2023 Awesome Tools and New Companies to Watch Out For

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dude if you haven't been to Nika yet  what are you doing with your life basically Nika is like nerdfest for electricians  it's all the stuff that we use every day smashed   into a big room so the first thing that I saw was  the spider sign and these guys are a new brand so   I had to go figure out what they were doing so  this is our german-made patented recent blade   we refer to it as a three by three because it  has three cutting points on it the front the   the bottom and the top so we have the patent on  it so our recap saw was embedded in 1951 and uh   by Milwaukee had nobody thought to patent the  top side of reset blade so we have the patent   on it uh and we have we've had this out now for  several years and what's unique about it is we   have eight percent more Cobalt in the bi-metaling  of this on the three sides also you'll notice that   in a traditional reset blade which is a single  lineal Edge they're all manufactured same way   that whether it be ours or anyone else's they have  a cut here and they weld on the nose so and then   they do the bi-metaling and as we were talking  earlier that well point is the weakest part in   the structure that's there where we don't have  this in our German blade our German blades or no   one else has had this either because these are  stamped it's a single stamp piece of metal and   it's bi-metal so we no structure where it's going  to break is it going to be in the smallest point   in the structure which is where it mounts and  that's going to have a bind point there as well   but what's cool is this is you'll notice here on  the see it on this side better this is cutting   on the pull right if you notice how it varies  on top it's the exact opposite it's literally   cutting on the push and cleaning on the pole so  if you've never used the recip saw blade and you   want to take it and invert it and the power two  companies fixed this years ago where you could   take a blade and invert it yeah you have literally  more stability cutting in an upcut capacity yeah   so it as we all know not everything is is easy  and laying out equal some of these contractors   plumbers electricians Are Climbing under houses  they call small spaces and they're having to cut   above them or whatever case might be this is  what gives this blade an advantage over others   all right well dude thank you so much for  your time I appreciate it thank you yes sir there's no one next I had to check  out what team red was up to of course all right so this is our fourth generation  half inch hammer drill a couple of the key   features don't want to call out first is what we  like to call Auto Stop typically you'll see this   in our threaders and our Grinders Auto Stop  is an anti-bonding mechanism built into the   tool think of it as a smarter tool so any kind  of bind typically there's two pain points that   we hear a lot one if a competitor has this it's  too sensitive so it shuts off very easily the   second feature would be typically there's too much  swing so by then your wrist is already injured so   Auto Stop will address both pain points okay next  thing I want to call attention to is our quarter   inch impact so on the fastening sides you're still  going to get 1400 inch pounds on the hammer drill   2 000 inch pounds on the impact on the impact as  well one of the biggest pain points that we have   is our better lighting so typically with this on  the previous model the orientation you kind of had   to tilt it up with this model you're going to have  a better illuminated space so there's no Shadows   for your workspace that's but not least anything  that fuel is going to be revlink plus intelligence   so think of that as a smarter tool inside the  housing here we have a microchip that microchip   is going to better communicate between the hammer  drill and the battery it's going to give you the   right amount of draw doing exactly the application  that you need to do without needing too much of   that battery okay so it kind of what for  whatever the load is sure you don't ever   have any issues with it but miscalculating like  not not being able to fulfill a load right okay there we go after that I was stopped like  37 Times by all of you people   which honestly is my favorite part of all  of this really I love uh being stopped and   people like hey can I shake your hand can  I take a selfie I love that dude and I love   people like coming up and telling me their  story so please if you ever see me at an   event come up to me and say something but I  was also stopped by a whole bunch of Brands   and it's a lot of these newer brands that are  like fresh you know in the beginning stages   of their startup and one of them that I thought  was really cool was a brand called simply count and what do we got going on here I see a bunch  of colors on plans all right so this is simply   count we make counting symbols on blueprints  easy uh the software is a visual search engine   so a lot like control F where you can type  in text and find it on a PDF you can't do   that with symbols so what the user does is  they draw a box around a symbol that they'd   like to search more of so for instance  we'll we'll search for this OS symbol   simply just draw a box around the symbol press  search and now the software algorithms will go   through the rest of the page and locate all of the  the instances and then we'll load the results on   the on the table automatically and they'll be able  to delete along anything that they would like to   exclude from the count okay and then there's  not a shadow of a doubt about the quantities   and their numbers and what symbols that they go  to so does it actually highlight every instance   of that on the plan once you do it yes yes yes  so it's all that snow you can literally even see   um all of the symbols and you can see all the  pages all the symbols that you've counted on   the page and so there's not a shadow of a doubt  about uh you know what what the name is where the   count is and what color it is and so it this  is really helpful for newer electricians who   are entering industry trying to understand how  to read blueprints because we've got a lot of   experience who's leaving and so the the new Talent  is is using simple account as a way to wrap their   head around what's what's being looked at on  blueprints well yeah in the assistive software   I mean all right this younger Generations are  all about software and making things fast yeah   and when I came up it was like all right here's  a plan I want you to count every switch on there   and like take a highlighter and write down  a list of every single piece of material so   the just for a business for estimating this is  going to make everything so so much quicker so   if you if I have like a four gang and it's kind  of Muddy and sometimes the numbers blend in can   it recognize that still yeah yeah it can and so uh  the beautiful thing about simply count is all the   searches are recallable and so when when you have  a switch when you have a search um like a switch   where it's it's just naturally just a really  challenging symbol to find yeah for instance   you've got doubles then you've got four and then  you've got two you could actually go through and manually uh automatically and also manually  go through and edit the information so there's   not a you can add additional contacts and so say  you're a new estimator who they said hey go take   off this project you can connect with a senior  estimator and they can go through this list with   you and you can note down any context for specific  symbols so it's like adding meta information yeah   to a blueprint yes that's insane yes as well  as it does an automated General uh reporting   feature so when you get done with the project you  can export the PDF directly with all the markups   on their full scale and so they can actually  use this and not have to use the highlighters   they can actually go back and edit the blueprints  at any time so can they click on any one of these   and anything that's annotated by anybody pops  up okay let's go yeah as well as it also does a   custom reporting where they can hand this off to  their boss it makes them look good they they can   actually have a project summary for the project so  when they hand it over their boss their Boston's   exactly what is actually entailed in the project  and so they don't there's no guessing yeah it's   a full takeoff yeah here that is a genius  man that's really cool so I am all about   smart Tech and new ways of doing things if it  saves us time and saves US money all about it next I spotted the fluke Booth which got me  really excited I'm a huge fluke user I've   got tons of fluke meters I've been using my  entire life so I had to stop by their booth   and see what they were doing Sean nice to meet  you I'm Justin so uh I'm an electrician I'm   very familiar with fluke stuff I've been using  fluke my whole career but what do you guys have   this year that's specifically that you guys are  really proud of oh yeah so a couple of things on   our showstopper account we just launched the 1777  this is a three-phase power quality meter awesome   touch screen color screen uh this thing will do  uh logging recording transients you name it man   it's a full-fledged power quality meter awesome  uh it's definitely in our show stopper so this is   really going to help those seasoned electricians  yeah troubleshooting dirty voltage we know that   renewable energy is really taking off between  solar EV charging electric vehicles I think our   government what issued a 5 billion dollar man  you know infrastructure bill so this is huge so   yeah fluke just launched our smft 1000 now this  is really going to help those solar technicians   out in the field this is a IV curb Tracer but it's  a multi-function tester so it's allowing them to   do ground checks polarity on the panel they can  do a lot of functions your short circuit current   voltage over voltage IB curve is obviously the  key one to identify that the panel is actually   working correctly now with this they need an  irradiance meter because it's all about the sun   we're generating electricity we're generating  voltage this will Bluetooth in and Link into   our our smft we can get a full analysis this will  hold 10 different manufacturers of panels and all   you have to do is put it in it'll automatically  give you the curve of what you need so it's a   really great resource that's going to help out the  technician out in the field yeah so let's win on   that one and then also two we launched this last  year now this is not part of our uh show stopper   this is actually going to be our show stopper  oh it's a 1500 volt rated 1500 volt cat 3 rated   meter so yeah not only does it do your voltage AC  and DC it does DC power it has visual continuity   and visual polarity visual continuity so what  happens is because these loud environments we   may not be able to hear the audible buzzer yeah  this lights will display on the screen that tells   you you have continuity that's so cool yeah it's  a great tool does it still vibrate too no no those   are the like the old wigs I liked it though yeah  and then finally on this with electric vehicle   charging stations running out we need to make sure  that the installation of the charging station was   done correctly this is all part of Standards an  IEC uh standards so this allows us to interface   with the charge with the charging station it it  pretends to be the vehicle because we have to   have that handshake to make the charging station  actually work correctly now we can use a DMM or a   scope meter hook up and make sure that we have  correct voltage either single phase or three   phase and we can check the control pilot so the  control pilot signal is it actually charging out   correctly there's so many charging stations out on  the market and each One's Gonna send out so much   amperage this will allow you to determine that  based on your duty cycle and everything so key   win this is pretty much the standard the 1772  J plug but yeah key win on that so definitely   here at Nika our showstopper is going to be  the smft 1000 and that cool 1777 power quality   meter all right well thank you so much for your  time yeah I appreciate it nice talking to you now something else caught my eye each time  that I passed if there was this company   called pen aluminum and they just had EMT  and I'm like well what's so awesome about   EMT like emtzmt well they have aluminum EMT  and aluminum rigid a Dustin what do you guys had her for a long time but we decided to get  into the aluminum conduit business about a year   ago okay it's gone very well for us the benefits  of aluminum make it the smart choice and uh I   appreciate you stopping by to see what we're doing  yeah so you guys like aluminum is your thing yeah   aluminum extruder in Southern Illinois serving  uh much of the country right now and hoping to   expand soon even more if you're used to your  your galvanized steel oh yeah EMT yeah the EMT   thank you aluminum's one-third the way to steal so  it's a much safer product holy crap less expensive   so it's a good comparison you feel a lot better  at the end of the day yeah come with aluminum   all day I bet that Bend's so much easier too yeah  it's been in great we put a lot of work into that   um it's it's critical that it bends well as  well as the wire pooling and we've developed   blue Lightning which is a product we have in the  showstopper area if you've been over there which   is a teflon-like material that we put on the  inside based on customer requests some people   don't need it Some people prefer it so it's  available on the market right now and we're   happy to share it with different contractors  around the country for their jobs yeah it's   like a blue haze sort of a thing so that's where  we came up with the blue Lightning yeah supposed   to make it less drag on the pool that's right so  what is it inherently about aluminum that makes   it more difficult to pull through like typically  well galvanized EMT already has a coding in the   manufacturing process oil wire pooling okay  yeah it's it's part of the Standard Process   aluminum does not it's an extruded product it's  very smooth on the inside and the fact that it   is a little softer metal it can drag on your  your pulling devices I'm curious what that blue   lighting is it a drastic difference to pull wire  through oh yeah is it really a much better deal   yeah and now we've provided it to some very large  projects hospitals you know we've sold millions of   feet of it in the first year wow we've sold  millions of standard EMT as well so it it's   all the preference of the customer really on what  they like to work with is the blue Lightning the   combination of the coating and the kind of rifling  inside of it there's not really any rifling in it   well it's like a weird kind of spiral thing that  I noticed when I look that might have just oh it's   not a rifling process oh okay a rifling yeah so  it's a smooth extruded and we just it's just on   the inside the coating yeah interesting so it's  like like I said it's a Teflon type of material   it's not Teflon but it's like that provides  that lubricity for the wire coin operations   so it's worked out very well and a number of  big contractors that we've provided it to on   hospital jobs and others have really appreciated  the savings that it provides in the in the effort   for the wire pulling device and you know it's  besides aluminum is uh relatively inexpensive   compared to galvanized steel EMT it's really a  lot of these contractors have been focused on the   safety factor of the weight which really means a  lot to them that's a huge job site safety is huge   and we we recognize that so there are plenty of  other benefits as you know with aluminum I'm sure   you've used it before but this is a new product  we've really put a lot of effort into it as far as   um obviously the wire pulling but also the Bendy  which is critical well even just having like like   loading a whole bunch of this conduit onto  a trailer oh yeah job site seeing a forklift   pick pallets of aluminum off and just dump it like  it's nothing and the weight going down the road is   so much difference for you know the steel that's  right and I mean I guess you know the the standard   and it's a safety standard is about 51 pounds  a lot of contractors use 50 pounds as a maximum   carry weight yeah you can carry a lot of aluminum  yeah compared to uh and we're always trying to   carry like way too much I mean how many bundles  can I get yeah I wanna I wanna actually work with   it and see just how drastically different my day  is working with nothing but aluminum whether it's   a hand bender or machine Bender you're good to  go either way but you should give it a try Justin   thank you I will thanks for your time and then  after that I was walking by the Southwire booth   and these huge barrels these big drums caught my  eye so I had to see what that was all about all   right Aaron so what does Southwire have what's the  newest latest greatest this year all right Dustin   so uh what I'm gonna show you today is uh is our  barrels and our coil packs and um when it comes   to the barrels barrels are definitely going to  increase the productivity efficiency and safety on   the job site right because really what we're doing  is we're taking you away from those individual   spools of 2500 which are are pain they're a pain  to use right um you drop them they crack they over   spool there's back weight that you gotta fight you  know the setup time and all that so the nice thing   about the barrels when you go to pull in your home  runs THHN everything is in a barrel you've got   your dedicated neutral right to go with your phase  wire and everything also has the simple technology   on it as well that simple coat that goes on  the THHN it reduces the amount of resistance as   you're pulling through your conduits okay so the  nice thing about the barrel is when everything's   set up right now again you're not dealing with  individual spools at 2500 you set the barrel up   and you start to pull okay you see that now as I'm  pulling you could tell I'm only pulling the weight   of the wire itself right so there's no back weight  that I'm having to fight as you're coming off your   individual spools at 2500 so you're reducing the  amount of material Management in terms of taking   those spools from point A to point B on the job  site those individual spools and now you only   have one barrel that you're working with now when  you pull from a barrel though you're going to want   to have a tap right whether it's built into the  cart or an individual tap which I'll show you in a   minute the nice thing about the cart it allows you  to get the barrel from point A to point B on the   job site you've got your dual axle uh four rubber  tires on the back side of the cart right but once   you get it set up you're only dealing with one  barrel so what we're doing at Southwire is we're   reducing the amount of material that you're having  to work with right again if you if you're if   you're taking it back to weight and capacity and  trying to plan for that you're looking at about   700 pounds but per wire your your five thousand  feet per wire that's 35 000 feet that means you're   reducing your spools from from dealing with with  14 individual spools 2500 down down to one barrel   the next thing I saw at the Southwire booth that  I thought was really cool is their coil packs   um you know barrels you gotta you got a little  bit more restrictions a little more planning as   far as like what your your conduits are going to  take and your panels how the panels are wired up   uh with coil packs more flexibility in here right  they don't weigh as much obviously right but again   this is an alternative uh means and methods  of installing wire when you're comparing to   your traditional spools which are bulky right so  we'll offer coil packs in number tens 12 solid or   stranded again 10 to 12 solar stranded is what we  stock it's the same premise though when with coil   packs you're pulling and you're only pulling  the weight of the wire itself right so there's   no back weight that you're having to fight so  I'm kind of going slowly here but you can see   that now typically with a setup like this where  you're pulling multiple spools you'd have a guy   right sitting there that's babysitting these  things to make sure they're not over spooling   right as you're doing as you're doing constantly  getting tangled yeah constantly getting tangled   yeah so the way we've designed the coil packs  is to allow the the user really to bypass that   the hassle of having to deal with an over spooled  spool right so with the coil packs they feed from   the inside out right and it again only has that  it's got that simple wire so it's feeding from   the inside of the pack to the outside of the pack  as it's rotating okay that's that's number one   number two is with the coil pack they all weigh  50 pounds or less right so if you're comparing   this to a 2500 foot spool 25 or 2500 foot spool  of number 12s weighs about 90 pounds right coil   pack weighs 50. I can carry it on my side I can  carry two so you're gonna get about 2 thousand   feet of wire for sink for a single circuit two  thousand feet so I can easily carry two thousand   feet here and two thousand feet here compared to  only being carrying 2500 foot spool right which   weighs 90 pounds they're awkward yeah like you  said I mean you're not necessarily getting rid   of the person but you're making it easier for them  and it's just increasing the efficiency on in all   aspects on the job right yeah so there's some also  some accessories that we offer with uh with coil   packs and barrels that's like the the Home Run  uh grip it so yeah these are the uh these are the   South wire drippets right guys love these because  typically when you're making up ahead you've got   you know you've got multiple circuits that you're  having to strip back and you're having to make   your head up right but you're just stacking in  you're staggering in your circuits tens or twelves   oh what yeah and you're just folding them back  just like that but and I've had some guys will   that'll still tape up you know tape it up toward  the back but you know you hook up your your pull   line right no tape and you pull out of here yeah  and and just send it through and I'm telling you   this thing is a ticket because it's saving you  so much time as far as making up your head nice   thing about off at the end too once you get it all  the way through it's little things like this that   save you so much time that is the coolest thing  yeah how did I not know that this existed myself all right that's pretty much it next year  it's going to be in Philly so make sure   if you have any interest in going to Nika  that you come out shake my hand come meet   me come look at all the crazy tools and stuff  that's being developed in your industry thank   you for your attention I love you crazy  people and I'll see you in the next one

2022-11-20

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