When embarking on an auto career, the first things you learn are the ins-and-outs of using the most popular industry-standard tools. In addition to these, however, there are other major tools not usually found in the garage of the hobbyist, but are absolute necessities for the automotive service technician. These tools are indispensable to building up your business from the ground-up, or becoming a valued member of a pre-existing team.
Tools You Can’t Do Without
Early in your auto career, you’ll come across the full range of electrical issues with the parts of a vehicle. As such, a voltmeter is an essential piece of diagnostic equipment, which drastically cuts down the amount of time you would otherwise spend trying to find shorted wires and faulty connections. Often sold together, a multi-meter for the checking of amperages is just as important.
Because a busy automotive service technician can easily encounter tens-of-thousands of bolts, screws and holes in a short period of time, you’ll find air-powered ratchets, ball drivers and power drills to be merciful instruments of construction and disassembly. They save your joints from inflammation and injury and allow you to easily tighten and loosen disagreeable bolts and screws.
For big jobs that involve razing down the thick metal of a car, cutting and making adjustments are easily handled by this next popular tool of the automotive service technician: the plasma cutter. Reaching temperatures hot enough to ionize the surrounding air, this is essentially the perfect knife and slices through hardware like butter. The plasma cutter is an indispensable welding tool that will serve you well in your auto career.
A work light is an absolute must. Even during the brightest day, there are nooks and crannies in the back of the garage where darkness dominates, and it is crucial that you see what you’re doing. Work lights come in super-bright halogens and low-energy LEDs, where the lack of an extension cord and power adapter proves handy.
Extensions and swivels are mechanical tools that allow you to reach and manipulate hard-to-reach bolts, which are either deeply-embedded in some corner of the car, or surrounding by too many other machine parts at an awkward angle.
Jacks and jack stands are instruments of dual-importance, so much so that they’re sold as the feature of many starter packages for the beginning auto mechanic. The jack is for removing car wheels safely, by allowing you to slide underneath the multiple-ton vehicle to inspect the underbelly.
These represent just slightly more than a handful of the essential tools you’ll encounter in auto careers, and serve as the bare minimum for a serious mechanic. Vehicles develop all kinds of problems through wear-and-tear, and these tools help you effectively apply your knowledge in finding solutions for satisfied customers as an automotive service technician.