In any kind of job, taking care of the tools for your job is important. As an electrician working with some very expensive and specialized tools, you want to make sure that your electrician tools are cared for well. This can save you money because you won't have to replace them as often. It can also save you time by not arriving at a job and discovering your tools are faulty. Here are some easy tips for maintaining your tools.
1. Keep Them Clean
Keeping your tools clean is probably the most important thing you can do to keep your tools lasting longer. Working on an electrical box outside after heavy rain, you might accidentally drop one of your tools in the mud. You might set one of your tools down in a crumbled mud-dauber nest in an attic and get it clogged with dust. Putting these dirty tools back into your toolbar will ensure that they get rusty and will not operate properly.
To keep them clean, your tools should be wiped down daily before putting them back in your bag or into your van. You can use an air compressor to blow out dust that has gotten into your tools to avoid pushing dirt into the interior mechanisms of your tool. Keeping your tool bags clean is important too, so make sure to keep those as dust and dirt free as possible so that your tools can be stored in a clean place.
2. Store Your Tools With Care
As mentioned above when discussing tool bags, keeping your tools in a clean place is important. Especially if you live and work in a more humid environment, tools can get rusty fast. When your tools are not in use, they should be treated as if they were your most valuable assets, because they probably are quite expensive and time-consuming to replace.
Tools should be stored in a cool dry place. Constant high heat can cause the parts in your tools to degrade over time, especially any parts that are made out of rubber or plastic. High humidity will cause rust, and your precision tools will no longer be very precise as they struggle to work through sticking, rusty, grinding gears and mechanisms. Finding a place to keep your tools that is temperature-controlled can help your tools have a much longer lifetime.
3. Take Care of Batteries and Chargers
Batteries for power tools can often be as expensive or more expensive than the tools themselves. Properly caring for batteries can give them a much longer lifespan, and you won't experience the constant frustration of replacing a dead battery right after you started working, or worse yet, running out of battery without a replacement. Just like your tools, keeping your batteries and their chargers in a climate-controlled environment will help them last longer.
Batteries are sensitive to heat. Letting your batteries sit in your hot vehicle day after day or overheating them as you are using them can dramatically shorten the lifespan of your battery. It is better not to let your battery run all the way out of charge before recharging it, because that can also cause it to overheat. Nobody likes batteries that don't hold a charge, and taking care of yours will help ensure you don't have those short-life batteries!
4. Keep Your Tools Sharp
When you allow your tools with drilling bits or cutting blades to get dull, that means your tool has to work extra hard to be effective. There is no reason to overwork and burn out your tools if you can take care of them by keeping your bits and your blades sharpened. There are a couple different ways to keep them sharp.
If you want to learn to sharpen your bits and blades by yourself, this will take a little bit of money and effort as you get the right tools to sharpen your tools and learn how to do it well. There are also local shops where you can pay a comparably small fee to get your tools sharpened. Paying to keep your tools sharp will be cheaper in the long run than having to replace over-worked tools altogether.
5. Keep Your Tools Lubricated
Power tools have a lot of moving parts which can create a lot of friction. Without proper lubrication, these moving parts can start grinding and overheating very quickly. Tools have to be lubricated fairly often, so keep track of when your tools might need some help.
Some good oil will go a long way to keeping your tools properly functioning. Read the instructions for each tool so you can know which kind of lubrication your tool needs.
6. Treat Your Tools Like Your Friends
You wouldn't throw your friend on the ground or stuff them in a dark dirty bag with other heavier friends squishing them, so why would you do that to your tools? Give your tools a rest after they've worked hard, and allow them to cool down so they are ready for the next job. Tools can overheat quickly, especially in the summer, so be careful not to overuse them.
Get your tools new parts if they start getting old to keep them at the top of their game. Keeping your tool parts fresh will help them last much longer because it's much easier on the mechanical parts of the tools if everything is working properly. Treating your tools with care means you get to have those tools for a much longer time.
We know caring for your tools is very important because it can save you a lot of time and money. To find out other ways you can save time and money, send us a message at Service Box. We can help you like we've helped so many electricians with timesheet management, scheduling, planning, giving quotes, and keeping up with your ever-changing inventory. Send us a message today and one of our agents will help you get started!
