Common Cabling Tools

Written by Julianus Yu

A number of tools are common to most cabling tool kits: wire strippers, wire cutters, cable crimpers, punch-down tools, fish tape, and toning tools. Most of these tools are essential for installing even the most basic of cabling systems.

Wire Strippers
Strippers for UTP, ScTP, and STP cables are used to remove the outer jacket and have to accommodate the wide variation in the geometry of UTP cables. Some types use spring tension to help keep the blade at the proper cutting depth. Coaxial Wire Strippers
Coaxial cable strippers are designed with two or three depth settings. These settings correspond to the different layers of material in the cable. Coaxial cables are pretty standardized in terms of central-conductor diameter, thickness of the insulating and shielding layers, and thickness of the outer jacket, making this an effective approach.

To strip the cable, you insert it in a series of openings that allows the blade to penetrate to different layers of the cable. At every step, you rotate the tool around the cable and then pull the tool toward the end of the cable, removing material down to where the blade has penetrated. To avoid
nicking the conductor, the blade is notched at the position used to remove material.

Wire Cutters
Specialized cutters are designed for coax and twisted-pair cables to preserve the geometry of the cable as they cut. This is accomplished using curved instead of flat blades.

Cable Crimpers
Crimpers for twisted-pair cable must accommodate various-sized plugs. The process of crimping involves removing the cable jacket to expose the insulated conductors, inserting the conductors in the modular plug (in the proper order!), and applying pressure to this assembly using the crimper. If you work with data connectors such as the eight-position modular jack (RJ-45), your crimping tool must have a crimp cavity for eight-position plugs.

Punch-Down Tools
Twisted-pair cables are terminated in jacks, or patch panels (110-blocks) that use insulation displacement connectors (IDCs). Essentially, IDCs are little
knife blades with a V-shaped gap or slit between them. You force the conductor down into the V and the knife blades cut through the insulation and make contact with the conductor. The correct device for inserting a conductor in the IDC termination slot is a punch-down tool.

Present we could have a good tools to do all of our work with just one tool only, it's called termination tools. the termination tools simplifies the termination process, especially for Cat.6 jacks, it terminates and cut all 8 conductors at once.

Fish Tapes
Essentially, it is a long wire, steel tape, or fiberglass rod that is flexible enough to go around bends and corners but retains enough stiffness so that it can be pushed and worked along a pathway without kinking or buckling. Like a plumber’s snake, a fish tape is used to work blindly through an otherwise inaccessible area. For example, say you needed to run a cable from a ceiling space down inside a joist cavity in a wall to a new wall outlet. From within the ceiling space, you would thread the fish tape down into the joist cavity through a hole in the top plate of the wall. From this point, you would maneuver it in front of any insulation and around any other obstacles such as electrical cables that might also be running in the joist cavity. When the tape becomes visible through the retrofit outlet opening, you would draw the tape out. Then you would attach either a pull string or the cable itself and withdraw the fish tape.

Tools That a Smart Data-Cable Technician Carries
Up to this point, all the tools we’ve described are specific to the wire-and-cable installation industry. But you’ll also need everyday tools in the course of the average install. Even if you don’t carry all of these (you’d clank like a knight in armor and your tool belt would hang around your knees if you did), you should at least have them handy in your arsenal of tools:

• A flat blade and number 1 and number 2 Phillips screwdrivers. Power screwdrivers are great time-and-effort savers, but you’ll still occasionally need the hand types.

• A hammer.

• Nut drivers.

• Wrenches.

• A flashlight (a no-hands or headband model is especially handy).

• A drill and bits up to 1.5 inches.

• A saw that can be used to cut rectangular holes in drywall for electrical boxes.

• A good pocket, electrician’s, or utility knife.

• Electrician’s scissors.

• A tape measure.

• Face masks to keep your lungs from getting filled with dust when working in dusty areas.

• A stud finder to locate wooden or steel studs in the walls.

• A simple continuity tester or multitester.

• A comfortable pair of work gloves.

• A sturdy stepladder, nonconductive recommended.

• A tool belt with appropriate loops and pouches for the tools you use most.

• Two-way radios or walkie-talkies. They are indispensable for pulling or testing over even moderate distances or between floors. Invest in the hands-free models that have a headset, and you’ll be glad you did.

• Extra batteries (or recharging stands) for your flashlights, radios, and cable testers.