Money vs Time

One of the last systems I installed, I made a quick stop at Harbor Freight and picked up one of these wire spool racks.

It was about $45 and came loaded with several different gauges of wire.

Did I absolutely need it? No.

Was it worth $45? Easily.

I needed several different wire gauges during the install, and having everything sitting right there ready to pull saved me a surprising amount of time. I wasn’t overly concerned about the different wire colors because I label every wire anyway. If I ever have to come back and troubleshoot something, I want to know exactly what each wire does instead of trusting my memory.

It also made the install area a lot neater. No loose spools laying around, no wire rolling across the floor, and no chasing a spool that somehow decided it had somewhere better to be.

Sometimes the best tools aren’t the expensive ones.

They’re the $45 purchases that save you $100 worth of aggravation.