Trade Tips brought to you by Olex
- Make your own hole template – it’s easy!
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Have you ever wished you could take the guesswork out of knocking holes in brickwork that are the right size for fitting socket outlets?
- Marking stick can save time & trouble.
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When marking power point locations, Sam Castellana has seen a lot of guys use a hammer, a tape measure (or even their belly buttons) to mark switch bracket heights. But Sam has found a better way!
- Removing old downlights without damage
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Old style downlights can be difficult to remove without damaging the edge of the cut-out in the ceiling. Peter Miller has found a way to remove the old lights without leaving a trace.
- A new twist on earth connections
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Do you ever wish you could make a neat, secure earth wire connection without an earth lug?
- Coming to grips with indicator lamps!
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Replacing indicator lamp globes can be a sticky business once you know how…
- The Hole Truth about Holesaws!
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Fed up with the frustration and time wasted extracting cut-out material jammed in your holesaw blades? Peter Back suggests a simple way to avoid the angst.
- Get bent, without getting kinky!
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Have you ever tried making tight bends in conduit and been frustrated by the conduit kinking on the inside of the bend? One reader has sent in a simple solution that he claims, works for him every time.
- Readers’ response to contractor’s tip received with thanks
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We have received some negative feedback from The Cable Guy section in the February – March issue of Electrical Gems. The article described the practice of holding a contactor in with an insulated screwdriver.
- “Hold the blade, not the handle,” says Lionel!
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Lionel suggests that when using a screwdriver to manually close a contactor or a set of contacts, always hold the blade, not the handle.
- A simple D.I.Y. jig for bending saddles
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Bending up saddles by hand for fastening conduit to channel iron can be a chore (especially when you need a lot of them) but John O’Shea has devised a simple method that works.
- Save time and agro mounting double GPOs on wood
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Have you ever chiselled a hole for a double GPO, then when it came to mounting it, found there was no wood to screw into because you made the hole too wide (Grrrr…!)
- Here's the drum on cable protection
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Here's an improvement on the use of a piece of split storm water pipe to protect cables as you drag them through masonry walls.
- Time to get your time sheets up to date?
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Steve Whitehead has found an easy way to keep work records accurately recorded, by using your mobile phone.
- We've got your measure
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Do you ever go cross-eyed trying to take accurate measurements, especially in poor light or awkward situations?
- Location of downlights for second fix.
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Have you ever drilled a hole for a low voltage downlight and hit (or been too close to) a ceiling joist, or come under a soldier beam, water pipe or some other obstruction? Scott Pearson from Millswood SA has a suggestion.
- A clever system for retrieving off-cuts of conduit
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The tubes on top of your truck are a great place to store conduit. But unless you have a threaded cap at both ends, they can also be a great place for off-cuts to get stuck.
- A quick, easy way to clear your gamma style hole saw
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Do you ever have trouble removing the cut out material that jams itself inside gamma style holesaw blades? Denis Haywood says he has the answer.
- A safer, cleaner way to deal with stubborn light bulbs
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If you ever have a stubborn light bulb that just wont come out, and you know the only way you are going to get it out is to smash it, Graham Labone has found a way to do it safely and cleanly.
- A bending spring for when you can't find a bending spring
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Here's a tip from David Evison that proves beyond doubt that necessity is the mother of invention.
- Fed up trying to find cables behind wall brackets?
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When cables are hidden behind plaster board that is not marked or the wires are not pulled through, here is a technique from Mike Robins that should make finding them easy.
- Here's one straight out of the box.
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Have you ever wondered if there was a way to better manage the establishment of power supply, cabling and meter enclosure installation at new building sites? Roy Mould gave it some thought and came up with a system that could be adapted to save time and money on a great many projects.
