BP_redbear

Am I just too 'green' yet, and believe that electricians should carry tools with them, at least for what you are doing that day, or that hour, or that task? (First year IBEW Inside Wireman apprentice)

Obviously, I realize that I do not need my tool belt to have every tool, for all jobs, all the time.

One JW borrowed my combination square a couple different times...for a job he was doing, not to show me how to use it.
Different JW borrows a screwdriver, takes it somewhere, brings it back 10 minutes later. Not a "Thanks, here you go." ... Just "Here."

Another... "Let me see your level."

I can understand if a JW is using different tools for what he is doing and comes over to show me how to do something and says "Let me see your pliers, or hammer", etc. That seems fine.

It's like some of the guys are setting an example to NOT carry tools with you, and have told me "Oh, you don't need this." "You don't need that."
Even though the job foreman has told me to make sure that I have everything on 'The List' ...(see thread about 'Required Tool List...Sound normal?')

I always believed, and have read here, that if I need to borrow a hand tool more than once or on more than one occasion, that I should have my own tool. A couple times when asked "Do you have diagonals?" "Do you have ChannelLocks?" I want to say "Yes, I do. And so should you."

From time to time, we will all probably borrow something from another person, and I am not against letting someone use my tools...Unless you PRY with my Klein 10-in-1...or use my cable cutters as a hammer...I need to stay on the good side of the veteran journeymen, but I won't tolerate anyone abusing my tools (I'm not talking about hammering with Lineman pliers or ChannelLocks, some tools can take abuse).

BP_redbear

...I may be answering my own question here, but I should be clear that I have also seen other JWs on our jobs who DO carry what they need, and have not borrowed tools from me.

nap

just don;t lend the tools out. Tell them you are using whatever they are looking to borrow.

If they catch on to that and walk up and ask if you are using a tool (in a non-chalant way but trying to see if you really are using the specific tool), merely tell them you are using all your tools

if they are too lazy to go get their own, or too cheap to go buy their own, that is their problem. Don;t allow it to be your problem.

RUSSIAN

Depends on the person. I have worked with guys that are free to use whatever I have as long as they ask. I have also worked with guys that just take and don't return until you ask at the and of the day, which gets real old real fast

MechanicalDVR

I am on many jobs with older electricians that think all they need is a pair of kleins and a four way to make it through the day, anything else they borrow from the apprentice dragging the largest pouch around.

randomkiller

The only thing worse than an unprepared helper is an unprepared jw.

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BP_redbear

Thank you.

So, SOME people (including all who have responded to this thread) would appreciate a well-prepared apprentice.

...and so do the Un-Prepared JW...because they have someone to borrow tools from and JW doesn't have to carry them, LOL.

nap

for fun, get a shirt with this printed on it:

No tool loans

rental fees:

Kleins: $3/hr $50 deposit
screwdrivers: small $1/hr $5 dep; med $2/hr $8 dep; large $3/hr $12 deposit.
Dykes; $5/hr $40 dep

etc.

Bkessler

If you are an electrician on a construction sight and your not wearing your tools you are not working by my definition of working. Although there are a few exceptions. Small service calls I sometimes ask an apprentices to suite up and have them assist me. When this occurs said apprentice better be trying to think one step ahead of me so I don't have to ask for a specific tool.

__________________
When ls lunch

brian john

A professional electrician = journeyman has his own tools and if he has less that need/required he is less that a JW IMO.

I have always been a tool nut and always had the right tool for the job. Having worked with some less than prepared installers all I can say is be patient. Worked with one guy, he had a beat up old screwdriver, Phillips with damaged tip, 48" of a 6' rule, and channel locks that slipped all in a cardboard box. Said he left the good tools at home so they would not get stolen. I wanted to punch this old fart SOOOOOO BAD, we carried his arse for 8 out of 8.

surfbh

I worked with one JW who would have his bag next to him and he would say, hey let me see your Kleins, screwdriver, whatever. Then he would put them in his pocket. He would then sometimes disappear with the tools I needed to do something and he'd bitch when I wouldn't have the job done when he came back. I let him know what I thought and he told the foreman I had a bad attitude. He was right!

dowmace

I own more tools than most contractors and i come across alot of JW's that don't have the tools they should and tend to try and borrow them way too often. I've always lived by the rule if you borrow it three times you should be buying one soon, thats why I have the collection I do.

I hate doing it but I've been denying alot of requests to use my tools because too many lately have come back in worse condition than they left. In fact I have had a few just not come back. Which reminds me I need to re-inventory my collection.

Rong

How true. I am sure we all have done this at one time or the other. Myself I like to use my own tools. However strapped on a I Beam 45' in the air hanging on by my toes I aint going to have a full pouch! usually if I am with a helper we split up the tools we may need in a situation such as this.

A JW borrowing tools ALL the time from a helper is bad form. Sure the helper can tell the JW to bugger off but that may come back and haunt him. If I was the helper I would talk to the foreman quietly about it. Of course that is risky as well sometimes!

__________________
I too am bilingual :
I speak bad English and worser English.

Rong

It is in our contract to wear a tool pouch. I have known a contractor to fire a JW for not wearing his tools. On a side note here there were other issues but since the wearing of the tool pouch is in the contract there was little recourse the JW had.

__________________
I too am bilingual :
I speak bad English and worser English.

randomkiller

I actually carry almost two complete sets of tools. I have a pouch with a shoulder strap with most of the hand tools I need to do install and service work. I also have a toolpak back pack that has a similar set of tools. The back pack is great for making my way through city streets from a parking garage into an office building or a situation like that where a great walking distance is involved. I don't miss riding the subway to jobs at all. I am all too often on the smaller jobs with no gang box, so I have to be pretty mobile most of the time.

__________________
A Veteran - whether active duty, retired, guard or reserve - is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America," for an amount of "up to and including my life."

"One Nation Under God"

BP_redbear

I consider myself a professional, and aim to act that way on the job. Partly because I have practical work experience already, including being a lead technician on a small crew of techs.

Probably half of the guys on our crew are of the mentallity that 'All I need are linemans, a tape measure, and a 4-in-1 screwdriver'. (Obviously, SOMETIMES this IS all we may need). The other half are actually prepared. Unfortunately I work with the 3-tool half.

As far as telling the JWs to flip off...well, I am pretty close, I have been biting my tongue because I have a LONG WAY to go. And, the foreman is buddies with all the JW. They all seem pretty tight - well, like actual brothers, I suppose -except for me, being 'on the outside', just a first year apprentice. There seems to be a lot of talking about each other though - almost like teenaged girls? -.
I can understand carrying tools for someone who is on a scaffold or high ladder, but if you're on the ground and you're not actually demonstrating how something is done, get your own freaking tools, or make do with the three that you have in your pockets.
"I aint no tool bag with legs, and I'm not your little puppy who will heel and quiver at every criticism". That's another thread, altogether...
BP

ljwunder

I wouldn't tell em to flip off, nothing good can come of it.

MechanicalDVR

Ya know in some groups of guys if they know it ticks you off to borrow tools that would be enough to do it all the time.

BP_redbear

This is true, and it reminds me of working in the machine shops. Some guys would be real a-holes to the younger guys. I wouldn't take it, and would give their sh*t right back to them.
One of two things would likely happen:
1. They would respect and, at least pretend to like me and be nice from that point on, because they learned that I would stick up for myself and not be pushed around.
2. They would just keep their mouth shut and leave me alone.

I can see where this approach may work for the tools issue.
1. If they see that I am not some timid little boy who is just going to hand over his candy, maybe they will learn that I do not just lend out my tools to everyone who asks. (There is one Journeyman so far who has my permission to get into my tool bag for whatever he needs, and he returns the favor in kind).
2. They will just leave me alone, unless they are actually working next to me on a job (in which case it would seem that they would have the same tools that I do).

cdnelectrician

Nobody, and I mean NOBODY touches my tools. We have a new apprentice that was carrying his tools around in a cardboard box because he said he could not afford a pouch! I almost sent him home one day because of it!
Rong, I'm surprised it's in your contract to wear a pouch...I'm only 24 and my back is messed up from wearing my pouch all through my apprenticeship But now most of my work pants have holes in the back pockets lol