Tools

When a telephone technician comes to your home, he'll probably be carrying a belt full of specialty telecom tools much like the one pictured at the left. However, some of the most used tools on the belt are also found in the average home tool kit such as shown on the right. You can do most of your home phone wiring work with a very limited tool kit. But, some specialty tools become necessary when you encounter problems or use special wiring components.

Minimum Tool Requirements:

If you have a home tool kit such as the one shown above, you'll probably find that it includes all of the following. Generally, if your wiring work is going to require purchase of a lot of basic hand tools that you don't have, I would recommend.

Screwdriver, slotted 3/16"
Screwdriver, Phillips #1
Screwdriver, Phillips #2

I normally carry one 6-in-1 reversible screwdriver that includes all these tip sizes. They're very handy and normally fairly inexpensive. If you don't have one, I recommend visiting your hardware store and purchasing one (or two) immediately.
Pliers, long nose with cutter (6")
Knife, electrician's (or a good pocket knife)

I also normally carry a "multi-tool". They're a fold up pocket tool that includes a long nose plier and an assortment of knife and utility blades. My tool of choice is the Paladin PT-525, built by SOG. It includes fold-out 66 and 110 punch blades, a 1/4" hex drive, and other blades chosen to to make it ideal for both telephone installation work and general utility. If you're going to purchase such a multi-tool, spend enough to get one of the good ones such as the PT-525. Good quality multi-tools are a little more expensive, but the cheap imitations tend to fail when you get down to some real work.
Other tools such as a tape measure, level, and hammer may be required if our wiring requirements involve more than rewiring or replacing your phone jacks.

Specialty Tools and Test Equipment:

Sometimes specialty tools and test equipment are indispensable. But, they are specialty items, so they're not exactly inexpensive. Purchase of some specialty tools to work with a 66 or 110 block wiring hub is reasonable. However, if you find that your work will require a lot of other specialty tools or test equipment, I would recommend you either rent them or consider seeking professional assistance. The cost of buying some specialty items significantly exceeds what you'll pay to have the job done by a professional.

If you plan to use a 66 or 110 block for your wiring hub or to install some of the special modularized IDC (insulation displacement connection) jacks, you'll find that you need a "punchdown tool". The Paladin SurePunch series and similar tools are a good choice for for professional or do-it-yourself use, but other (less expensive) models that might meet your requirements. "Impact" punchdown tools (like the SurePucnch 3571 pictured at left) are spring driven and ensure wires are properly seated and cleanly cut. "Non-impact" punchdown tools depend purely on force applied by the user and are most suitable for limited use terminating jacks and installation of the occasional cross-connect jumper. Special multi-pair 110 punch down tools are extremely useful when installing 110 blocks.

If you have trouble determining the routing of your cables or have continuity problems, you would find it very useful to have a tone generator/probe set. When a tone generator is connected to a cable pair, the probe will detect the tone when placed near any point on a cable that has continuity to the generator. If you own an ohm meter (and know how to use it), you could use it to test pair continuity, but I will not be including the procedures on these advice pages.
Probably the single most distinctive item of specialty equipment used by a phone tech is the "Telephone Test Set" (which everyone in the industry refers to as a "butt set" - obviously due to its standard carry position). Properly it is a "butt-in" set, because it is used to "butt-in" on a line. A test set is simply a very specialized telephone. It is highly ruggedized and allows a technician to test a line at any location. You can use a standard phone set to meet your limited test requirements. A Harris (Fluke) TS-22A is my choice of test set (and I couldn't resist the temptation to include the picture of one above this section of the page). But, it's probably too expensive to consider buying for personal use. If you can't bear to work on your wiring without having a test set, there are several less expensive sets available from several different manufactures (such as the Harris (Fluke) TS 19 shown at right).

20060808