Tools that make matters easier
Jul 1, 1999 12:00 PM,
SOUND & VIDEO CONTRACTOR STAFF
In today’s market of home automation and security, the quicker you completean installation and move on to another one, the faster you accumulaterecurring revenue. The object of the game is to provide a high-qualityinstallations in the shortest amount of time. The unfortunate side of thisis that too many companies feel that new installations are preferable andretrofits are not cost effective. Labor $aving Devices, Commerce City, CO,has designed a wide assortment of tools that make the installations andretrofits go in easier.
“Our products make the retrofit installation go just as smoothly and easilyas a new installation,” said Patrick de Ville, president of Labor $avingDevices.
As I see it, some of these tools have been around for years in varyingforms and concepts. Labor $aving Devices improved upon those ideas and nowoffers them to field technicians everywhere. For example, many of us havespent most of our attic life carrying flashlights in our teeth. It had tobe a veteran installer who first attached penlight flashlights to the sidesof glasses and spotlights to the top of hats, securing them with duct tape.Labor $aving Devices offers the TopSpot combination handheld/headband styleflash-light and the Brighteyes flashlight that builds the lights into aneyeglass-style frame.
It may have been another installer who first used a slingshot to launch awire from one end of an open attic space to the other. Similary, Labor$aving Devices offers the Sling-A-Line. You shoot a fishing line across theopen space and pull your cable back using the same line.
Installers, over the years, have unbent many a metal coat hanger and tapedthem all together end-to-end to create a long hook for retrieving cablesthat landed just out of reach. Face it, attic crawls of 125degreesF(52degreesC) in freshly blown insulation never gave me reason to smile.That long hook came in handy when you did not feel like crawling to thelowest corner of an attic to retrieve a wire that was drilled up from awindow contact. The Creep-Zit offers a variety of extension rods andattachments that aid in the timely retrieval of wires.
The one challenge that baffled me every time I faced it was how to redrilla pilot hole to accommodate a 12-conductor cable when it already has a4-conductor cable running through it without any possible room to squeezeanother one through? The Rebore-Zit drill bit is designed to bore a largerhole into the obstacle while protecting the existing cable.
I attended a Labor $aving Devices seminar many years ago, and I still referto the tools and methods they had to offer. If you do not get theopportunity to see Roy Bowling (founder and seminar instructor) in action,consider purchasing the set of training videos. There are seven in theseries, and they cover a variety of installation tricks and procedures.Labor $aving Devices is located on the Internet at www.lsdinc.com, and Iurge you to take the time to see what they have to offer.
