Tools of the trade, part 3: hand tools and what you actually need on day one

The previous post in this series covered power tools and test equipment. This one covers the tools every technician carries on their belt, and a question that stops too many people from entering the trade: how much does it cost to get started?

Browse any tool aisle or online forum and it is easy to conclude that a new technician needs thousands of dollars of equipment before their first day. That is not how the trade works. Most employers expect a new hire to arrive with a basic set of hand tools, a drill, and an impact driver. Specialized, expensive, and site-specific equipment is supplied by the company. Everything else is built up over a career, one purchase at a time, as experience shows what is worth buying.

What you need on day one

A new installer or apprentice is typically expected to bring the following:

• A basic set of hand tools covering cutting, stripping, termination, and fastening (detailed below)
• A cordless drill/driver
• A cordless impact driver
• A tool bag or pouch to carry it all
• Personal protective equipment, starting with safety glasses and work gloves

That is enough to be productive on nearly any job site. A lead technician or supervisor does not expect a first-year installer to be fully self-sufficient. A new hire who arrives with a reasonable kit and a willingness to learn is productive on day one. A paycheck spent on tools the person does not yet know how to use is not.

A drill and impact driver as a combo kit lock in a battery platform. Every later cordless purchase shares those batteries, which cuts the cost of adding tools over time.

Cutting and stripping

Diagonal cutters. Used constantly for cutting cable, trimming zip ties, and clearing out wire. A quality pair holds its edge longer than an inexpensive one.

Flush cutters. Trim zip ties cleanly without leaving sharp edges that cut hands or damage cable jackets.

Cable cutters. Make clean cuts through larger multiconductor and bundled cable without crushing it.

Wire strippers. Sized for the conductors you work with most, typically 16 to 26 AWG for low-voltage work.

Cable jacket stripper. Removes the outer jacket of twisted-pair cable without nicking the conductors inside.

Electrician's scissors. Handle pull string, aramid yarn in fiber cable, tape, and Velcro.

Utility knife. Used daily for opening boxes, scoring jackets, and general cutting.

Termination tools

Punch-down tool. An impact punch-down tool with interchangeable 110 and 66 blades covers most jacks, patch panels, and blocks on the job.

Modular plug crimper. Terminates RJ45 connectors. Many technicians prefer pass-through style connectors and crimpers, which make it easier to verify conductor order before crimping.

Coaxial compression tool. Still needed for legacy video and broadband work, though less common than it once was.

Fastening and gripping

Screwdrivers. A multi-bit screwdriver covers most fasteners. A small terminal screwdriver fits the tight terminal blocks on access-control panels, readers, and alarm boards.

Nut drivers. Common sizes for enclosures, panels, and hardware.

Hex keys and security bits. Door hardware, exit devices, and tamper-resistant enclosures regularly require hex keys and security Torx or spanner bits. Security installers use these often.

Pliers. Needle-nose pliers for fine work, lineman's pliers for general gripping and twisting, and tongue-and-groove pliers for fittings and connectors.

Pulling and pathway tools

Getting cable from one point to another is a large part of the job, and no single tool handles every situation. Knowing which one to reach for saves time.

How full a conduit, tray, or J-hook is, and which limit is reached first, are numbers. Those live on the calculators page.

Glow rods. Glow rods, or fiberglass push rods, screw together in sections to reach across open spaces. They span drop ceilings, reach over obstructions, and push pull string into a space that is hard to access. Their rigidity is their strength in open areas. They do not navigate conduit bends well. Many companies provide them. An inexpensive personal set shows up early in a lot of bags.

Fish tapes. A fish tape is a long, flexible band wound on a reel, pushed through conduit or down a wall cavity and then used to pull cable back. A 100-foot tape covers the vast majority of first-year work. Many technicians own one by the end of that year. Longer tapes, cable pullers, and heavy pulling equipment for long conduit runs are typically supplied by the company.

Fish tapes come in two main types, and each has its place:

• Steel fish tapes are stiff and push well through long conduit runs, and their small head passes easily through 1/2-inch conduit. They are a poor choice for fishing inside walls. The hooked end tends to catch on studs, blocking, and other obstructions, and a tape that snags badly enough may have to be cut off and abandoned.
• Nylon and polyester (poly) fish tapes are nonconductive and less prone to snagging, which makes them better suited to fishing walls and working near electrical equipment. Their larger head can be difficult to push through smaller conduit such as 1/2-inch, and they do not push as far on long runs as steel.

Many technicians eventually own one of each. A first fish tape matches the work the employer does most.

Tape the cable to the fish tape in a smooth, tapered bundle, staggering the conductors so the head is not bulky. A clean head pulls through bends and connectors more easily than a lump of tape.

Other pathway and layout tools:

• Drywall jab saw: cuts openings for low-voltage mounting brackets and boxes.
• Stud finder: locates framing before cutting into a wall.
• Tape measure and torpedo level: device placement and mounting height.
• Markers and pencils: labeling, layout, and marking cable. Keep more than one; they disappear quickly.

Safety equipment

Some safety equipment is supplied by the employer or the job site. A technician keeps the basics on hand:

• Safety glasses: required on nearly every commercial site. Drilling overhead and working above ceilings without them is a common source of eye injuries.
• Work gloves: protect against sharp ceiling grid, sheet metal edges, and fiberglass insulation.
• Non-contact voltage tester: an inexpensive purchase that belongs in every bag. Low-voltage technicians regularly work near line voltage.

Hard hats, high-visibility vests, and fall protection are frequently required on construction sites and are often provided by the employer or general contractor. Expectations are confirmed before the first day.

Building your kit over time

As a technician gains experience and responsibility, the kit grows with them. Common next purchases include:

• Fish tape: a 100-foot tape is in the kit by the end of the first year, as described above.
• Tone generator and probe: traces and identifies cables in walls, ceilings, and bundles. Many basic analog toners do not work reliably on a cable that is connected to an active switch or device. Toners designed for active networks exist, and they cost more.
• Continuity and wiremap tester: verifies terminations before a certification test or a customer walkthrough.
• Multimeter: used for troubleshooting power supplies, locks, and readers, especially in security and access control.
• Oscillating multi-tool and rotary hammer: covered in the power tools and test equipment post. These become useful as a technician takes on more installation and retrofit work.

Some employers offer tool allowances or purchase programs. Those programs come up in interviews.

A special mention for service work: network port identifiers

For any technician who moves into service work, one tool deserves particular attention. A network port identifier, such as the netool.io Lite and similar handheld devices, connects to a live network cable and reports which switch and which port that cable is connected to, along with information such as the VLAN, link speed, and whether the port is supplying PoE.

This matters because service work happens on live systems. A camera is offline, a reader has stopped communicating, or a phone needs to be moved, and the network closet contains hundreds of patch cords with labels that may or may not be accurate. A toner often cannot help in that situation, and unplugging cables to find the right one risks taking down devices that are working. A port identifier answers the question from the device end without disturbing anything, and gives the technician precise information to share with the customer's IT staff.

Higher-end models add features such as port flashing, which blinks the port's light on the switch so it can be located in the rack, and in some cases the ability to change switch configuration. Those features have their place. Configuring a customer's network equipment is generally the responsibility of their IT department. For a low-voltage technician, the work is gathering accurate information and handing it off. An entry-level model does that.

These devices rely on discovery protocols such as LLDP or CDP that the network switch must have enabled. Most managed enterprise switches support them, but results depend on how the customer's network is configured.

When a port is identified on a service call, update the labeling and record it in the service notes. The next technician, who may well be you, will use that record.

What the company typically provides

The following are generally supplied by the contractor, not the technician:

• Ladders, lifts, and fall protection systems
• Cable certifiers, OTDRs, and fusion splicers
• Powder- and gas-actuated tools
• Fish tapes longer than 100 feet, cable pullers, cable caddies, and other large pulling equipment
• Label printers
• Consumables such as cable, connectors, zip ties, Velcro, tape, and anchors

Bringing it together

The path into low-voltage work does not begin with a fully equipped truck. It begins with a solid set of hand tools, a drill, an impact driver, and the willingness to learn. The rest of the kit is earned over time. Every purchase made after a year in the field is a better one because experience has shown what the work demands.

Planning and device counts are numbers. Those live on the calculators. Office takeoff, proposal files, and Bluebeam chests are a later storefront. The rest of this series is on the fundamentals page.

Related on this site

• The many faces of low voltage, part 4: an overview of the trade
• Tools of the trade, part 2: power tools and test equipment
• Understanding the basics, part 1