Electrician U

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A lot of people get stuck working a job they hate, because they aren’t passionate about what they do, or are not driven to excel at their craft. Today we’re going to talk about what it means to be a craftsman and taking seriously the job that you do.

 

WHAT IS CRAFTSMANSHIP?

Really craftsmanship boils down to giving a shit about what you do every day. Rather than just half-assing your job, craftsmanship is doing your best work and taking pride in what you do. A lot of people get into the habit of thinking “if nobody sees what I’m doing, nobody will know.” This is a dangerous attitude to have in the electrical industry because what we do can kill people. Sub-standard electrical work can cause fires that can burn a building, destroy a piece of equipment, and/or seriously injur or kill someone. You need to take this shit serious or find another job.

Even the National Electric Code mentions this briefly – NEC 2017 says in 110.12 under MECHANICAL EXECUTION OF WORK that electrical equipment must be installed in a neat and workmanlike manner. It doesn’t say a “craftsmanlike manner” but it does say workmanlike. A workman is simply someone who has a certain skills or tools in a specific area, so as an electrician we are workmen. This does mean that you have to be skilled, and doing half-assed work that you don’t care about is not workmanlike. It’s lazy and careless.

Being a craftsman really means going the extra mile to hone your skills. It means finding new ways to approach things, studying your craft, and taking great pride and care in what you do. Even if you know nobody will notice the work you’re doing, craftsmanship is doing it the right way because YOU will know about it. The funny thing is that when people get into the mentality that “nobody will ever know,” they’re wrong more times than not. Buildings are always getting remodeled, changed, equipment gets swapped out, and things go wrong. It doesn’t matter if it’s in an attic, in a mechanical room, or above a grid ceiling – somebody is going to find the work you did. If you don’t care about that, then maybe you’re in the wrong line of business.

This may sound a little crass, but honestly, there are too many unskilled laborers out there calling themselves electricians and really fucking things up. If you’re going to enter this trade it’s time to either give a shit or go do something else. I get it, we’ve all been in situations when time was of the essence, and we needed to just get things done. There is a line to draw though, this does not excuse you to do hack work. It just means pick up the pace. Shit work, and quick work are not equal. Do your best work every day my dudes, peoples’ lives depend on it.

 

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**Disclaimer – These videos are for training purposes alone, all work done on electrical systems should be done by a licensed and insured electrical contractor.  If you are not an electrician, do not attempt any o

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I get asked by LOADS of people whether or not they should quit their job and go to another company. I have a few things to say on the matter, so let’s get into it.

 

SHOULD I QUIT MY JOB?

I honestly believe in respect and loyalty above all. I’m a Taurus with a lot of Leo in me, so pride, justice, respect, and loyalty are the things that I personally regard as high-virtues. So you may not feel the same way I do about the subject, but just so you know – these are the drives that I base my opinion on because they are how I navigate the world in general.

My 2 cents: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. This means, if everything is working and you’re generally happy and taken care of – why would you leave? It’s very difficult to find an employer that values you as a human, affords you plenty of growth, opportunity, and puts their money where their mouth is. A lot of employers are looking for the best employees on the planet, that they can pay as little as possible to keep them around. I get it, that’s good business. But what’s good business seldom is good humanity. When you find someone who balances the two well, it’s worth its weight in gold to hang on to.

A lot of people simply want to chase a dollar. They’ll be getting materials at a supply house and some other company notices them and dangles an extra dollar an hour in front of their face to get them to jump ship. And too many people fall into the trap. It’s not always a terrible decision, however, the risk of it being one is there. I personally think the devil you know is oftentimes better than the one you don’t. You may jump ship on a good thing, get that extra dollar an hour, and hate the new company you work for. You may not find out you hate it until 6 months in, and at that point, the last company you worked for may not take you back.

All of that being said, there are companies that make you hate going to work every day. These companies tend to underpay, under-appreciate – OR BOTH. If you feel like shit going into work every day, you probably already know your answer. There’s no reason to stick with a company that treats you like you don’t matter – because to them, you probably don’t. Now, this doesn’t mean if you have one or two bad days you need to leave. It means if you’ve been working there for months or years, and you notice that OVERALL you’re not valued or treated like crap – or not paid for your level of “bust-ass” – finding another company may be worthwhile.

On the flip-side though, if you are working for a place that is willing to train you and bring you up, they make you feel appreciated, and pay you FAIRLY (not over-pay you, but pay you what you’re honestly worth) – stick with them. Show them some loyalty and appreciation back. I’ve found it’s worth sticking around at a company like this, even if they can’t pay you what another company may be tempting you with.

Lastly, think about this: You may get a job opportunity that is FAR beyond your skill level, and get offered a much higher salary to do things that you know you aren’t ready for. Be very cautious of these opportunities. If you take it thinking you can bullshit your way through the day – you can’t. They’ll know where you’re at with your skill level immediately. Also if they don’t

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Today I talk to Wayne Robinson from Capitol Electric Supply, a retired master electrician and chief electrical inspector who’s been working in the electrical trade for nearly 50 years.

 

GIVING A ‘LIL NOD TO THE OLD-SCHOOL

It’s amazing to get to talk to the “old-schoolers” in the trade because you get to hear stories about how things used to be, as well as how they’ve watched things change throughout the years. In this episode, I talk to Wayne about his years as an electrician, as well as being an inspector and instructor for a large portion of his career. He shares with us some of the changes he’s seen in the electrical trade, including grounding and bonding language, equipotential bonding in pools, and electrical safety.

Wayne is retired though is currently an instructor with Capital Electric Supply based in Maryland. He’s written books and drawings that he uses as teaching-aids and if you’re interested in finding out more about Capital’s training programs you can find them here: https://www.capitalelectricsupply.com

 

Please check out the Electrician U Facebook page and subscribe to the YouTube Channel if you like these videos! Also check out the Electrician U Instagram page.

**Disclaimer – These videos are for training purposes alone, all work done on electrical systems should be done by a licensed and insured electrical contractor.  If you are not an electrician, do not attempt any of the work you are seeing in these videos.**

 

LISTEN TO AUDIO:http://electricianu.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Episode44-HalfACenturyInTheElectricalTrade-50YEARSOFEXPERIENCE28129.mp3

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It’s easy to talk about what it means to be a great crew-lead, but what most people don’t think about is what makes a good follower or helper.  This is really a deep methodology that takes wisdom and purpose to execute so let’s crack it open for a minute.

 

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A HELPER

To follow (as it applies to getting work done) is to HELP and SUPPORT.  It does not mean that you just take a back seat while letting someone else carry the burden.  It means recognizing the burden the lead has, and helping them execute their responsibilities.

Your job as a helper (even a seasoned non-lead is a helper) is to help make the lead’s job easier.  You are there to help carry the load.  But interestingly enough, follower-ship is a form of leadership.  When you choose to follow, you choose to help that lead be successful in their role.  So being a follower is really being a clever leader.

 

HOW TO EXECUTE THIS ROLE

To be a good helper you need to carry your load well.  Your job is to do whatever the lead needs you to, according to your abilities – but sometimes outside of them.  Leading as a follower means that you know your job/task needs to be executed well so it relieves the burden from the lead.  If you half-ass your share you’re not helping, you’re hurting.  So doing a great job on a task takes a load off of everyone else’s shoulders.  You sucking, only makes others have to go behind you and re-do your work which means you’re not worth having around.  Now there are obviously times where you’re going to make mistakes, but you need to take the time to minimize those instances as much as possible.

This leads me to my next point…ask questions.  When a lead gives you a task and you don’t fully understand, DO NOT JUST PRETEND THAT YOU DO.  Most of the time you will end up messing it all up and having to re-do everything.  Ask as many questions as you need to until you fully understand what you need to do.  It may be frustrating for the lead to have to go into that much explaining just to execute a task, but when you remind them you don’t want to mess it up so they have to redo it, many of them will drop the bass in their voice.  Also learn how to “time your questions.”  There is a definite time and place to rain questions down on someone, but be smart about this.  If you have several questions to ask don’t stop the lead several times when they’re trying to get something done.  Wait for a good time to stop them and ask all of them.  The lead has a lot going on, including making sure everyone around them is doing their jobs correctly, so there are bad times to ask questions.  Learn this and it will help the lead out a lot.

Your job as a helper is to ANTICIPATE NEED.  Think about those words.  The crew around you will always need things.  Materials, ladders, tools, a hand, whatever.  You need to watch them and anticipate what they may need.  There’s a difference though, if you’re a helper who’s independent vs if you’re a fresh helper who’s still in the “gofer” phase of your apprenticeship.  When you’re just a gofer, your job is HEAVILY dependent on anticipating need since you don’t know what you’re doing yet.  By observing those around you working, you start to understand how to do their jobs.  Next you become able to work, and your jo

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Since my first tool video I did a few years back, I’ve had so many people ask me for a more condensed list of tools that I would consider as the essentials for an apprentice to buy. This list is ONLY hand tools – not power tools like drills and saws. Here’s my top 13 list.

 

#1 – LINEMAN’S PLIERS

Every electrician, no-matter where they’re at in their career, must have a set of lineman’s pliers. There are several brands and styles out there to use, and I think I’ve got at least one of all of them. The one’s I have the easiest access to, that have been reliable my whole career, have been Klein’s. I’ve tried several different models of Klein lineman’s pliers, and there are definitely a few I like more than others. The high-leverage set are great for having torque and power behind the tool. The smaller multi-tool lineman’s offer a little more versatility since they have strippers, bolt cutters, and the front is shaped like a standard lineman’s pliers – but they don’t offer the same power with the shorter handles. Either way you go, you need a set of lineman’s pliers if you’re getting into the electrical trade.

 

#2 – NEEDLE-NOSE PLIERS

The needle-nose pliers is our next “must-have” as an electrician. We use these in so many ways, and for so many reasons so having one near-by is always a good idea. There are times we need to get in to really tight spaces to grab things, or we need to bend the ends of conductors to fit into a termination. Some needle-nose pliers come with a stripping hole, or some yet come with an entire set of different gauged-holes for stripping various sizes of wires. Either way you go, you need one of these beasts and will probably use it on a daily basis.

 

#3 – DIAGONAL-CUTTING PLIERS

Having a good set of diagonal-cutting pliers in your pouch is a no-brainer as an electrician. We cut things, a lot, and having a tool specifically being able to cut at the tip of the tool, or use it to pry is an extremely handy thing to be able to do. A lot of times we need to cut things in tight spaces,

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Most journeyman electricians end up leading jobs for the first time when they get their license, and for some it’s an overwhelming task that they feel is unmanageable. There are a lot of tips and tricks from the older leads that can be learned, and if taken seriously will make things a whole lot smoother.

 

WHAT IS A CREW-LEAD?

As the crew-lead you’re the one responsible for the entire job that you’re on. You’re responsible for the people on it, the materials, the plan of action, and the efficiency and quality of how you and your team execute that job. You take on the liability of the company, the safety of the crew, and whether or not the company makes or loses money on the job. It’s kind of ALL on you.

It’s your job to make sure all of the materials are on-site and have all of the tasks planned so that you’re thinking out ahead of your crew as they work – ensuring they have everything they need to be effective throughout the day. It’s on you to delegate tasks to people based on their skill or knowledge level, and make a solid plan for how the job needs to be executed.

 

HOW TO EXECUTE THIS ROLL

Keep lists. As you first start out running crews, making lists is one of the best things you can do to stay on top of everything. This includes material lists, questions for the customer, tasks that need to be done, and any changes that need to be billed for.

I recommend getting on-site early and leaving late. It’s on you to have the plan and make sure it’s executed well so arriving before your crew gives you a little time to plan and look the job over before they arrive. Then when they arrive you can walk through the job with them and talk about your plan and how you want things done. Then when the day is finished stay a little late to check on everything and make sure the work everyone did is up to your standard. This is a good time to write down anything that you see that needs to be addressed the following day, and also lets you update your task list for the things you think y’all can finish tomorrow. It’s really just being good at planning and checking to make sure the plan is being executed well.

Walking the job with your crew before you start working is another great practice to get in the habit of. It lets everyone know the whole scope of the day, shows everyone the problems that may come up and how to address them, and lets everyone see the whole picture so they know what to do next if you’re not around. Rather than everyone just being reactive to the ONE thing they’re currently working on, it allows them to work more efficiently knowing how what they’re doing relates to everything else around them – including what the other people are doing.

As a leader you have the choice to have whatever demeanor or attitude that you want. I would think long and hard about this. Don’t be a fake person, or try to be something you’re not, but do think about how you come off to people. You could think everybody just “wants” to listen to you, and then you find out that’s not true at all when you start handing out orders. You also may think that nobody’s going to listen to you, then everyone does when you give them tasks. Until you start becoming aware of how you act and how others respond to you, you’re not

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Let’s face it…the national electric code book is probably the most difficult construction document to read and understand. It’s written like a court document in legalese, using terms none of us use in the field, for the sake of liability and C.Y.A. These are 11 more terms that are used in the NEC that I feel people struggle with understanding when they first buy a code book.

 

#1 – BRANCH CIRCUIT

Branch circuits are the most common circuits that we deal with on a daily basis. Branch circuits are the conductors that begin at the last breaker (over-current device) and end at an outlet. Remember from PART 1 of this series that an outlet is not a receptacle, it is a place where power is “taken” from for equipment. You may have multiple electrical panel-boards that have multiple branch circuits coming out of them. Branch circuits come from breakers, but do not feed other breakers. They only feed outlets.

 

#2 – MULTI-WIRE BRANCH CIRCUIT

Multi-wire branch circuits are similar to standard branch-circuits in that they originate at a breaker and feed outlets. However they differ becuse they have 2 or more circuits in the same cable assembly/conduit. An example of this is 12/3 MC cable. 12/3 has 2 hot (ungrounded) conductors feeding from 2 breakers on different phases, both independent circuits, and a neutral (grounded) conductor all in the same run. Both hots share one neutral. Another example is 12/4 NM (Romex) cable. 12/4 has 3 hots, and one neutral. The benefit of this cable is that several circuits can be run in one cable, rather than running several different cables.

 

#3 – FEEDERS

Feeders are one step back from branch-circuits when thinking about a typical electrical system. They are the conductors between the service disconnect and the next panel in the series. This includes anything along that run that is intercepted by equipment such as transformers, disconnects, etc. Feeders go from a breaker to another breaker, including any portion going to anything in-between. Really feeders are everything that is not a branch circuit, or a service-entrance conductor.

 

#4 – SERVICE-ENTRANCE CONDUCTORS

Service-entrance conductors are those that tie into the utility service-point, in either an overhead or underground service, and run to the main disconnect at the service. These are the first conductors run to a building/structure that we deal with as an electrician. From this main disconnect, any conductors that leave this service panel are either feeders or branch circuit conductors. Many people mistakingly call appliance conductors for furnaces and ac’s feeders, however these are still branch circuits. Feeders begin at a breaker and end at a breaker.

 

#5 – GROUNDING ELECTRODE

Grounding electrodes are conductive materials installed in the earth, that help to form a bonded connection between earth and the electrical system. They have a conductor (grounding electrode conductor) that bonds the electrode with the equipment grounding conductors and neutrals (grounded conductors) at the service. It’s extremely important that all of thes

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Doing math, for many people, is one of the things that holds them back from advancing in their career as an electrician.  “I’m just not good at math,” I often hear.  Knowing how to apply Ohm’s Law calculations in the field is crucial for your ability to think critically, on the fly, about what may be happening in a circuit – and electrician math is really not that scary.  Let’s dive in.

 

OHM’S LAW

First off, what is ohm’s law?  The short answer is a relationship.  It’s a relationship that exists between electrical units of measure, chiefly volts, amps, ohms, and watts.  Each of these values have a nearly perfect mathematical interactions, and when you start to raise or lower one, the others change to keep the relationship balanced.

This becomes extremely useful when you’re troubleshooting and need to find a missing value.  You can take readings in your environment to find some knowns, which you can then plug into an equation and do some simple math to solve for any unknowns.  Ok enough talking about it, let’s look at a few examples:

 

LIGHTS ON A CIRCUIT

One thing we do often as electricians is figure out how many light-fixtures we can install on a circuit.  Too many and we’ll keep tripping breakers.  This one’s easy so pull out a pencil and paper and do this as I go through it.

We have a 120-volt, 20-amp circuit with that was run out to a parking lot for pole-lighting.  Each pole has a 400-watt MH lamp installed in it. It appears 9 light fixtures were installed on this circuit, and the breaker keeps tripping.  Time to do math.

Start with the knowns.  We know we have volts, amps, and watts right?  We also know each fixture consumes a certain amount of wattage, and when we multiply volts and amps together we get wattage.  So 120 x 20 = 2,400 total watts available on this circuit.  And we know each lamp is 400w.  

Now the unknowns. So we could divide 2,400 total circuit watts by 400 watts per lamp and find that there should only be 6 lamps on this circuit.  3 less than how it was wired.  We can also figure out how many watts the 9 existing 400w MH lamps are consuming.  Simply take 9 x 400 = 3,600 watts.  3,600 watts can also be expressed in amperage if we divide 3,600 by 120-volts – which comes out to 30-amps.  This means the existing circuit with 9 lamps on it, is drawing 30 amps as it’s consuming 3,600 watts of energy!  This will trip a 20-amp breaker any day of the wee

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Let’s face it…the national electric code book is probably the most difficult construction document to read and understand. It’s written like a court document in legalese, using terms none of us use in the field, for the sake of liability and C.Y.A. These are 11 terms that are used in the NEC that I feel people struggle with understanding when they first buy a code book.

 

#1 – UNGROUNDED CONDUCTOR

Ungrounded conductors are the “hot” wires we deal with. They’re normally the phase conductors that people think of as black. They’re called ungrounded, because they are the conductors what we DO NOT want to every be grounded – intentionally or unintentionally. We want them supplying power to a load, not supplying power to metal surfaces or to the earth – so they’re different than GROUNDED conductors.

 

#2 – GROUNDED CONDUCTOR

Grounded conductors are the exact opposite of ungrounded conductors. Grounded conductors are what we in the field call a “neutral.” This is the white wire in a 120v circuit (US). The reason this is called the grounded conductor is that in the transformer where power is being derived, there is a coil (there may be several) of wire. One end of this wire is one of our hots (ungrounded conductor), and the other side of that same coil of wire is where our other phase comes from. So we get L1 and L2 (240-volts) from one piece of wire shaped into a coil. Well when you take the mid-point of that coil and bolt another conductor to it, that middle point is what we call the NEUTRAL POINT. We can hook a conductor to this and bring it down to the earth to ground it. So now we have a responsible reference for stable voltage, and have mechanically attached it to the earth so the earth is at the same potential. This also provides us with a half-voltage between L1 and L2’s 240-volts – so we can have 120-volt circuits as well.

 

#3 – EQUIPMENT GROUNDING CONDUCTOR

Equipment grounding conductors are the conductors that connect the metal housing of equipment back to to the neutral (grounded conductor) at the service. This is the, typically green or bare conductor (US systems) that we call out in the field…the ground. These conductors are sized based off of the breaker ahead of the equipment and need to be run in a way to ensure a low-impedance path for fault-current to take in case something bad happens in an electrical circuit.

 

#4 – GROUND-FAULT

A ground fault is an accident, we’ll just start with that. It’s when an ungrounded conductor (hot) comes into contact with a piece of metal. This piece of metal will become energized if it is not intentionally grounded. The reason we ground the metal enclosure of equipment is so that if this happens, that equipment doesn’t just sit there energized while someone walks up, touches it, and gets shocked. If we ground the equipment, it allows the current to return to the neutral, completing a circuit which assists in tripping the breaker for that circuit. I cannot express enough, the importance of proper grounding and bonding. A lot of electricians don’t understand the dire importance of ground-fault protection.

 

#5 – GROUND-FAULT CIRCUIT-INTERRUPTER (GFCI)

This is an easy one to grasp, especially if you read the paragraph above. A GF

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In this episode we talk in depth about how to wire with MC cable, what the uses permitted and uses NOT permitted are, as well as securing and strapping and a whole host of other tips for use.

 

MC vs ACPhoto courtesy of Paul Abernathy – https://www.masterthenec.com

First off I suppose it’s good to point out the difference between AC and MC. A lot of people think that it’s the jacketing that separates the two, but actually both come in steel and aluminum jacketing. Really it’s what’s inside that sets the two apart.

MC – with full size insulated equipment grounding conductor – photo courtesy of Paul Abernathy – https://www.masterthenec.comAC – with bare #16AWG equipment grounding conductor (bonding conductor) – photo courtesy of Paul Abernathy – https://www.masterthenec.com

MC cable typically has either an insulated or bare FULL SIZED equipment grounding conductor inside of it – or sometimes both depending on the purpose of the MC. AC has a small #16AWG equipment grounding conductor in it. The codes in the 2017 NEC have variations in them between MC and AC on things such as bushings as well as the bonding conductor requirements, that is all to say, they are not the same thing. Think Metallica and Megadeth or Audioslave and Soundgarden. Essentially the same…but different.

 

USES PERMITTED AND NOT PERMITTED

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