Making Material Lists On T&M Jobs...

mdshunk

I've tried several methods to take material lists on T&M jobs and service calls. Sometimes I try to write the items down on a pad as I take them off the truck, and sometimes I count and measure up after the work is done. I generally have ended up counting and measuring after the work is done, as I often use things that might be kicking around in my bags.

Wire and cable is often a problem. It's a pain to measure up afterwards, as it takes a little time to do it accurately. I've been experimenting lately, and I've come up with a method that works pretty darned well for NM, UF, and MC cable.

I bought a few 50 lb. digital fish scales. (Berkley Cat. No. FS50, $19.99 at Gander Mountain). I made some charts with lengths and weights of every gauge and type of wire we carry on the truck. Just weigh the coil when you take it off the truck, and weight it again when you put it back. Look up that weight on the chart under the type of wire, and it will tell you how many feet you used. I've been doing this for about a month now, and it's really speeding up the tally on how much wire was used on a service call or T&M job. Just thought I'd pass that along.

ron schenker

Sounds like something you could custom fit to the electrical industry. Market it properly and you could become rich beyond your wildest imagination(which I would guess is pretty wild) You need a catchy name...something like
"Digiwire scale" or "Shunk's wire weight scale"
If you're looking for a partner, I want first dibs!

All joking aside though, this sounds like a great way of figuring out how much wire you used. Believe it or not, I used to use this method when I was in the vending/amusement business to count quarters from the video games in our arcade. Rather than roll up the coins, we weighed out $100 Glad freezer lock baggies. We would then sell the bags to the change machine and take out bills. Saved an awful lot of time.

__________________
Don't worry, the baseboard will hide it!

Speedy Petey

I see this in manufacturing and shipping facilities. They use counting scales. Weigh one (or a few) small items and the scale calculates what one weighs.
Then every time a worker throws an item in the bin it counts it, actually it weighs it. You can throw 13 in the bin and it knows exactly what 13 items weigh.

I never thought to implement this into wire measuring.
GOOD IDEA Marc.
I may try it out.

__________________

mdshunk

Hey... we might be onto something here. Get in touch with the OEM for these digital fish scales and turn them into counting scales. Have a button for each gauge and type of wire, then hang it. If anyone wants to follow through with that, the idea is yours for the taking...

OsNap

You should take the charts, laminate them, and sell them at places like Home depot, Lowes local hardware stores etc. You could also make you own sacales. Just by the ones now, make a small plastic panels with the memory stored in there and stuff. Tho that might be a little hard to do....Sweet idea tho.

Josh

mdshunk

Threre you go... I'll put you in charge of that. Feel free...

OsNap

Sweet, I just need a chart, and I can copy and stuff, humm...I know that girl that works in the school office were the laminator is humm....

GregS

You just need it to measure the length?

Is there no foot markers on electrical sheathing like there is on low-voltage cabling? Or is that a pain in the ass compared to weighing it..

I run LV in a lot of new houses and just charge the builders a flat rate to pull. So if it's 30 metres or 1 metre is the same amount. It works out in my favour in the end

Same for post-closing houses. I pull through basements and attics for additional drops and charge a flat rate for that, regardless of the run length... That is unless it is REALLY long.

With the rising cost of copper my box costs are going up so I am raising my rates accordingly.

mdshunk

The Cat5e and the Series 6 cable that I use both have footage markings. NM, UF, and MC do not.

JamesNLA

ok, here comes my $.02

I am all for the digital age, and things not analoge.

Imagine a wire rack with ...whatever 15-20 rolls of various wire types.

In the center of the spool, is a device that act's like a bearing of sort. The inner part is stationary the outter part is moving with the actual spool. With the help of pre programming different wire types, even a little network that can talley all the different wire types and weights.
Heck, go one step further, and have it make an .XLS file you can transfer to SD card, for computer accounting. I imagine a guy on commercial jobs for weeks on end, it could be made to talley any way one wants.

Now, what will make this a good idea or not is if it can be sold with a profit.

I like it!

OsNap

I got it! Put all of your wire on reels, then take one of thoses things the mesures distance when you roll it across something, and mount it to the side, dam i good. lol

mdshunk

Wouldn't work. When you're in a home that is occupied, you're luck to find a spot to sit down an ordinary roll of cable, let along some mechanical contraption in addition to it. You're crawled back in crawl spaces, in attics, etc. Anything in addition to the plain roll of cable won't work in the field.

GregS

You'd figure that would be an option considering it's done on pretty much all the cat3, cat5e, cat6 and RG6 cable these days.

RobertWilber

hey md...
'nother new picture...
have a tough week?
you've aged BADLY in the last coupla days ...

I like the scale idea, but it seems like just another piece of crap to break...
and you have to remember to mark the estimated remaining wire length on the leftover coil after you deduct your usage, or you could start charging phenomenal prices for wire...

I keep a field log and neurotically notate everything I use as I go along, though I do charge for "assemblies" to includes screws, clamps, etc. and I make these numbers up on the spot, weighting them by feel.

...but I charge out each cable run as I pull it, unless I am using full coils
I don't think twenty feet of wire matters either way, when you charge for 400 feet and considering the labor rates people pay.

reveivl

JamesNLA,
"ok, here comes my $.02

I am all for the digital age, and things not analoge.

Imagine a wire rack with ...whatever 15-20 rolls of various wire types.

In the center of the spool, is a device that act's like a bearing of sort. The inner part is stationary the outter part is moving with the actual spool. With the help of pre programming different wire types, even a little network that can talley all the different wire types and weights."

That would average out ok, but the length of wire/rotation varies dramatically between the first wrap and the last...

__________________
From where does knowledge come? If you need to know what is in a box, you could ask someone (not reliable), you could pray, (not useful), you can consult with the scripture (not helpful) or you could open the box (science)

Sparky Joe

So who is the picture of now? Can't say it's you since we all know you look like Charlie Manson now.

mdshunk

It was pointed out to me, by a respected and reveared leader in our industry whose name we all know well, that a picture of that person as my avatar was not in the best interest of my brand image. For now, out of professional recpect for this person and confusion on my part, I changed it to a wise old man.

Sparky Joe

So is that what a wise old man looks like, I always wondered

Speedy Petey

So now is that you?

__________________

mdshunk

No, I'm just a regular guy. I still look like Charlie.