Sunday, August 15, 2021

A disturbing trend of Young Electricians using Impact drills to tighten screws on outlets and switches which is damaging them

 Back when I was a rookie electrician  there was no concern for Wrist Injury's and Carpal Tunnel Disease .everything was done by hand  oh there where fancy twisting screwdrivers that helped but for most part it was all hand and wrist work.

But that's not the case today most young electricians carry and use a small battery powered screwdriver or drill .

That's fine it does cut down on wrist injury's but it has also caused another issue . over-tightened switches and outlets which cause them to fail and break creating a  shock and fire hazard.


Take this gang of supposed spec grade  switches installed everyone broken or cracked after being installed only a year ago. 




To make matters worse some of these compact drills have an impact setting and if your not careful or lazy you see the above result every switch in that gang switch is cracked and damaged. 

luckily the worker operating the switch was not hurt when switch collapsed into box ,but this is not always the case .

The only way to make this stop happening is for supervisors and inspectors to crack down on bad job habits or outlaw the drills all together.  

I have one of those small drills and I have never cracked or broken a switch. its called take your time and do it right. but too many employers are all about speed and speed gets you killed.



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