ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Gifts for the Trade

There's a lot of good stuff to be had there. Might not be as durable, but it'll last nearly as long and cost half as much (or less).

As i am the boss i bought myself some racking for the back of my works van !!!

cost me over $1800.00, but boy was it worth it.

i can now find all the things i usally lose.

the kit comes form a company that is based in Australia called Global, the kit is fantastic, lots of storage for all your fixings, bins for receptacles and switchgear, a bench to work on and a lockable cabinate for paperwork,

took two days to sort the van out tho, and i still aint finished yet!!!!

bought the parents a digital camera and printer set up, so if they are out they can take photos of dodgy electrical works !!

Britspark

I prefer buying my own tools because hey, I know what I want. The only tool related gift for Christmas I got was from a close friend who knew exactly what I needed because I pointed it out to her last time we were shopping at the HD. She bought me a Ridgid 6 Gallon Wet/ Dry shop vac. It should look lovely in the my new van too :-)

My daughter was in China... she took pictures of the wiring also, it was kind of funny. Her friends laughed when she did it.

What a mess!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Got a few SDS masonry bits I needed for my new Bosch rotary hammer.

Got another pair of Timberland boots for work.

I never thought I'd be saying this, but....I can't wait for my next crawl-space job.
Why? Because I got a pair of Skillers pants- the ones with the slip-in knee pads.

Heck, even if I never use the pads, the arrangement of pockets/ tool slots looks mighty promising!

Shock Me; The wife got me the same vac. Plus I used the HD gift cards I got on a Stanley laser plumb bob. The only vertical beam units I had seen were $200, the Stanley was $90. No more shakey tape measures on the ladder.

I got one of the simplest, yet most useful things I've had as a Xmas gift in some years.
My father bought me a large format diary, it's like one of them Filofax's but about the size of an A4 sheet of paper.
I have a lot of things to write down in the course of a days work and knowing what day I wrote it on, will be a bonus.
Saves writing on everything else in sight.

No, sorry. My Bosch uses SDS-Max.

Well, it was a few days after Christmas but I did get something really cool. A new pick-up. I had bought a new 04 Chevy 2500HD 4x4 a year ago last October and it never gave me a problem other than getting lousy gas mileage. Fuel costs have been killing me! I have 4 churches going right now and they are all 100+ miles away. I've been staying at the local Motel 6 thru the weeks but at 10 mpg. gasoline has been costing me $300-400 per month. I took advantage of Chevy's Red Tag promo and traded for a 2006 1500HD 4x4 with the 4800 V8, 3:42 rear end with the trailer towing and snow plow packages. A fellow sparky bought one just like it in October and claims to get 18mpg on the hiway. I'll be thrilled with 15mpg!