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Unlocking Black Friday Tool Deals: Insights and Humor with Ed the Old Tech Guy

Chuck Bowser, RCDD, TECH

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Join us for an exciting journey with Ed the Old Tech Guy as we unlock the secrets to scoring the best Black Friday deals on essential tools for low-voltage technicians. Ed shares his wealth of knowledge, guiding us through the maze of must-have gadgets that can transform your work. You'll hear a hilarious tale of a computer warranty mishap and pick up some valuable tips on maintaining a clean, organized digital workspace amidst the shopping frenzy.

Navigating the bustling aisles of Home Depot, we discuss the art of building rapport with store staff and capturing tool content without stepping on any toes. Discover the top Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals on hand tools from Milwaukee, Klein, Husky, and Cobalt, and learn the clever ways Harbor Freight can serve technicians. As we talk tool organization, you'll get the scoop on colorful toolboxes and the ever-popular Milwaukee Packout system compared to newer contenders like the Flex Stack Pack.

Explore the vibrant and ever-evolving online tool communities with us, where we weigh the merits of various tool brands and highlight the exciting changes at Lowe's with Klein's expanding presence. With insights into pricing glitches, retail strategies, and the dynamics of Black Friday shopping, we offer practical tips for both savvy shoppers and those working with fiber optics. This episode is packed with insights and humor, ensuring you're well-prepared for the upcoming shopping season.

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Knowledge is power! Make sure to stop by the webpage to buy me a cup of coffee or support the show at https://linktr.ee/letstalkcabling . Also if you would like to be a guest on the show or have a topic for discussion send me an email at chuck@letstalkcabling.com

Chuck Bowser RCDD TECH
#CBRCDD #RCDD

Speaker 1:

Wednesday night, 6 pm Eastern Standard Time, 7 pm Eastern Standard Time. I'm running a little late tonight. I had a class a Pacific Standard class tonight and there was no way that I could have been done in time. So, yeah, we're running a little late tonight. Yeah, exactly. So welcome everybody to a special live stream.

Speaker 1:

With Black Friday right around the corner, we know it's prime time for us low voltage people to upgrade some of our tools right and find some really cool deals. Black Friday is not only just for buying Christmas gifts maybe Christmas gifts for us but with so many choices out there, is it truly worth it, and which tools is going to make the most impact on the job? Because, look, it's a rough economy, so we got to make sure that we buy the tools that help us the best. That's why I'm thrilled to have a special guest tonight, none other than Ed the old tech guy. He's a seasoned pro in the industry. He knows his way around every tool, every gadget, and he knows what a low-voltage technician might need. So whether you're looking to snag that game-changing tool for a fraction of the price, or you're looking for advice on navigating the endless deals, Ed's here to share his insights, and with a great lineup man. We're going to cover lots and lots of stuff. I know I got a bunch of questions for him.

Speaker 2:

So let me bring in from the backstage mr ed himself. Ed's in the house. Hey everybody, it's ed the old tech guy. Thanks for the intro. I appreciate it. I don't know if I know everything about every gadget or uh tool out there, but I've got some good ideas. I've got some good ideas about that hey, ed what are you?

Speaker 1:

drinking. You know everywhere, every live stream, what are you drinking?

Speaker 2:

um, uh, the the only kind of alcohol you could show on camera. No, I'm kidding I'm, I'm completely empty. Uh, I didn't get a chance to get my water there, but I was back up again.

Speaker 1:

Hold that back up again, that alcohol.

Speaker 2:

Regular alcohol Rubbing alcohol. What percentage is that? 70%, so that I can work on it. Hopefully you're not using that to clean fiber? No, not at all Clean some computer components from thermal paste or thermal compound on CPUs.

Speaker 1:

Oh, gotcha, gotcha. You know I reached out to you. Oh, I don't know, I guess maybe it was a week ago, I guess, and I told you that I was having problems with my computer. Right.

Speaker 1:

I'm going to show you how much I got so much on my plate. I'm going to show you how sometimes things flip through the cracks. I totally forgot that when I bought this computer I bought the extended warranty on it. Oh, oh, that when I bought this computer I bought the extended warranty on it. Oh, it was still covered, still covered, yes, yes. And so I took it to our drive all the way down to the Apple store and I told him. I said, look, man, you know, my battery is not charging, it's giving me a big X.

Speaker 1:

This fan is sounding like a jet tanking off all the time. I mean, it is so loud, it was so loud and it was coming through on my microphone in my recordings. Oh, wow, that fan was. Oh, wow, yeah. And uh, and the guy says no problem, he goes well, he noticed that my, my track pad was kind of acting up and he says you probably got a bad battery, probably swelling, so we'll replace that. We'll look, replace the trackpad, and blah, blah, blah. And of course they give you an estimate. It's like 800 something dollars. And then it shows under warranty zero dollars. So, okay, so I put it in and then, uh, get a call on wednesday, your computer's ready to pick up. All I had to pay was 90 for the new battery, and the reason I had to pay that is because I had bought another battery and put that in, and that wasn't an Apple battery. Oh wow, so they reset everything. It's like having a new computer. I mean, they detailed it, man. It was clean. It was like having a brand-new computer.

Speaker 2:

It's almost standard operating procedure that when you work on a computer you have to clean it, because the most users kind of they have their fingerprints on the screen and things like that it's. It's just a bad show to uh give somebody a dirty pc oh yeah, I get that, and especially mine.

Speaker 1:

Mine had dog hair on it, fingerprints on it oh yeah yeah, but I did. Hey, you'll like this. Being a computer guy, I did take the opportunity because I used to store all my documents on my desktop.

Speaker 1:

I had folders for them, but I had them on my desktop and that drove my wife crazy and I'm you know when she, by the time she came across it, I mean I had I don't know 25 or 30 folders and then inside those folders had subfolders and subfolders and files and all those folders. I'm like I'm not moving all this stuff, forget it. But I had to back up my computer before I took it down to Apple and they redid it and reset the operating system, all that stuff. So I mean it was like turning on a brand new computer. I had to put in my Apple ID and English and all that other stuff, and Apple ID and English and all that other stuff. And I said you know what? I'm going to use this as the opportunity. So now I've got all those files in a documents folder on my hard drive, not on my desktop. Yeah, so my desktop is nice and clean now.

Speaker 2:

Well, not necessarily one of the tools that we would talk about today, but computer is absolutely a tool that you should be looking for. On Black Friday and Cyber Monday, You're always going to need a really good computer and a really beat-em-up computer. You want one that you can stick on the ladder rack and, if it falls, get yourself one of those $500 deals at Best Buy. That's got just the amount of RAM. You need Windows 10. You don't even need Windows 11. And just have it so that you could test whatever is going on with the network at a local location. Right? You want to be able to see that you can connect and that you have the computer that doesn't act. Right, Because I started noticing.

Speaker 1:

I started noticing. It's kind of ironic because right about when my computer started acting up, that's when I started seeing advertisements on Facebook for the new, the new Mac coming out. Like oh here we go again. Apple at their best, you know, making something mess up. So you go buy the new stuff, right?

Speaker 2:

and I'm gonna tell and I'm gonna tell you apple does get viruses and they do break I don't know what, what imaginary world people live in that think that that doesn't happen.

Speaker 1:

So there you go yeah, yeah, they do, they do, absolutely do and uh. So you know the thing was once, once I got it taken care of, I I even noticed in some of my live streams where my audio was glitchy Not my audio, my video was glitchy, kind of like I had bad bandwidth right and that's not supposed to be on Riverside. Riverside they record locally and then they upload it. So I've never had an issue. So the only thing I can think of it must have been my computer not processing the feed fast enough, because ever since I've gotten it fixed the Riverside interviews I've done so far, man, it's been working like a champ, like it was brand spanking new again. Oh, wow. Interesting. Yeah, I'm happy.

Speaker 1:

I'm happy. Interesting. Let's get on with some questions. Man, so you are the tool guy. You are the tool guy. I see your videos all time. I see you at home depot walking around with the camera. Hey, does home depot kick you out when you walk around with the camera?

Speaker 2:

um, you know what? No, they uh, in the beginning they kind of gave me dirty looks. They would send employees to ask me can I help you, can I help you? So I'd be in the middle of recording and and they'd come and ask me if they could help me, like 10 or 12 different times, and I'd have to basically start over. I'd lose my track.

Speaker 2:

I think it was maybe a planned deterrent of some type but, they've gotten to know me to the point where the store manager asked me for my number and I said listen, I'm not here to disturb your business, your employees or anybody shopping. I'm here to augment that. So I come usually at the end of their shift, right an hour or an hour and a half before they close. They're really dying down, they're really getting ready to close and they know I'm not shopping for much, so they let me do what I do. No, I'm not shopping for much, so they let me do what I do.

Speaker 2:

One of the things that I make sure I don't do is record faces of customers that are coming in there and respect their privacy no children in my camera. If I happen to catch them and somebody is looking through my video and say aha, I caught you. It was my mistake. I didn't mean to do it. I missed it in editing. I do my best to just try to keep people out of it. It's about the tools and it's about the people who love tools.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so you found the secret, because every time I go in Home Depot, I can't find anybody to help me with anything. So all I got to do is just whip out my camera, make it look like I'm recording, and I'm going to have people coming out of the woodwork to help me.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely, it'll work. It may help. It may help. I think it's because they think you're an inspector of some type. I think they're thinking that somebody's coming in to watch how they're doing business, watch how they're taking care of the customer, and you've got a camera. So they don't know if you're doing YouTube or not. The Home Depot is by me, the Lowe's is by me and even the Harbor Freight and others have pretty much caught me. They know who I am. Now I'm not bragging, by any means. I'm not big on social media. I've got a small channel. I've got a small little following. You're bigger than me.

Speaker 2:

Oh, stop, but they've gotten to know me. They're like oh, you're that old guy. That's how most people remember me now.

Speaker 1:

You're that old guy that cracks me up. You're that old guy cracks me up. You're that old guy? Yeah, I get that all the time too.

Speaker 1:

You know, hey, they think I'm old because I guess I'm old, right? So, anyways, hey, let's talk, let's talk, uh, tools and black friday deals and cyber monday deals, right? So you've been keeping your eye. You've been doing this for I don't know what two, three, four years, something like that. Ever since I've done it. I've done it for a couple years. What are some essential tools that, for example, like a low-voltage professional that you've seen on Black Friday, that's going to help them, and is there any specific brands you would recommend?

Speaker 2:

So unfortunately I've never seen like Expo have a nice little sale or any of those big brand names for an OTDR. You know those guys.

Speaker 2:

They really reserve their Black Friday deals to giant companies who buy big items. But that takes us into another realm that we use quite a bit out in the field, right, and I was a field tech for many years and I own a company that I do low voltage work as part of the work that we do and hand tools. That's where you're going to get the best bang for your buck Milwaukee hand tools, klein, hand tools, cobalt. Listen, I saw somebody make a video recently and no bad on him because, depending on where you are in the industry, you may not need as many tools. As a low voltage person, you need more tools. So this person made a video saying that he just goes to sites and as long as he's got his handy Leatherman, he's good. If I see you walk out of my site and all you got is a Leatherman, we're going to have a discussion Because I want you to have a proper screwdriver. I don't want you mounting a router and not having the proper screwdriver where you're going to strip a screw, break a nut. You know something, right? So this is the time on Black Friday to go hunting for those hand tools.

Speaker 2:

Klein has some better specials, but really you can start digging into Husky Cobalt. They have lifetime warranties Husky with Home Depot, cobalt with Lowe's, and you can start looking at different brands that will also continue to have lifetime warranties. I'll get into lifetime warranties in a second, but really I think you should concentrate on the hand tools. Milwaukee hand tools have been really up and coming as well. And listen, you can also shop at Harbor Freight. I've got no issue with Harbor Freight. For a low voltage technician coming up, we don't do stuff that you need like 300 pounds of torque to do. But don't forget the power tools too. You're talking about a subject here. We'll get into all of that man, harbor Freight.

Speaker 1:

I mean, I love Harbor Freight, but I'll tell you they like playing games and let me tell you why. So I've been seeing these TikTok videos of this really small little toolbox thing for like $20. It looks like a miniature toolbox. I'm thinking, man I wouldn't use'm thinking man that that would. I mean, I'm not, I wouldn't use a profession, but man, that would look great sitting on the desk and you know I could pull stuff out and, do you know, be a great prop for the thing. Sure, and so I went to home Depot.

Speaker 1:

Couldn't find one, couldn't find one with my wife, and we were, we were, we had stuff planned. So I couldn't, I didn't feel like spending the time out trying to really go ask somebody for it, so we just left. And then yesterday maybe or today maybe, I saw a thing where they're saying that you know, somebody made a video. Oh yeah, well, you won't find them because evidently they were. They were selling a hotcake. So so Harbor Freight is putting them in the back room and they're waiting for the sale on Black Friday to put them back out again.

Speaker 2:

So, to be fair, harbor Freight is not the only one to do that. Home Depot and Lowe's, when they've been caught with an item that's selling pretty hot, will kind of slow down the sale of that item to continue the heat of people coming into their stores. So it's not just a Harbor Freight thing. But I understand what you're saying. By the way, if you want that small toolbox it's that little toolbox, my daughters are crazy about that for makeup and stuff and you can use it for a cool little toolbox to have like next to your desk. You know to hold stuff. You know it's just a cool thing to have. It's a gimmick. You can also hold tools in it, for sure. It's just a cool thing to have. It's a gimmick. You can also hold tools in it, for sure.

Speaker 2:

But you can get that in cobalt. They're selling like crazy. They got pink, they got blue, they got black, they got different colors there. Most people want to match the type of toolbox that they have and a lot of people have the Harbor Freight toolboxes. That's the reason it's going to sell. But if that doesn't matter to you, go to Lowe's and buy the cobalt one. They have tons of them. At my local Lowe's, they had a whole wall of them.

Speaker 1:

Oh, wow, because I was in my local Lowe's over the weekend. I had to buy some. I'm making a DIY tool sliding toolbox in the bed of my truck for when we go camping and stuff. I'm making out plywood stuff and I was in there and you know me, I never go to Lowe's without going to the tool section and I swear I didn't see them.

Speaker 1:

But then again, my Lowe's, my local Lowe's. So, for example, like the Klein Mod Boxes, right, so Klein just came out with the drawers. Well, they didn't just came out with it, they came out with it, I don't know a couple months back, maybe up to six months ago. And again, I always go to when to when I come into, no matter what I'm getting at lows, I always go through the contractor door because that's where I park my big truck. I hang a left, I go to the client, my box off, look at that, and then I hang a right, go to the tools and then I go buy whatever the heck I'm there to buy and they never had the, the sliding drawers, and I was like man what? And people, people, the on the client Facebook page are saying oh yeah, it's at Lowe's, it's at Lowe's, it's not my Lowe's is not.

Speaker 1:

And uh, so I got on the. I got on the Lowe's webpage, for I was looking up for some parts for these 500 pound drawer slides that I bought and I said, you know, I just had a, just had a curiosity and I put in Klein Modbox drawers. Sure enough, they came up. Every Lowe's around me has them in stock, except for my Lowe's.

Speaker 2:

Isn't that how it always goes, though? That's how it always happens. You just have to love it sometimes. And listen, I'll tell you what. I'll go to my local Harbor Freight. If they got one of those little boxes, I'll send you one. If you want me to send you a Cobalt one, I'll tell you what. I'll go to my local Harbor Freight. If they got one of those little boxes, I'll send you one. If you want me to send you a Cobalt one, I'll send you one.

Speaker 1:

How about that? I'll get them. I appreciate it, cause it costs you more to send it than it would cost to buy the thing. They are not sure. I will get me one and you'll see it pop up in the video. Someday It'll be popping right and I'll use it for props when I'm doing things. I'll say, hey, well, you need this, and pull it out of the little. That's why I want it just as a prop for the studio. And you know I don't live in Chicago, so it's not like it's not at my Lowe's. I can go five miles down the road and be at another Lowe's. I'm sorry, the next nearest Lowe's to me is a 45-mile drive.

Speaker 2:

I could practically walk to Ace Menards Lowe's Stop stop, stop, stop, stop, right there, stop, stop. Okay, well, remember. The question that we have on hand is what essential tools for low voltage pros are we seeing on Black Friday right now? And I'm going to tell you one more and we'll probably get into it in further questions that you have, but we have to talk tool organization.

Speaker 2:

Yes, thatgie, that's on sale everywhere and you need to uh-oh, uh-oh milwaukee packout absolutely. But listen, you and I are probably gonna agree to disagree on a few things. I love milwaukee packout, um, I think it's. It's one of the best uh organization boxes out there. But they're kind of showing they're kind of getting long in the tooth. They're kind of showing their age.

Speaker 2:

When you start looking at the other boxes that are available, like the Flex Stack Pack, there's something that the Flex Stack Pack does really well that I can't forgive Milwaukee for, and that's when they come out with their drawers, the bottom of their drawer is as flat as possible. When you look at the Klein stackable toolboxes, they got all these ridges and bumps inside there because they want you to put their paneling so that you can kind of organize that way. I don't want to organize the way you tell me, I want to organize the way I want to. Milwaukee Packout also kind of does that. They got some bumps and stuff there that they want you to put their stuff Out. Of all of them, the Flex Stack Pack has the flattest drawers. I really like that.

Speaker 2:

Now for those of you who are going to come and say, hey, ed, you know they're all basically the same. Yes, actually they're all made by the same company in Israel It'll remain nameless for the rest of the show but it is the same company that's making the same stackable boxes and just making them a little different. So they're not the exact same thing. But right now, as it stands, milwaukee Packout really relied on its 3D printing people to make accessories for them, right?

Speaker 1:

The.

Speaker 2:

Klein box has tons of accessories right out of the gate and Flex has even more. So, I have to tell you I'm really in love with the Flex boxes. If you're getting into Louisville, who sells the Flex boxes? So those are sold at Lowe's. It is a well-known brand. I can't remember where in Europe, but it is a very well-established brand.

Speaker 1:

I'll have to stop by and look at those Because you know I harass people about Milwaukee packouts. But I've got Milwaukee packouts and I've got Klein Mod Box. I've got milwaukee pack outs and I've got climb my box. I've got I don't know. I do have a little more clients than I do milwaukee pack outs but, um, I like both of them. They both have you know. So for me my client stuff is my low voltage stuff. My I'm sorry I got backwards my milwaukee's my, my low voltage and my Klein is my farm tools.

Speaker 1:

That's how I keep them separate in my mind that way.

Speaker 1:

I know if I'm working on a farm I go to orange, if I'm doing low voltage I go to red, so that way it helps me organize. I love Milwaukee stuff and I think I never did do that other follow-up video on Milwaukee versus Klein. I really need to do that. But here's the problem. I've waited so long that you know like, for example, milwaukee is now coming out with their new the, the new milwaukee packets, where the, the handle is detachable, because before one of the biggest complaints was it won't fit in the bed of my truck yes, yes and and they've kind of got around so I can't, so I gotta redo you.

Speaker 1:

that was one of the things there.

Speaker 2:

But you know Milwaukee's good stuff it truly is hey, listen, those little problems that Milwaukee Packout had, they never really bothered me. Actually, it was fun. It would force you to kind of get you know, dig into your toolbox and figure out things that customize it for yourself. Then you had the 3D printers out there creating all kinds of cool stuff out there. You got a few guys out here that, specifically, their whole channel is based on that. They're amazing that right, there is what sold it for me, the 3D printing community behind it. But now, as the product line has matured and others have continued to innovate, milwaukee has kind of become stagnant, with the exception of they did something that they introduced in SEMA that I'm very, very interested in, and that is that they have the toolbox, the stackable toolbox with drawers, pre-filled out with tools and their foam and everything, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

I've seen those too. I saw that and I was like man. Why do I have so many tools? Could, I just sell everything I have and just buy that and start over.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I've seen those too, but those are more geared. I don't say they're geared towards automotive, but I mean like socket sets. Most low-voltage people don't need an entire socket set. They just need, you know, just a couple of sizes for like, bolting down racks and and stuff like that. They don't need the entire set, although you know you know you know this as well as I do. That is there. There's people out there who they're going to go and buy the cheapest and the least amount of tools I can. And then there's those people that you know that I would call the. What can I say? That wouldn't be offensive to anybody. There's the kind of people that have to have the latest and greatest, and every of every new tool comes out. Even if they just bought, you know, a X, y, z, whatever, three days ago, if they came out with a new one today, they buying that one too, and now they'd have tool hoarders. There you go, tool hoarders or or.

Speaker 1:

Apple customers Easy, Easy Now, easy Now.

Speaker 2:

Hey, I had to put it in here.

Speaker 1:

You're making it. You're classifying all Apple people being the same.

Speaker 2:

We're not. I apologize All Apple users. My iPhone.

Speaker 1:

What's iPhone? Up to now, it's like 16?

Speaker 2:

No, it's 16.

Speaker 1:

I got an iPhone 13. I don't go out and buy the newest phone every time it comes out. Same. Thing with my computer. I've had my computer for three and a half four years now, and the only reason I was thinking about getting rid of it was because I was having problems. Now that it's working fine, I'll use this thing until it starts producing smoke up through the keyboard. It quits working. So not every Apple user goes out and buys the latest and greatest.

Speaker 2:

You probably haven't received the latest update from Apple so that they could break your phone. I'm sorry. I mean, I think they used to do that right, Didn't they do that before? No, I'm joking. I'm joking, guys, I'm poking fun at Apple people. I fix Apple PCs, I fix normal PCs. On the side, I fix phones. I'm just kidding with y'all. I just like to raz both sides, both Android and Apple, because for some reason, there is this devotion to these brands. Guys, there's no need for that level of devotion.

Speaker 1:

I'm glad you said brand. I'm glad you said brands because I've been at events and I won't name the events, I won't name the people. But I've been at events where I won't name the events, I won't name the people. But I've been at events where you know, if I said hey, like, like, if I forgot my charger, I said hey, do you? Have a charger I can borrow. What do you got iphone. Yeah, what do you have apple? Get a real phone.

Speaker 1:

I'm like what it is a real phone so I'm glad you said brands and not just, not just, you know, narrowed it down to just apple people.

Speaker 2:

So hey, let's know, it's the Apple people. It's the same with tools. It's the same with tools the level of devotion that there is for Milwaukee. They will sit there and crap on another brand, knowing that that brand produced an item that can beat whatever item that you want to compete with right. It doesn't always happen. Milwaukee has some of the best tools out there, but when they're beat, boy, do they not like hearing that?

Speaker 1:

Let me ask you this, because I saw this post on the Milwaukee Packout Facebook group. Right, it wasn't Milwaukee, Maybe it was one of the other ones. I can't remember where I saw it, but it wasn't on the Klein one, I can tell you that. And somebody and this's why I know it wasn't on the climb one, because somebody took a picture of the climb my boxes at one of the stores and said, hey, I saw this orange at the store, um, but when I, uh, when I went and looked at it, it just doesn't seem to be the same quality as the pack house. The, the plastic is seems to be cheaper and thinner, and blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 1:

You, I got both and I'm telling you what they're both great modular toolbox systems, and I wouldn't say that one has, as far as build quality, right, I wouldn't say that one has an advantage over the other. Now, one has. You know, there's our advantages when you start talking about what one manufacturer has for accessories over the others and what one has, communities doing 3d printouts over the others and stuff like that our advantage is there.

Speaker 1:

But when you're just looking at, just if someone was to give you a, the basic climb my box kit, you know the three-piece set and a milwaukee three-piece beginning set, I'm telling you right now, either one of those will last anybody in any trade for a long time oh yeah, oh yeah.

Speaker 2:

Uh, you know in the comments zephiel is is talking about different tools that we haven't got to yet. We're gonna get there punch down tools, crimping tools, uh, low voltage tools like that. Heck, I mean if, if you ask me, jonard, if you're out there, you need to not only sponsor this show but you need to help out all the low voltage people out there, because Jonard has a backpack that has all the tools you need for some basic copper crimping. You know testing and you know, if you want, they even sell for like $1,500 the Jonard like fiber optic tool bag that you can carry. It's got fiber cleaner in there. It's got all these different items, so you know, so you can cut the fiber, strip it and clean it and if you really want to get into like what you can buy from Jonard if they ever have a sale.

Speaker 2:

I've been eyeballing the Jonard FPL 55555. It's a fiber meter and power unit. You can send light down the fiber and read it so you can measure your light level. I've been wanting a new one. My old one is as old as I've been in the industry. It still works, but I want one of those.

Speaker 1:

Well, gennard, great group of people, I'm actually one of their. Well, jannard, great group of people, I'm actually one of their Jannard tool ambassadors.

Speaker 2:

Oh nice I didn't know that.

Speaker 1:

But I don't really take advantage of that. I mean, I don't, but you know I can reach out to them and I can say hey, because I do look at their tools and I talk to them every time I go to. You know it's like a Bixie show or whatever. Talk to them every time I go to a. You know it's like a bixie show, whatever, I always stop by and talk talking because they're great guys and they're good and they will.

Speaker 1:

You know I don't know if you know um tj, pate tj is a um bixie installer of the year because he won the cable skills challenge last year. He's done like three times and he was. He has a story where he says where you know, they do this, they do this competition at the event and his snips broke. His snips broke so he went to the exhibit hall and he went to Gennard. He says look, man, my snips are broke. Can I buy one off you? And they just said here, have these for free. Boom, Because they knew he was participating in the thing. So they are good people. I don't know why they don't have sales.

Speaker 2:

Well, I'm sure they do have sales. So don't get me wrong, I'm going to get slapped with a lawsuit. I'm sure they do have sales, but they're not significant enough. And I get it right Because the tools that we're talking about are specialty tool items that they know that the industry is going to pay for. But sometimes you have guys that are buying all their own tools so that they could get a job. Some of the guys are contractors out here, some of the guys, like me, own businesses and we just need the tools, right. But that's why we're going to Home Depot, that's why we're going to Lowe's where, as Zafial well said, they have punch-down tools, they have crimping tools, they have a lot of that stuff. But honestly, I would love to have a company like Jonard kind of price match some of that stuff. I know it's probably hard to price match ideal and price match Klein, but you could try and you'll get more of us buying.

Speaker 1:

The way I feel about it is there's two types of tool buyers. Somebody said at let's Talk Gaming is this actually live? Yes, it's actually live. I ran an hour late tonight because I had taught a Pacific class, so that's why it's later than normal. I normally do it at 6 pm.

Speaker 1:

But there's two types of tool buyers. Right, there's the people who don't mind paying extra for the Milwaukee and the Klein tools and stuff like that, and even the old. I might even want to still keep Craftsman lumped in it. You might correct me if I'm wrong, but Craftsman was one of those tools where you buy it. If you broke it, you can take it back and get a new one. So they were considered one of the top tiers.

Speaker 1:

But then there's the budget. Not everybody starts off making a lot of money in their career. So you got people just starting off industry and they want to have the tools that they need to have, so they don't have to borrow their, their supervisor's tools and get yelled at. But they can't afford the stuff that's going to last for three, four decades. So they'll go to the Harbor freight and, like I said, even though I use Harbor freight tools for almost everything on the farm right, except for when I'm building stuff and I need my powers.

Speaker 1:

Then I crank out the, the, the, the Ryobi or the or the Milwaukee right. I do some of my Ryobi stuff. I had to use it because you know this. I told you about that multi-piece Milwaukee 18-volt set and literally I made three or four cuts with my circular saw and the switch broke and quit working. I still haven't sent the stupid thing back yet. It's still sitting on my shelf. But my Ryobi one that I've had for years, it runs off the one-volt system. When I was making the tool thing for my pickup truck man, that thing was just cutting through wood like nobody's business.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, this is a common story I hear about Ryobi often. For some people they get one Ryobi tool and it lasts them indefinitely. They're so happy with it. I myself have had four or five Ryobi tools and they've all burned up on me. And what people have told me? Well, it's the user. And I'm like well, why hasn't my Makita stuff burned up on me? Why hasn't my Milwaukee stuff burned up on me? Why hasn't my DeWalt stuff burned up on me on me? Why hasn't my Milwaukee stuff burned up on me? Why hasn't my DeWalt stuff burned up on me?

Speaker 2:

And yes, sometimes I have to let my, my my contractor slash employees. Um, you know they're 1099. So don't come after me, irs. So I have to let them use tools. I have to leave tools at the site and let them handle it for me. But honestly, it's. I just had a bad run with Ryobi. Honestly, I just had a bad run with Ryobi. I don't blame them anymore. I really like their OnePlus system. They have that battery that just fits everything. Now I did buy a Ryobi snowblower for light snow runs, but I wasn't too impressed.

Speaker 1:

I didn't want to make a video on it. Yeah, I would consider my Ryobi stuff, my homeowner tools, right, Because I've got a Ryobi electric chainsaw, a Ryobi pole saw and a couple other tools that you're not going to use when you're in low voltage. Right, and just because this is back when I was, I used to do DeWalt tools for everything. But when I started replacing or augmenting all my tools you know I had an ex-wife and child support payments I'll just leave it at that.

Speaker 2:

That I understand. Leave it at that. Well, I have to bring up another tool, since where I know, I know you've got dedicated questions that you want to ask me. But guys, cyber, cyber Monday. Look on Amazon for the pulling pal.

Speaker 2:

How many of you guys use those? I, I I've been buying those. I love them. Anybody that I hire that uses them. They're like, oh my God, this is like a whole other world. We used to do stuff. Listen, I'm going to tell you a secret. I used to use those.

Speaker 2:

You know the things that the rollers for napkins in the kitchen. They sell them where you could drill them into a wall. They sell them where you could drill them into a wall and sometimes, depending on what type of facility I was in, I'll put those in so that I could run cable really quick. Just put a screw and it won't come apart and you just run them. And yeah, they would probably last me a job, maybe to just throw them away. But gosh, when this pulling pal thing came out and I know they had metal ones that we never liked them because they would move a little bit too far and then they would pinch the cable. They have all kinds of problems, these pulling pals oh my gosh, they're awesome. Get five of them if you can, when they go on sale for Cyber Monday on Amazon.

Speaker 1:

Here's another place where you can get those too. I'm in a lot of low-voltage groups and one of the groups I'm in is TKW Technology Worldwide and they do events like TechFest and Techsgiving. The last couple times I've been to their TechFest because I've been to two of them now the guy who invented the pulling pal he's always there and they always have pulling pals there on sale for cheaper than the regular price, pulling towels there on sale for cheaper than the regular price. And I didn't I haven't bought any yet because you know, I don't really pull that much cable anymore. I'm, you know, I'm a I'm a out of the field kind of a guy, but you know, I might just buy some just so I can have. Because, yeah, I bought the anti-static flooring I got, I got. Oh, I'm gonna say this I did a tiktok video on hey, guess what chuck got in the, what Chuck got in the podcast, and I got a picture of video of me in my truck. I got this big cardboard box. Did you see that video?

Speaker 2:

I'll be honest with you. The more I make content and the more I want to watch my friends, the more my friends group has grown. It's so hard to keep up. That's why I stopped asking people watch my video. If there's something I really want them to watch, I will forward it to them and say you have to watch this. If you do that, I will watch it. I promise I'll watch it, but I haven't been able to keep up.

Speaker 1:

Well, I'm not going to tell you now, you're just going to have to watch the video now, when I actually install it and see what it is.

Speaker 2:

That's right, that's right.

Speaker 1:

So let's talk about which tools are going to be worth somebody in Liveology investing in that they can get a Black Friday deal, versus maybe waiting for another sale.

Speaker 2:

Okay, this is where Zafial kind of stole my thunder and I was really. You know, when he put that in there I was like crap. I got to give him credit for thinking of it. But he doesn't know that we had questions lined up and I didn't want to like overstep the questions end up and I didn't want to like overstep the questions.

Speaker 2:

The ones that are going to be absolutely dropping in price because the Lowe's and the Home Depot by you don't do a good job selling them because most people ain't buying them is going to be your snips, your punchdown tools, your crimpers, that kind of stuff. Go watching out for those. Absolutely, look for those. Klein at Lowe's has like taken over a whole giant section, at least by the Lowe's, by me, and one of my biggest complaints last year was that Lowe's Klein was doing a terrible job for Black Friday. They seem to have kind of cleaned that up. I went for a run recently and looked at their gift center. That's usually the aisle in the middle of the store, so it's the first thing that catches your eye and boy, they were out there in droves. I absolutely get yourself your cable testers, even if you need a cheap one, right, we all have our expensive ones. You got your certifiers, but sometimes you just need a quick little cheap one that you can just test Go ahead and get yourself a client, absolutely.

Speaker 2:

The other thing is did you know and it's coming out on my video, so I don't want to spoil it, but I got to finish my video tonight and put it out. First thing in the morning Carhartt is at Lowe's Gosh. There's nothing like being warm. I know there's nothing like being warm, that's a tool, hold on, hold on, hold on.

Speaker 1:

I got a funny story so so I ordered a pool box for the podcast to you, Cause I'm putting in conduit and stuff like that. So of course my lows didn't have it, so I had to order it and then wait for it to come in. So I'm over there at the pickup booth you know you're going to pick up my, my, my pool box and just on the other side of that was this big old thing with car heart shirts, hats, all that stuff. I found a Carhartt apron. Yes, yes, when I'm doing carpentry stuff because one of the biggest things doing farm work for me, I wouldn't wear it doing Lou Voldage, but doing farm work and stuff I am horrible on shirts I tear them up and you know. So. You know what? I don't care if he tears that up, it's card it's not going to get tore up. So yeah, so I got a man apron now, buddy.

Speaker 2:

Don't skip out on the 75% off aisle at Lowe's. You know what they love to put on there Ideal. They love to put tons of Ideal and sometimes you just need ideal, a cheap ideal tool. Listen, if you get some ideal snips, they're not as bad as like the regular snips, you know. Go ahead and run, run and get those very cheap. I saw a, a coax copper crimper for cable. Um, I mean, it was the crimper, the whole set, so that you could crimp, uh, uh cable like, um, what is that? Rj, rj56 or something? What is the, the rj number? I forgot rj45. Uh, is it rj45? No, no, no, I'm thinking about the one for for cable. They have their own rj, rj6 and rg6 not rg6 rg6 and rg50 something.

Speaker 2:

Right Radio grade. So they had the whole crimp set marked down for $6. $6? I was like I don't need it, I don't want it. I got it in too many toolboxes.

Speaker 2:

$6?, $6?. I couldn't pass it up. I bought that. I recently, on a latest short, I bought myself the Flex Fan that is costing about $119. I got it for $23. Wow, can't beat it. Wow, I'm going to get in that battery lineup just because I bought that fan. Now I was going to buy it anyways to do test videos. But or I could sell it and I get my money, way you know, on top of it, right, like I'm going to make out like a bandit. So don't, don't skip out on that. Look again, hand tools at these local shops are going to be the thing. But here's a secret, a pro secret harbor freight has copied the nip x snips with their with their brand name.

Speaker 2:

um, it's not icon, it's, it's their other brand name and it is. They are great. I'm going to be making a video on me testing those, having employees test those and their SNPs for low voltage are exact replicas of the Nippex or Knippex however they like to say it, it's. Knippex. Oh yeah, knippex. They don't like being called Nippex. So those are really great. I'm going to look up the brand because I can't believe I forgot it.

Speaker 1:

So, while you're looking that up, let me ask you this question, right? Because with all these sales going on, we mentioned Ideal and Conipix and Milwaukee and Klein and all this stuff, and so we've been talking about a lot of brands. What's a good tip to evaluate which one of those is going to be a good fit for somebody's needs, and what are some of the red flags they need to watch out for?

Speaker 2:

That's. That's a tough one, right? Because everybody's needs are different and it depends what you need at a job. Look, my main thing is have a well-stocked tool bag. I don't leave the house I was going to make a video on this on TikTok and put it out there but I won't leave the house without a really good VFL, which we're not really talking about because they really don't go on sale but I have a VFL. I'll have a power meter and receiver so that I can check for light at different points.

Speaker 2:

But I have a decent tool set. I will have needle nose pliers, pliers, you know, adjustable pliers. I will have a number two screwdriver, a number one screwdriver. I will have a Phillips. I'll have a flathead. People don't like when you say flathead, it's the slotted, but I'll have some flatheads I will have. I'll have proper tools in my bag and I I can't tell you how many times I've gone to a site and people are sitting there fiddling away with what they thought they needed and they'll say, hey, Ed has the tool, I pop out the tool, we fix it.

Speaker 2:

I've gotten to the point where, um, uh, I even have a little box box, a special pocket in my bag where I keep busman and gmt fuses, oh wow because, because it you won't need them until like four or five years pass and all of a sudden somebody will ask you oh my god, a panel blue and we have no fuses. Who's got a gmt fuse? Oh, I got a 20 amp right here and they're like holy, holy crap. You're an old guy, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm an old guy, but I know that they blow and you know. So, just, it's kind of hard to say what you're going to run into out there. But listen, you're going to be installing cameras, so you're going to be installing Cat 6, cat 5E. You're going to need a crimper. You're going to need a crimper. You're going to need the RJ45 heads, hoods, you're going to need those things. So, take everything. You need Snips, you're going to need pliers.

Speaker 2:

Those of us who grew up in this industry, makita was our brand right, but now that brand has really kind of. You know, those tools have really expanded and I'll be honest with you, this is not. People aren't going to like this. But if you're in a pinch money-wise, you can even get some of the okay tools from Harbor Freight the Bauer impact driver, the Bauer screwdriver. They're not as good as the Craftsman ones, as their V20 lineup, but they're decent enough.

Speaker 2:

I know a contractor that he's running his whole crew on those and they're just beat-em-up, run-em tools. But when he needs to do something precise he uses plug-in, like saws and very good tools, right. When he has to do precise cuts he has his expensive DeWalt Makita saws. But when it comes to just like run-and-gun right, those Bauer tools, they're fine. Don't go by brand name. Don't get so stuck. The thing that will catch you on brand name is the battery lineup. So what to what to watch out for is a very good thing to mention Battery lineup. Once you start on one battery lineup, you're going to get kind of stuck there.

Speaker 2:

You're locked into it.

Speaker 1:

You're locked into it.

Speaker 2:

So make sure you consider skill, make sure you consider I can't remember their name right now, it's the green tool brand, the HPT one, right? So make sure you consider them. Make sure you consider Cobalt, make sure you consider Craftsman, make sure you consider Milwaukee, makita, dewalt, the big guys. Make sure you consider Flex. They're different price ranges, they have different capabilities. What you're doing out there, though, you need something light and powerful, and you want to know what's been coming up really good in the light and powerful, because, remember, you're installing Ladder Rack. I don't know what you guys do out there, depending on what you do on your job, but I've had to install Ladder Rack, I've had to install all kinds of stuff, and you need something light.

Speaker 2:

The Milwaukee 12 volt lineup is amazing for that. They keep innovating, and you want to stick with a company that's innovating their 12 volt lineup. You don't need an 18 volt anymore. What are you impacting out there if you're doing low voltage, right? Unless you have to drill through cement or something, right For that? Use your corded tools if you want to go that way. But the 12-volt lineup from all the brands Milwaukee, milwaukee, milwaukee and it hurts me because I'm a Makita guy. I love Makita, but 12-volt.

Speaker 1:

I think the Milwaukee 12-volt line is a fan favorite of people for low voltage because even though I do have the Milwaukee 18-volt stuff, if I had to use my cordless drill, my 18-volt cordless drill, to put in faceplates all day long, my wrist would be killing me at the end of the day.

Speaker 2:

Where with?

Speaker 1:

12-volt, that wouldn't be an issue. So I get that. I understand why people do that. But when I decided which line to invest in when I went to Milwaukee I had to think about okay, this isn't just low-voltage stuff I'm going to be doing. I'm going to be doing building goat pens and stuff that I need. Someone's going to have a little bit of kick to it. So, yeah, it's a little bit heavier because it's 18-volt, but I understand why some low-voltage people like that 12-volt. So if somebody says at the old tech guy he needs to know that a VFL is called a beeper or toner, no, it's not no it's not.

Speaker 2:

No a. Vfl is a visual fault locator. He's kidding, he's kidding, he's got the kidding face on there.

Speaker 1:

See, I'm all ready to say look, here's a probe and there's my toner. Yeah, tell me, chuck's not ready. Yes, Chuck's not ready.

Speaker 2:

Oh, the Snips brand was Quinn. I don't know why I'm having a. I'm getting tongue tied here.

Speaker 1:

It's because you're starstruck, because you're on my show.

Speaker 2:

I am, I am. Last time I was on your show, I completely bombed because, uh, I was, oh, yeah, that first. That first time I was on your show, I completely bombed because I was starstruck. I'm like dude, this guy works in the same industry as I do and he's like big time and I'm I'm over here sounding like an idiot, you're not, but I'm not big time.

Speaker 1:

You're big time man. I'm walking around with what 6,000 followers and you've got what 20,000 followers no, no, stop it, stop it.

Speaker 2:

I don what.

Speaker 1:

20,000 followers, no no, stop it, Stop it, I don't have 20,000 followers.

Speaker 2:

But TikTok I'm at 20, I think at 21.8 or 20.8. And YouTube I'm at 12,600.

Speaker 1:

You're the star, not me.

Speaker 2:

No, no, no, no, no, Stop. But Metabo HPT is the brand I was thinking of earlier, the green brand. Consider all your different brands. Don't skip out on them because they're cheap. You're going to say, oh my God, they're so cheap and junk. I saw a video on YouTube that said this one is better than this one. Look, they're messing with our portions of our unevolved ape brain. Now, I don't believe in evolution, but you know, let's go with it, right? So they're messing with that by throwing numbers at you, and don't let them do that to you. Make sure you look and see what best fits you, and it may be a skill drill set. It'll be the drill, the impact driver for sometimes half the price of Milwaukee, Makita and DeWalt, and there's nothing wrong with it. So what we're doing isn't repairing cars. You don't need 1,200 foot pounds on something, but you may if you're a cell tower tech and you need to. You know, I don't know. So it's kind of you've got to kind of really judge what fits you.

Speaker 1:

Yep, I agree with that 110%. So let me ask you this what are some strategies for finding the best not only Black Friday deals, but even like, maybe, tool alerts or buying bundles? What's the best way or strategies to find those kinds of deals?

Speaker 2:

Listen, I'm going to shout out a few people find those kinds of deals. Listen, I'm going to shout out a few people. But there's this little group on YouTube that if you can follow them, they may not let you in the group, but you should look at them. Look at Deal Team 6. Those guys are always putting out deals out there for everything. Deal Team 6 on Facebook.

Speaker 1:

Deal Team 6. On.

Speaker 2:

Facebook. On.

Speaker 2:

Facebook. Then you've got Ed the old tech guy. You should follow me. I'm not the best at finding the latest deals and putting them out there, but I'm good at walking throughout the store showing you what's happening, so it'll give you a broad view of what's happening. Then you have all my competitors, which I don't know if I should shout them out, but let's do it anyways. You've got Mastery and Mayhem. Who's out there doing that? Um putting out deals? You've got joe the tool guy. You've got um gosh zafiel. If I'm forgetting anybody, please help me in the comments here, but there's tons of people out here that are doing tool content on youtube and tiktok. I think that the tool community on YouTube is a bit stronger, a bit bigger, but the tool community on TikTok seems to kind of have. You know they like selling these off-brand tools that I would not necessarily purchase. Like. I'll give you an idea of what not to fall into. Red flag rise. Don't buy these adapters that you can change the different type of battery to your drill right.

Speaker 2:

Very cool concept. I love the idea. The problem with the idea, though, is that remember that protection has been built into your tool so that the batteries don't overheat, blow up or undercharge. Right, if you suck too much juice out of them, you have to reset them. There's a way to do that, but you're also taking a risk that thing will blow up in your face, which is you have to take a hot lead and a neutral lead, and you have to just touch the battery on the positive and negative and make sure that it gets a little bit of a charge so that, when you plug it in, it comes back to life on the charger.

Speaker 1:

You're taking a chance by it. I did that recently. Actually, I did it a little differently because I tried doing it that way and I couldn't get that to work In the process again, my Ryobi stuff my 4 1,. My 4 amp hour 1,.

Speaker 1:

I noticed because I was playing with it, putting it in charge, just the process of putting it in and out of the charger like 15, 20 times. From just messing with it, it finally kicked it just a tiny little bit enough that it actually started charging, so that that's another way of doing that as well. What do you think about the that milwaukee blowout thing where people were buying, you know, five and six, seven, eight pieces of mil Milwaukee for like 150 bucks?

Speaker 2:

So I always had a controversial view on that. I did not like it. I always thought that it was wrong to take advantage of mistakes that Home Depot, lowe's would make, where you could glitch the system. If you bought two tools together, it would sometimes lower the price down to, like you know, two tools together would be $400. But because you chose the two tools, now they're down to 40 bucks and people would go run and buy them for 40 bucks or order them online, and sometimes Home Depot and Lowe's would cancel those orders. Another thing is you would buy two or three of those tools together. It would be 400 bucks, but you could return everything and stay with the free tool that they gave.

Speaker 2:

I was never a fan of that. I talked against that on my channel. I know that. That's probably why some followers weren't too crazy about my content. But I've come to understand and appreciate the fact that some of these stores know that these glitches are happening and allow it to happen because it builds such a momentum of press and talk of not only about those brands but about the stores themselves, and people come running in droves to try to see if they could get the deal, and sometimes I should say, most of the time they can't get it and they buy something else and walk out the store. So, honestly, I think that that's something that if you want to try and go for, go ahead and do it. But I'm going to tell you that, from my measurements, only the top 1% of people are really getting them and the people that are getting them are not walking out with just one tool and leaving it behind for you to point out.

Speaker 1:

They're walking out with like 40 and 50. And I'm like that's just what's a good word that I can say this. I don't know, I don't like that when they do that either, right? So somebody says you guys should probably mention that perhaps the best deals won't actually be on Black Friday. I thought Black Friday was the ultimate in deals.

Speaker 2:

Well, that is a very good point. Most of the time many are under the impression that the best deals are the day after the week after Black Friday. Black Friday sometimes the day after Christmas, a few days after Christmas, because they haven't sold all the stock they expected to sell during the frenzy of Black Friday. So there is truth to that statement, but there's also some that truth has become less and less true, if you get my meaning here, and the reason is that they have begun doing this whole Black Friday month thing. Where it's Black Friday was the hype and now they're really putting out those prices for a whole month so that they don't have any door busters where people are trampling each other. They'll have a few tools that they'll say, hey, these are attractive, we're going to sell these for five bucks, bust those doors. Be there at 5 am. It's not like it was anymore. They've really dwindled that down and the hot deals that they used to have after Black Friday after Christmas have also kind of saw a drop in how that was.

Speaker 2:

Again, some truth to it, but it's less true than it ever was before, because these stores kind of caught on. They know what we're all doing out here. They know that some of us are waiting. They know that they can do that and last year, the year before, when I went hunting for those deals, I was told straight out nope. As a matter of fact, we raised our prices and you missed out because you waited. So be very careful waiting too long. If you buy a certain tool that you really want at the price point that you thought was attractive and you think it'll drop in price again towards those dates after Black Friday, after Christmas, go ahead and buy it again at that time if you can, and return the other one that you bought. So do it that way. It'll save you a little bit.

Speaker 1:

Yep, somebody was asking a fiber question about slack for hand holes and manholes and termination points. You know a lot of that really depends on a couple of different factors, right? I mean, if you're putting in, you know, like maybe a six strand or 12 strand, you might want to leave more. But if you're putting in a really big fiber cable, you know you're going to find some problems with that. But and also depends on how many hand holes and manholes you come across and the sizes. But you know there's general thoughts, processes out there. So a lot of people will try to tell you, in a hand hole you know I've heard people say 30 to 50 feet you want to have enough that if you need to take it out of the hole to put it on a fiber splicing table to work with it, that you've got that. But again, that's going to depend on the size of that cable. So manholes, because they're larger, you might want to be looking at maybe 60 to 100 feet.

Speaker 1:

Termination points I would always recommend that you have enough fiber to go to the ground to the furthest corner of the room, plus 10 feet. But just keep in mind, no matter which one of those you follow, especially like the hand holes right. Watch out for your minimum bend radiuses because there's two sets of numbers. When you're pulling fiber, the minimum bend radius is 20 times the outside diameter of the cable. When it's at rest, it's 10 times the outside diameter of the cable. So I would put as much slack in there as I can where it makes sense and it doesn't block pathways and it doesn't run the price up on the customer too much. So it's one of those gray areas that's kind of really hard to kind of really nail down what they say. I'm not really an outside plant guy, but that's what I would have done in those kinds of scenarios.

Speaker 2:

That answer was pretty dang good, if you ask me, I think that's pretty dang good. I was going to say something like the cheating way. We do it right, Like some of us, like you have your whole fiber path right. Some of us, like we have, you have your whole fiber path right, Depending on if it's a fiber loop around a city or a certain two points. Right, If it's a point to point dark fiber that you're going, we measure it out on footage and you add a certain percentage and then you divide that percentage by manhole and you leave that in there. Not the best way, but we do that.

Speaker 1:

Here's the problem, especially manholes. Manholes are not quite this bad, but manholes. The worst thing in the world is have the cable come in from one way and go straight out the other way. If something happens, you have nothing to work with.

Speaker 1:

Nothing to work with With fiber, because they're using Vixels and laser diodes and LED lights. Trust me they're. Because they're using Vixels and laser diodes and LED lights. Trust me they're going to go well. I think an LED depending on well which network you put it on, it can go up to 2,000 feet and then when you start getting into single mode and laser diodes, they can go 50 miles. So what's an extra 50 feet, 100 feet per meter? The real question boils down to do you have enough space to cool it in there so it's not going to be a pain for somebody else, right? But there's enough slack for you to again pull it out of the manhole, to put it on a splice tray or a splice trailer to actually do work with it, so you don't want to shoot yourself in the foot, ed, great conversation, man.

Speaker 2:

I knew when I said man, I shoot yourself in the foot. So, ed, great conversation. Man, I knew, I knew. When I said, man, I need to have ed on tonight talking about tools, I knew it'd be a good show.

Speaker 1:

Man, I knew we could, we could talk all day long. I mean we, we just brushed the surface here. I mean we can keep going. Yeah, maybe maybe once a month, you and I need to get together and just just talk. Tools that'd be great.

Speaker 2:

I haven't done live streams in a while. I don't do many of my own, but but those of you watching. If you want to subscribe to Ed the Old Tech Guy on YouTube, tiktok, instagram, facebook I'm all over the place. I do talk about tools, tech, diy. I even started a new series today giving old man advice to some of the young people out there. But I would absolutely love to join it. Once a month Maybe tough, but I will. I will gladly make once every other month. It once a month maybe tough, but for I will. I will gladly make once every other month or once a month if possible. I will try to do it.

Speaker 1:

Okay, we can talk about that offline. We'll come up with a game plan. It'd be cool to have you on, like I said, once a month, once every month or something like that That'd be, cool yeah. That'd be already on my list of um, my list of subject matter experts for the podcast. I think you are, aren't you? I think I may be?

Speaker 2:

I think I may be, but listen, I I gotta say this because if anybody's watching out there and maybe you can turn this into a short, join our tools. You need to make a specialty tool, that is, the you know tool, right here for my buddy, the chuck Chuck tool, right Like, just just label it that way, sell it that way. 30% off Black Friday the I don't care if it's a crimper some snips you know how about the old school silver snips that didn't have like the Knitbex? All the, all the fans. Yeah, how about?

Speaker 2:

those. How about you make those the Chucks and like make, make a special deal for Chuck. Here you gotta, you gotta make that happen Right, Ed.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for coming on, my friend.

Speaker 2:

You're welcome. You're welcome. Thank you for having me. I always appreciate it.

Speaker 3:

That's it for this episode of today's podcast. We hope you were able to learn something. Make sure to subscribe so you don't miss out on future content. Also, leave a rating so we can help even more people learn about telecommunications. Until next time, be safe.

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