Latest / The Electrical Show / Thomas Nagy and Paul Meenan give you top tips & random facts

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Thomas Nagy and Paul Meenan give you top tips & random facts · The Electrical Show

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The Electrical Show with Thomas naji Welcome to another episode of The Electrical Show with
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Bosh Professional here on Fix Radio. Thank you for tuning in. I'm your
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host Thomas Najie and once again we have friend and colleague Paul Mean and by
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my side, and today on the show we have we've decided that we're going
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to be talking about top tips and random facts about the electrical sector. So
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we've been racking our brains and going through some of the top tips that we
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think would benefit the humble electrician out there. Isn't that right, Paul,
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Indeed you do so. Paul is an oracle. As you know, he's
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an oracle of knowledge, so we all think he is. He's an oracle
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of knowledge, and if you're a regular listener then you'll know that already.
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But we're going to extract some more of that gold from his brain today the
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Electrical Show on Fixed Radio. I'm Thomas Najie with Paul Mean and here on
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the Electrical Show, and we are giving out random top tips and the best
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facts here in the electrical industry, things that will help you get the job
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done that a little bit faster, with a little less stress. So Paul,
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let's start with yours, your top three tips for the humbolt spark.
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These can be about anything. Okay, well, let's start with a practical
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one. We're crimping when you crimp a cable. I know it's only come
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into fashion for a lot of the domestic world now to use pin crimps and
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various crimps of sizes. When you do use crimps, the best thing to
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do, especially if you're to commercial industrial, if you have a galvanised or
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metal type, you should always heat shrink cover the damage when you when you
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crimp the actual using the tool, you will damage galvanized finished so make sure
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when you do you get some heat shrink you cover it up. Make sure
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obviously it stops it from accelerating corrosion. Use a bit of low impedance paste.
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And also when you'd have it all together, talk it. A lot
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of electricians still think talking, and I don't mean talking is in speaking,
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but talk as in tightening up the nut, the bolt, the screw.
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Every single nut and bolt that is made has a manufacturer's talk setting on it.
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So a lot of electricians have been on that journey for the last few
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years. And one of a just top tip on that if it is an
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outdoor connection. If you're doing an exterior connection for any reason, a bit
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of denzo paste on your terminals. If it is an accessible bond out in
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the open, make sure you are absolutely covering that to ensure that it lasts
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the intended life. So as an example, on the railways, we bond
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fences, but a lot of people just put like a six meal or a
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ten mile or sixteen mil metal crimp and then it rots after a couple of
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years. So a bit of denzo paste, heat shrink, give it a
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little bit of love. I know the guys in the domestic world are doing
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it already, but make it look beautiful and consider the fact that these low
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impedance connections can corrode think about it. Top tip one number two. So
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one of the things that bugged me in the most every time I see people
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testing. When you have your test leads, please realize that the movable part
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of your probe is your crocodile clip. Sorry, is the bit that clamps
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down on the cable. The flat end should be flat and flat, not
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at forty five degrees. A lot of electricians, when they're shorting out zeroing
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their leads for doing resistance testing, they just go forty five degree intertwined,
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squeeze it together a zero out no flat end covers the entire flat end.
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Hold it and then you will get a correct zeroing out. I have seen
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test results that are wrong. I know it's you know Milliams, but it's
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still best practice. So flat into flat end please no forty five. So
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if you're looking at said test leads, essentially one crocodile, one croc clip
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would be the right way up, and the other one would be upside down,
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absolutely upside down flat into flat end because the move will bit is literally
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just for grabbing the cable and tension. Good tip last one the other one.
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And this is this is going to be a quite it's going to be
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quite a controversial one testing RCDs. The entire industry says test at the terminals.
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And I'm an engineer, so I can have an opinion test at the
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end of the line of the circuit. Let's see who stands next to you
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in a quarter law. If anything goes wrong, explain it further. Well,
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I was going to leave that for the next top tips. But one
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of the things that's become a big problem with testing of our CDs, and
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this is open for debate, and it is an opinion. One of the
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things there's been huge debate over BSc and six one and six one and one's
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a product standard, one's an installation standard. And in the latest edition that
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are eggs. We removed a lot of the testing so it was easier.
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We got rid of the five times test, and it became a bit controversial
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because we're normally used to doing half times, one times, five times,
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and now that's all pretty much gone. And that was driven by manufacturers,
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and that was manufacturers who were quoting a product standard, and that product standard
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type tests in an environment where it is a set temperature, set conditions.
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But ods can be in a forty degree environment right next to a vibrating railway,
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or they can be under different electromagnetic stresses. So if you're going to
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connect a brand new circuit and provide earth leakage protection, why would you only
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test at the terminal of the RD. You're verifying the product standard, not
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the installation standard. And it's come down to test equipment manufacturers, sorry,
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every test equipment manufacturer ever getting the hunt because people were failing our CDs.
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So because people were failing our CDs on mass because the new test equipment uses
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lower currents, there's more electronics, there's more interference. If you think about
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how we tested our ScDs twenty years ago, everything was resistive and inductive.
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Now it's electronic. So if you pump a low current RCD test down a
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twin and earth circuit or a two point five mile circuit and it's got thirty
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forty meters and there's stuff plugged in, or there's capacitance to consider, there's
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vault drop, there's all sorts. It may fail the trip time. It
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doesn't mean the circuit's unsafe. But because of that, they've said, I'll
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just prove it the terminal. I would kind of argue, are we doing
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that right? After decades of advice of test at the end of line,
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why have we got rid of it? Because nobody's actually told us the definitive
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reason. Yet There's been lots of opinions which this is, but nobody's given
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us that definitive And remember one thing. If it goes wrong and you have
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to go and stand in front of a judge, who's going to stand next
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to you when you say like that, it's a good point. Yeah,
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who's going to stand next to you? Because I could stand opposite you and
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argue, well, was it reasonable and practical to go to the end of
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line and just do it a test? There? Fix radio time to crack
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on. You're listening to the Electrical Show with Bosh Professional and Thomas Najie with
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Paul Meanan here. And if you've just tuned in, don't worry. We're
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trundling through the show, but you haven't missed all of it. We are
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talking about we're giving out our top tips for the electrical industry, the humble
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electrician on the end of the screwdriver. We're giving top tips to make your
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life a little bit easier. Now Paul has given his three top tips are
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here and mine, and the first one is an inspection mirror. So you
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know, if you go to a pound shop, any budget wholesale or anything
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like that, you always find these little pound lamb mirrors with a little extendable
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metal arm. Just go and get one and put them in your bag.
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Because when you're doing fuse boards, if you if you undo all of the
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terminals on the bottom of the mcbs and then you push your buzz bar up
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into those into the bottom of the breakers. You are making an assumption at
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the end of the day that when you tighten down the mcbs, you have
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actually caught the buzz bar. And I have done it in the past where
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you think you've caught it and it feels like you've caught it, you actually
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haven't. You put the buzz bar behind the MCB, if that makes any
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sense, so you've tightened it up, but actually you're not. You haven't
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tightened up on that one circuit because the leg is behind the MCB. It's
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almost part of the writer passage. I don't know an electrician who hasn't done
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it. I've done that. Everybody's done it. Yeah, everybody's done it.
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So those nice mirrors, even the insulated ones, they're they're quite they're
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fantastic. Just tighten it up and then just put your mirror underneath and you
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can just bang two seconds. You can check every single one. But for
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me, it's like you get confidence. Okay, I know it's done because
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I've done it before, where I've fitted a board all tested out perfectly,
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and the customers, you know, they've turned on their cooker or saying when
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they pull forty ams through that circuit or whatever it is. Then it starts
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asking as this circuit isn't working or science yo, and then you come back.
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We're in a digital world. Now there is paperwork is being kept.
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It's not like twenty years and yeah you had a cash an hand job.
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It's everything's recording. Absolutely the second one roof bolts, so you get the
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sixteen twenty more roof bolts if you use Uni strut a lot for the for
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the metal munchers out there. Roof bolt spanner absolutely fantastic. It's a hex
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head and you can just put it straight into an impact drill or a screwdriver.
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You can use a one with a hex screwdriver tip. But it just
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means you haven't got to use like an eight mill flatheaded screwdriver, so you
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can actually buy a proper tool just literally for that one job. It can't
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do anything else, but it does the job of tightening roof bolts beautifully.
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So absolutely definitely they're worth every penny. I've had one of them for over
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twenty years. They're fan tasting. Yeah, I see sparks were like and
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they use the largest flathead in their weary kit and absolutely don't, honestly just
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use one of them. They're worth every penny you can buy them on If
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you got to Amazon, they're like a tenner, So just go and get
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one the last one. I don't know if we're going to agree on this,
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but chemical resin. I tried it for the first time the other week.
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Yeah, absolutely, fantastic stuff. I had loaded EV pods. I
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had to bolt down. I tried a traditional drop in anchor, so I
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just drawed a twelve mill hole, put the anchor in. That was a
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hole that the guide said use a drift. Knocked it in hard. But
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every time I tried to tighten the bolt this that the anchor just kept pulling
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out. I could not get a decent fixing. So in the end I
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use these big through bolts, but you put this chemical resin in first.
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Put the through bolt in. My god, I never tried chemical resin,
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but wow, that stuff Literally ten minutes and it's set. I mean,
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the only downside that bolt is never coming out. That's the only downside.
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You're digging out in the ground. But they're absolutely if you need a if
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you need a fixing and you're just you're like if you're trying to fix a
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fuse border side and you're just or whatever. You're just struggling to get a
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fixing. Honestly, you can go to most wholesale as like seven ten quid
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for a tuber chemical resin just to keep it in your van for that one
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occasion you need it worth every penny, So I don't disagree with you.
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Although it was banned on Crossrail, they found on Crossrail they did a lot
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of installation work in ceilings and that leads onto a whole We could do a
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whole show on just fixings, which we should do another day. So we're
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we'll talk about this. We'll do a dedicated show for fixing and ceilings.
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Just don't put it in ceilings, is my advice. The Electrical show on
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Fixed Radio. This is the Electrical Shy and Thomas Nagie with Paul meaning here
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and we've been giving you some top tips. So in the industry, the
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humble electrician keeping us working without issues. Now let's get onto some facts in
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our industry. Pool interesting facts about our industry. So we wouldn't normally know
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the easiest one in the world. The industry is not regulated. That is
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true. It's I know it sounds controversial, but genuinely, there is no
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industry regulator. What's the amount of people that genuinely believe that the Compton person's
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scheme operators are the industry regulators. I would call them maybe watful watch I'm
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being polite. I do actually like them. I would call them watchdogs.
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They're all we have, that's for sure. I do wish they'd all get
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together and, you know, have a big party and just become one entity
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that says, do you know what, if you're a good electrician, will
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pat you on the back and will elevate you, and if you're bad,
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you go go on next top tip? Actually, no interesting facts. Sorry,
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not top tip. Interesting fact. I can't say any more interesting facts
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about swearing or going off on a rant. To be honest, try God,
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give it a go. We love Paull of this show. He just
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he just says it how it is. Yeah, that's the trouble. No,
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do you know what? No, I'm gonna I'm gonna say no at
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the moment if that's okay, because I'm literally my brain's in about I've just
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got back from holiday and I've just buried my friend, so I'm may I
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may say something that I will regret it, all right? What about saying
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people may not know about the electrical sector. The world's your oyster. It
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is your oyster. I think, yeah, the world' your oyster. It's
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I think of all the trades. If you've got the right the right attitude,
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the right behaviors, and the right agenda, and you're willing to just
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be humble and learn and learn what the bad is in our industry, because
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there is bad, and be part of the good. I think the world
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you're oyster, but there is some you can't come into this industry with.
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About going through really difficult times, I think that's absolutely true. Yeah,
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but if you try to ye, if you try and do it, if
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you try to level up as much, I mean, I actually hate that
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word leveling up. I mean it's just a but if you actually do try
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to just constantly develop yourself, I think you can do fantastically well, you
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can. But what you've got to do is you've got to stop. You've
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got to develop and stop and apply and then keep going. It's it's not
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a quick win. It's not a quick what's the phrase I was talking to
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you about, The fastest way is the slowest. Yeah, the slower you
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go, the quicker you'll get there, yes, and that is apt to
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Yeah, that's one thing we can agree on that is absolutely true. The
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slower you go in this industry, the quicker you'll get there, because the
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industry is just going at a rate of knots that Actually I struggle, you
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know how sad I am. I absolutely struggle to keep up with all of
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the various documents and ever since the Building Safety Regulate has been announced post Grenfell,
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there are I mean I found out this morning there's a new ISSO Standards
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ninety nine thousand and one, which is a companion standard to the quality management
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standard that most contractors should have if they're registered, and it's about construction quality
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design management. I've never heard of it, but it's out and you're like,
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my god, there is so much going on in the street that no
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one knows about, and blessing they're all trying to do their bit, but
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it's all hidden behind a paywall, or you just think, well, what
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does that benefit me when I'm struggling anyway, And this is this is where
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you just see that whole How does society regulate, How does the industry regulate?
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It doesn't. It's survival of the fittest. But pick your path and
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just continue learning and slowly is the fastest way to success. You're listening to
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Fix Radio the builders stay Fixed Radio. That is it for today's electrical show.
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Now before we well, actually before just before we end, a couple
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more top tips. I know Paul is. Paul's got his pad in front
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of him. Magically. I've forgotten my tough book today and Paul's got his
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pad, so he's doing We're doing it. Thought there was some goods that
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I thought we would be worth while talking about. I've had recent experience of
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drilling holes using the start cuvers. Twenty mil twenty five thirty two is whatever
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you're drilling. Dust management is a nightmare, no matter what site. And
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one of my beloved peers gave me a tip and I actual love him forever.
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Before it there's a dust cover you can get from most wholesal manufacturers,
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and it's like this rubber suction thing that fits around the whole sal and you
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put it up to your ceilings like a circular silicon cup, almost that it's
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a silicon cup. It basically sucks onto the ceiling or the wall and it's
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supposed to capture the dust, and of course a minute you let it go,
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all the dust falls out and you go, why did I bother top
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tip time? So we are drilling out a hole with some dust, and
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the tip was go and get some shaving foam and pour it into the silicon
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holder, put it around your start and then when you're drilling, the shaving
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foam will capture all of the dust and debris. And then when you finish
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drilling your hole, just white clean baby top tip. That is a banging
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tip top tip. There you go. I was, I was like,
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yeah, that's really cool. Talking of cutters, the little cutters, you
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can buy the traditionally you go to I actually can't say brand names for this,
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but traditionally you buy the big hole sorce, like the deep hole sorce.
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You always us see sparks using them, but you can go onto Amazon
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anything like that. These little shallow hole swords, they're no bigger than like
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twenty mile deep maxed. They don't need to be absolutely fantastic because you get
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such a straight cut on those. So some of the deeper ones, the
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deeper the whole sare is, the more it wobbles when you drill through the
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pilot and then the actual hole sorre meets the metal, you get a horrible
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The deeper it is, the more wobble you get, and you have a
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twenty mile hole which actual ends up being like a twenty two mill hole because
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it's done that circular motion as it cuts through. But with the shallow ones,
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you don't get that. You just get the beautifully clean cut. So
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shallow hole source is a that's a definite one for twenty twenty five or thirty
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two, those are the three you want to keep in your bag. A
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couple of top tips, and this is a bit philosophical. One thing that
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I think is something that I heard years ago. The best tool you can
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ever have after your safe isolation kit is your eyes and your senses. They
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are the key things because this is the only industry where if you look at
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gas and water plumbers and gas fitters, they can smell, they can see,
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they can touch. We can't do any of that with electricity. So
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your eyes and your senses are your best tools. So make sure you look
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after him investing some safety glasses, that's for sure. A couple of other
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bits. If you're an industrial spark and you're cut in unistrut I'm not a
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fan of all the modern tools to cut unistrut with. I'm a fan of
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just a good old fashioned bacon slicer. No, no, I'm not a
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fan of bacon slicers. I'm a fan of using your arm, especially if
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you're an apprentice. But one of the things that we don't seem to be
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doing much anymore is when you cut unistruct or tray file it. And once
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you've done that, get some insulating tape and create a nice littill line measure
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about an inch back, and just get some paint, some galvanized paint,
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not spray, because spray is watered down to make it aerosol. So if
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you spray unistrut, you're actually getting a thinner coat. And this if you
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would have painted it, make sure when you open up the paint, you
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stir it at least ten times clockwise ten times anti clockwise. I know it
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sounds weird, but it actually kind of like activates it in like the most
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paints. And then paint it twice. Do two coats. Do the first
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coat, leave it to dry, do a second coat, and then you
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will get a solid, sound, beautiful looking painted end of unistrut. Most
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people don't do it. I don't know why. It's a dying art in
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our trade, is a dying skill or a dying piece of knowledge. And
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my other top tip after that is something that electricians really need to do more
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of. Please please, please, trust, but verify. So if you're
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listening to stuff that we say and you go, WHOA, that's really good,
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go and research it for yourself because you'll earn that knowledge in a different
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way and you may be able to text in to fix Radio and give us
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some different opinions on it, which is what we want at this radio show.
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Absolutely, yes, I think that's a perfect place to end this And
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all of the previous shows are available as a podcast from wherever you get them
18:15
online. And also leave us a review. That's the most important bit.
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Subscribe and share the podcast, share it far and wide. Please with people
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you know in our industry that you feel might benefit from some of the subjects
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that me and Paul talk about. We'd love to hear from you. Eighty
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one four hundred The Electrical Show with Thomas Najie sponsored by Boss Professional Powerful power
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Tools sort for measuring tools and experts Accessories,