You’re 200 feet up a series of ladders, and you’re working on an energized 120V system. As you begin to unscrew a terminal on a relay, you drop your only insulated screwdriver. You hear it ping, ping, ping, on its way down.
You do have several uninsulated screwdrivers and a roll of tape. So now you face a dilemma. Should you “roll your own” and continue working, or should you climb all the way down, recover that screwdriver, and climb all the way back up? What if you choose the latter, and drop it again? What if you choose the former, and it’s not sufficient?
While it’s generally not advised to tape screwdriver shafts to make your own insulated tools, this was once exactly how people did it. In this case, you are working with 120V and disconnecting relays. This kind of work was traditionally done without insulated tools. Climbing all the way down and then back up would be exhausting, and your risk of slipping during either climb is significantly increased. So it would actually be safer to roll your own. Use the same technique you’d use for taping motor leads — that is, quarter-lap it.
But this incident raises another question. Why aren’t all of your screwdrivers insulated? If you’re going to do any hot work, every tool you carry should be an insulated one. So the dilemma arose from a lack of proper job planning and preparation. Another issue here is the fact that dropping a tool allows it to fall 200 feet. Not only do you lose the tool (and possibly lurch out of a safe position to try to catch it), but someone below would also likely be killed if hit by it.
The solution here is to drill a hole in the shaft of each tool that doesn’t already have a hole (adjustable wrenches and box wrenches have a hole already there). Then thread a small nylon lanyard through it and attach the lanyard to carabiner. You don’t need a climbing grade carabiner, just about any light-duty carabiner will work. Now if you drop your tool, it won’t fall far.
