Shopsmith Forums

Dusty, good luck on the surgery and a speedy recovery.

honeywell wrote:I am going to be taking some electical classes at community college. I am looking for a basic/started list of tools that I should start collecting for when I get out. Here is what I have so far:
Dikes, needle nose, wire strippers, flat head and #2 phillips screwdrivers, channel locks (lg and small), hammer, belt & pouch, voltage tester, tape measure, torpedo level, linemans pliers, nut drivers. Some one mentioned to get: 3/8" drive sockets, 1/2 round file, 1-1 1/4" KO. Also something called DMM?

Digital Multi Meter

"Dikes" must be a local slang name for a tool... I even did a Google image search on it. All that came back was pictures of a lot of earthworks and pictures of a lot of burly naked ladies...

I always equated "dikes" with heavy duty side-cut pliers.

One time in an engineering capacity, police came to see what my crew was up to. We wanted to say we had "dikes" and were "experimenting." Didn't take much to entertain us, laughing hardest at our own stupid puns.

robinson46176 wrote:"Dikes" must be a local slang name for a tool... I even did a Google image search on it. All that came back was pictures of a lot of earthworks and pictures of a lot of burly naked ladies...

nuhobby wrote:
I always equated "dikes" with heavy duty side-cut pliers.

I do knot know how local that term might be. As a kid, here in the state of WA, "dikes" was the only name I knew for any size side cutters. It was knot until I went to work (12yrs old, worked there for 8yrs) for an wholesale automotive tool distributor that I found out otherwise. I wonder...Maybe there was a company called Dike at one time that was well known for their sidecutters. You know what I mean]Or I could be completely wrong in my theory[/URL] (see second paragragh).

a1gutterman wrote:I do knot know how local that term might be. As a kid, here in the state of WA, "dikes" was the only name I knew for any size side cutters. It was knot until I went to work (12yrs old, worked there for 8yrs) for an wholesale automotive tool distributor that I found out otherwise. I wonder...Maybe there was a company called Dike at one time that was well known for their sidecutters. You know what I mean]Or I could be completely wrong in my theory[/URL] (see second paragragh).

Must have been very popular with my generation. I knew exactly what Dikes were. I have always called them Dikes or side dikes. At least now I know why some younger people hear the term and offer odd looks. Jim

honeywell

I would add a fish tape to your collection, a good utility knife, a hole saw set as well as a knock out set, and if you plan on doing any emt or rigid conduit, a bender for each type of conduit. Depending on which type of electrical work you plan on doing, residential, commercial, industrial, then they are many additional hand tools you will collect for that particular field. Also a good hack saw. I was an industrial electrician for 20 years and ended up with a full roll away cabinet and top box during that time and that was not counting all the special tools that my employer made available for my use. A good dependable corded drill and battery drill gets used a bunch. Another handy item is one of those small lights you can wear on your forehead so you can keep both hands available. I prefer Klein brand electrical tools as they have been around for a long time and are still made in the good ole USA. Hope this helps you.

rkh2 wrote:honeywell

...I prefer Klein brand electrical tools as they have been around for a long time and are still made in the good ole USA. Hope this helps you.

Klein = quality.

a1gutterman wrote:I do knot know how local that term might be.

I remember my dad calling them dikes (I am 48yrs old). Also in the Navy we called them dikes. It was pretty universal. All the crew knew what we wanted when we said "hand me the dikes".

honeywell wrote:I remember my dad calling them dikes (I am 48yrs old). Also in the Navy we called them dikes. It was pretty universal. All the crew knew what we wanted when we said "hand me the dikes".

My father alternately called them Dikes and diagonals. I suspect it went back to his WWII and Korean service in Aviation Propultion work.
I always took Dikes to be a shortened form of diagonal cutters or something like that. Kind of like Truck GP, General Purpose, became Jeep.