Milwaukee has come out with a wire nut twister – an accessory for your cordless drill or impact driver for quickly installing wire nuts.
They say it is compatible with most common standard and winged wire nits, including colors such as orange, yellow, tan, red, large gray, and large blue.
As you probably know, wire nuts are easy to install, but it can be tiring to do when you’ve got a lot of them.
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This is not a new concept; you can buy wire nut twisting tools – such as hand drivers or similar powered accessories – from other brands.
Now you have the option to get a broad-compatible version in Milwaukee red.
Price: $10
Tired of dealing with wire nuts? Have you considered lever lock wiring connectors, such as Wago 221 or the Ideals (New Ideal Wago-Like Lever Wire Connectors)?
Amazon is full of generic-branded wire nut twisters, but you can also get ones from Ideal or Rack-A-Tiers.
As these have power bit hex ends, you should be able to use them with popular holders and accessories, such as Milwaukee’s new set.
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It’s designed for use with powered drivers, but you could use it with hand drivers if you wish.
Another Bob
Not sure I’ve seen an electrician on site use a drill driver for anything but the screw terminals on switches and outlets. Would seem to be a pain switching between this and a driver bit, but with the M12 stuff being so lightweight just carry two guns if you have space?
Anyone else gonna buy one just so they can make a nut twister joke at work?
D3t
The electricians that use these have dedicated drill/drivers for each function.
Chris
Lol’d at nut twister 😂
fred
Who knew that you needed one of these – or even a drill-powered stripper (as in the prior post.) But when you look on Amazon – there are all sorts of offerings – including kits with drill-end strippers, wire twisters and wire-nut twisters. So’ there must be a market for them.
https://www.amazon.com/Stripper-Upgrade-Electrical-Stripping-Twisting/dp/B0DN1BQVF5
KokoTheTalkingApe
I didn’t know I needed a bit for screw hooks until I had to install 12 big ones in ceiling rafters.
fred
I can see how a specialized bit would make that chore easier.
We had bits for driving various size hanger bolts – and dedicated drivers for Sammys
Wayne R.
Would the hanger hole in a plain old Crescent wrench get the job done without a trip somewhere hoping to find that special bit?
KokoTheTalkingApe
It would, and so would a screwdriver. But it would be slow and awkward. And because I couldn’t easily push the screw into the wood while turning it, I’d likely to bugger up the hole, smash my hand into the rafter, etc. And the bit was cheap and Amazon delivered it the next day. 🙂
Bonnie
I could see that being handy. I just start the hooks by hand and then use another hook in the shuck to run them to depth.
fred
There was a time when an eyebolt chucked in a bit brace was the tool of choice – but the driving action is a bit eccentric.
KokoTheTalkingApe
Yep. And you can’t push the screw eye into the wood. And it doesn’t hold the screw eye straight.
Wayne R.
The butt end of a 6-in-1 Ideal screwdriver in my bag has these cut outs for wire nuts. I sometimes find it handy when my hand’s worn out.
I could see having one of these in a handle, and maybe transfer it to a machine if there were a lot to do.
Blocky
Maybe you could just chuck the screwdriver into a drill—
Nathan
I once saw a guy use a socket on a cordless ratchet to run home witenits and he said his hands hurt. I could see that and his socket had silicone or something like that in it.
Worked pretty well but I’d worry about stripping them past. Maybe I’m over thinking it
eddiesky
I used something like this once: had 4 pair 12g and rated nut. I was doing 40 boxes of duplexes with pigtails and after two boxes, this tool was really helpful. You need to watch and not over twist them. I recommend 3M performance plus wire nuts.
I do use Wago connectors but recently, a few would lose levers. And out of 10 boxes with one outlet, one Wago opened up, throwing a neutral. One thing positive about the Wago is that if you have three in a box, it takes up less space than 3-6 nuts. But I don’t like how the wire can spin in a Wago. YMMV. And yes, they are code in most places.
Yadda
I don’t do much that would require buying one of these. I do have a Worx switch drill which allows me to mount a driver and rotate the head for a drill bit or in this case it could be a wire nut twister.
Bob H
Milwaukee continues to offer innovative products that I love. Sadly there are a Lot of Connections, inside of a Lot of electrical boxes, with wires making “poor contact!…” I like to feel the tension of the wires, by twisting with Lineman pliers, then feel the tension of the Wire Nut… usually everything is good, but occasionally, I’ll do one more time -either way -I’ll close up the box with absolute confidence. / There is no way I could trust a device I couldn’t feel… -but I’ve been wrong before 🙂
will
The price is definitely right and I need to get one of these along with the stripper. Though cable installers have had the strippers for years, so im surprised milwaukee is this late to the game. Then again maybe they had a patent since im sure they weren’t cheap as most trade tools are rather pricey,i suppose just like any specialized equipment
Scott F
How easy is it to either strip a wire nut, or make it so tight that it snaps the copper conductor? Obviously up to the user to apply proper torque, but this feels risky to use in a cordless impact without paying extra attention during tightening.
Bob H
👍Agreed: “this feels risky to use in a cordless impact”
fred
An impact driver would likely be overkill for this task. Something that you can ‘feather” as you drive or use a low clutch setting would seem better.
But then too you are probably holding the wires with one hand (or pliers in that hand) while twisting the nut on with a drill in your other hand. That setup might sort of be a limiting factor on how much torque is applied.
KokoTheTalkingApe
Yep. Actually I wonder if an installation driver or a cordless screwdriver would be the best tool. Light, small, and harder to overdrive.
S
I’ve tried the hand tool version. Larger and easier to grip than just twisting the wire nut on with fingers alone.
But the biggest issue is over tightening. I stopped using the tool because I felt it numbed my feeling on the appropriate torque needed. I broke a ton of wire nuts while using it.
It might be far better to use on a cordless drill with the clutch set very low to minimize over torquing the wire nuts.
It should also be said that this is neither new nor innovative to the electrical field. Other brands have had this tool for a long time. It’s just the first time to carry Milwaukee’s name.
Blocky
I think one of those $20 4v screwdrivers would be a perfect pairing for this. Epoxy it permanently into the bit holder
JoeM
But when I saw this article, and the image of what was going on, my one and only reaction was “Where has that been all this time?” It’s a tool that seems like it would have been released within the first year or so of the item it serves. We’ve had Wire Nuts for how long? We should’ve had, bare minimum, a hand cranked version of this bit by the next year or so. It’s a no-brainer. Even if you only use 4 of these in a day, a wire nut fastener, much like a sparkplug socket, seems like the first thing anyone would think of when the creation it serves is invented. Is this the brain fog, or does anyone else think this?
And, if it’s only new to a certain brand… The tag at the top saying that would clear up a lot of these kinds of questions for me. I’m finding a lot of brands are doing “new” things they’ve never done before, and my first thought isn’t “Why didn’t they invent that a long time ago” it’s almost always “Well, about time they joined in!” I’m seeing a lot of things from Gearwrench and Milwaukee especially, where it makes 100% sense that they would make a great version of their newest tools. But, I don’t always know if it’s their original invention, or they’re entering with their version.
Stuart_T
JoeM: “We’ve had Wire Nuts for how long?”
If I’m lucky I’ll get this posted before fred does 🙂
A: About 100 years . Up here in Canada we sometimes generically call them “Marrettes” because they were developed by William Marr who had emigrated to Toronto from Scotland.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twist-on_wire_connector
“…Marr was injured when he spilled molten solder on himself. Seeking a safer, more efficient connection method, Marr, working in his home workshop, developed the first pressure-type wire connector. In 1914, he produced a set-screw version, the forerunner of the present-day twist-on connector used throughout North America…
…A connector more closely resembling the present-day twist-on type was patented in Canada by Marr in 1931, and in the US in 1933.”
Carlton
3M sold one 30 years ago that looked like the exact same tool. I kept one a dedicated Panasonic 2.4 volt Screwdriver. They also had a version on an offset screwdriver. I think each cost 15 dollars or more