electrical

Klein J2000 Side-Cutting Lineman's Pliers Review

Klein J2000 Side-Cutting Linemans Pliers Review

If you ask ten electricians which company makes the best lineman’s pliers, all ten would say ‘Klein’ (trust me, I actually asked ten… and I’m an electrician). In fact, most electricians call any lineman’s pliers “Kleins” – though they probably shouldn’t. They have set the standard for lineman’s pliers in the way that Xerox set the standard for copying machines back in the day, or Kleenex did for tissues. Klein tools are on the top of the list for electrician’s tools because it’s their specialty – and when that’s all you do, you tend to get good at it. The Klein lineman’s pliers are said to be the best made. With all of the recent competition, and years of other manufacturers crafting competing products, we were curious to see if they still held the title.

Milwaukee 2210-20 Fluorescent Lighting Tester

Milwaukee Fluorescent Lighting Tester 2210-20

New tools are often nothing special. Most of the time they are incremental updates, but occasionally, they alter the makeup of an existing idea enough to be considered original – like the one-handed reciprocating saw, for example. But other times, they are downright original. I mean, truly original – as in “the first of its kind”. Milwaukee pulled this off when it saw a need for identifying and fixing fluorescent lighting. There simply wasn’t a meter on the market that could troubleshoot and fix this style of lighting quickly and easily. What the new Milwaukee 2210-20 Fluorescent Lighting Tester does is allow maintenance professionals to extend a probe, turn to the lamp function, press the test function and check to see if the lamp is good or bad. But how? The meter emits high frequency voltage when it contacts the glass. This process “activates” the bulb because the rod acts as a ballast which will energize a good lamp.

Milwaukee Pliers, Snips, and PEX Cutting Hand Tools Preview

Milwaukee Hand Tools – Pliers, Snips, and PEX Cutting

When we attended the Milwaukee New Tools Event this year, Tim Albrecht showed us some of the new hand tools that fall into three basic categories: Pliers, Snips, and PEX Cutting. At the time, the info was under NDA, but now that has been lifted and we an bring you all of the first impressions and info we learned first-hand about the new tools. First up was a focus on build quality. First off, the new hand tools are all drop forged, machined for maximum precision, and treated to resist rust. In fact, using chrome plating instead of nickel, Milwaukee demonstrated the advanced corrosion resistance of their new tools by leaving two new aviation snips left in salt water overnight and then in the sun. Milwaukee’s tool showed considerable resistance to rust while the other brand had a ton of rust around the hinge points and across the blade.