Archive for the ‘Electrical’ Category
Although there are many benefits to living in the Midwest, the chilly weather this time of year is not among them. When the first autumn chill enters the air in late September or early October, the leaves begin to change their hue from green to yellow, gold and amber. Then, in late October and well into November, the leaves flutter to the ground in stages. If I had my druthers, all of the leaves would fall in one fell swoop and I could rake them all at once.
Unfortunately, I don’t have any say in the matter and Nature remains a fickle mistress. Rather than dedicating entire weekends to raking the leaves into neat piles, I like to take a technological shortcut. An electric leaf blower makes yard work virtually painless, dramatically reducing the amount of time I have to spend outside in the nippy November weather.
Extension Cords Are In Within Your Reach
There isn’t a power tools user in the world that should be without power when they need to go to work. Many times though, the job site strays a bit from what we had originally expected. Right off the bat, one would think that cordless tools would be the way to go, but sometimes you need that extra boost of power that only corded tools can deliver.
The simple, and fairly obvious solution to this challenge is to use an extension cord. Now I get the best of both worlds; being able to work where the work is, and use my favorite corded power tools at the same time. I like to keep a fifty foot extension cord in my truck, and I also like to keep a couple one-hundred footers at the house which I sometimes use to connect together to ensure that I can power up where ever work happens.
Leading the Charge Into the Morning Commute
Commuting is a reality for millions of people nation-wide, and for those who find themselves behind the wheel for rush hour know all about depending on a battery to get them in on time. However, I think all car owners can agree that batteries are not one of the most predictable components on the automobile.
To ensure that your battery doesn’t come between you and that promotion, I recommend keeping a car battery charger in the garage or trunk. It’s also a good Idea to look for an “engine start” feature to give your car a jump-start, especially on those really cold mornings when a car battery can be really stubborn. An auto battery charger is also good to try on old car batteries that you may think are dead. You never know, it could just need a good charging, saving you big money on a new battery.
Being an audio/video (media) wiring engineer and consultant for many years, I know the value of a solid wire cutter. There’s little less frustrating than having to snip through hundreds or even thousands of wires with a dull or rigid wire cutting tool. Vice grip makes a few, but there many different kinds of quality wire cutters to choose from that are both sharp and durable, and the type you select really depends on the application.
Personally though, I like to use what’s known in my trade as “flush cutters”. The bottom side of the cutters have been flattened to give a straight or “flush” cut on the wire, opposed to an obscure tear that some other cutters make on wires. This tool can sometimes also be be referred to as wire snips, not to be confused with tin snips, which I will get in to in another post.