for the replys. I see I should have saved this for one of those silly weekend threads.:smile:

Don't worry chris, it just might make through the weekend. :smile:

 

[frizbeedog]

.....another problem is helpers with no tools.

Have ever tried golfing with one set of clubs and two people?

Comical. :smile:

 

[kspifldorf]

Whilst yuns are picking on people. After driving my two grounding rods, I noticed my clamps weren't on. Not knowing these were steel with copper around them, couldn't get a saw to them, so I thought, but had to do something. The first thing to come to mind was those bad @$$ cable cutters. Man was my Dad *&$$#%. Sorry Dad and Happy Father's Day. BTW this was 25 years ago.:grin:

 

[480sparky]

.....i tell them to look at my bag and buy whatever i have in there and then they will have the right stuff......

I'll give you twenty bucks for the whole thing......

 

[76nemo]

i have to mark every one of my tools and put a lock on my tool bag or else my bag becomes the jobsite tool crib. people just grab whatever they want and when i need it i need to track it down. that ended pretty quick with the lock

another problem is helpers with no tools. they never seem to have the right tools. i tell them to look at my bag and buy whatever i have in there and then they will have the right stuff.

helpers drive me crazy most of the time its much better to work alone sometimes. less headaches

One thing I used to do so spitefully Chris, was to remove a sleeve of my cutters/pliers/crimps, etc.. I would take an engraver and carve "THIEF" into the underarm and replace the sleeve. When someone had a tool I thought was mine, I would snatch the sleeve off of it when they weren't looking. If I saw my "THIEF", I would put the tool back, and wait until the room was full of co-workers and snatch the tool from them and ask them if they knew what I thought of them. When asked, "What??????" I'd remove the sleeve and hastly yell, "A ******* THIEF, that's what!!!!!!!!!!!!" I made my point. I made my point where a couple of times so and so never showed back up again to that site. I did it with meters with holsters as well. You engrave something on a case to a meter and it stays there unless it's replaced. They expect to see your name on the outside, in marker, burned in, or engraved. You pull that d*mn sleeve or holster and you just caught somebody with a hard one under the chin. They drop, and it is never forgotten by anyone who was there, or who they told.

 

[electricguy61]

Whilst yuns are picking on people. After driving my two grounding rods, I noticed my clamps weren't on. Not knowing these were steel with copper around them, couldn't get a saw to them, so I thought, but had to do something. The first thing to come to mind was those bad @$$ cable cutters. Man was my Dad *&$$#%. Sorry Dad and Happy Father's Day. BTW this was 25 years ago.:grin:

I'll never forget my first pair of big cable cutters. You know the ones by greenlee, 2' long, white fiberglass handles with green hand grips. I'd had them about two weeks and went out to do a heavy up.

The utility lineperson (a woman) came out to do the re-connect and asked if she could borrow my cutters. She promptly cut the overhead triplex, making a nice hole right in the middle of my new tool.

She spent an hour trying to file the hole out, but it didn't work.

That must have been 25 years ago. Believe it or not, I still have the cutters. They remind me not to loan out my tools, not even to "proffessionals". I'll go do the task for them, but I don't loan my tools.
My ratchet cutters have lasted ten years by following that rule.

BTW, the rechargable battery comments are "right on"!

And I have good help!

 

[ultramegabob]

learn proper care for fishtapes, dont use your linemans on them. fishtapes are for light wire pulls or pulling string or rope in. keep the fishtape clean, dont wind it up with mud on it, dont wind it up wet, if it gets wet or muddy streatch it out and wipe it clean and dry and oil it before winding it up and putting it away....

 

[480sparky]

learn proper care for fishtapes, dont use your linemans on them. fishtapes are for light wire pulls or pulling string or rope in. keep the fishtape clean, dont wind it up with mud on it, dont wind it up wet, if it gets wet or muddy streatch it out and wipe it clean and dry and oil it before winding it up and putting it away....

Unless your linesmans are designed for it.

 

[ultramegabob]

Unless your linesmans are designed for it.

I knew someone would say that, but the rule still stands with "my" fishtapes, do not use linemans on them, I dont care if you have the ones with the fishtape wedge built in, I have seen fishtapes kinked with those also, if you need that much leverage to pull a fishtape in, you are doing something wrong, you need to pull a rope in instead, my fishtapes are only used for very light wire pulls.

 

[480sparky]

Klein has a pair of linesmans that is designed for such a purpose.

They also make special tools just for pulling fish tapes.

 

[ultramegabob]

its funny how tools like that work real slick when its your fishtape and your using the tool on it, but whenever someone uses a company fishtape with something like that, it comes back all kinked up...

 

[chris kennedy]

keep the fishtape clean, dont wind it up with mud on it, dont wind it up wet, if it gets wet or muddy streatch it out and wipe it clean and dry and oil it before winding it up and putting it away....

I have a stainless steel fish tape I bought 4? years ago and love it. Easy to clean/maintain and I have never had to cut it.

 

[ultramegabob]

I have a stainless steel fish tape I bought 4? years ago and love it. Easy to clean/maintain and I have never had to cut it.

all the rules still apply to stainless tapes, they are just less likely to rust into a solid mass, mudd will still destroy a nice stainless fishtape if its wound up inside it.

 

[480sparky]

I have a stainless steel fish tape I bought 4? years ago and love it. Easy to clean/maintain and I have never had to cut it.

Some of my fishtapes (and I mean mine, not ones issued by the company I worked for) I've had for 20 years.

Some people think they're disposable.... after this pull, it's garbage.

 

[iwire]

I was brought into the trade with one guy shop and he had me treat a steel snake like it was made of gold.

Then I went to work for big companies and quickly learned labor is expensive and snakes are relatively cheap.

 

[ultramegabob]

this whole fishtape thing is a hot topic with me this week, a fishtape that is only a couple months old was wound up with mud inside it, and its all rusty now, it took alot of wiping down with oil to get it usable again, of course, nobody did it....