Odd Plumbing Tools

• Plumbers have a wide variety of standard tools as well as a few odd ones. Ranch image by Alhazm Salemi from Fotolia.com

  A number of different standard tools are used by plumbers for most of the clogs and plumbing jobs they are called in to fix. These include a plumbers wrench, a plunger, Drain-O and teflon tape, to efficiently stop leaks. But for certain unusual jobs, there are some odd contraptions which plumbers must resort to using to properly fix or unclog the pipes.

Plumber's Snake

• A plumbing snake is an odd looking tool which is meant to unclog pipes which don't respond to Drain-O or other chemicals that are poured down them. Often housed in a large, space-aged piece of plastic with a crank, this tool has a coil of metal rope inside of it which is cranked out and run down a sink or toilet drain. By continuing to crank the plumber's snake down into the drain, it will ultimately hit the clog and push it through the pipe. Some plumber's snakes have claws or hooks on the ends of them so they can take hold of whatever has clogged the pipe and pull it back towards the mouth of the drain, tearing it apart to release the clog.

Level Sticks

• When running pipes in a new structure or running a new section of plumbing through a house, the odd little leveling tool known as a Level Stick comes in very handy. These tools are small pieces of plastic that can be adjusted to fit around a piece of pipe you have run along the wall. In the middle of the plastic is a bubble vial that accurately measures whether the pipe is level or not, regardless of if it is running vertically or horizontally. These level sticks come in five piece sets, making them work with a variety of different pipe sizes.

Tailpiece Extension Cutter

• Cutting pipe exactly when installing or fixing plumbing in some awkward position can be one of the most frustrating parts of a plumber's job, which is why many of them use something called a Tailpiece Extension Cutter. This oddly-shaped tool is best described as a futuristic-looking, incredibly sharp box cutter, which has two openings with rolling blades inside of them. Pieces of pipe you wish to cut to the proper length should be inserted in one of these two openings, and the blade should be locked in place, similar to opening canned food. By simply rotating the tailpiece extension cutter around the pipe, it will cut it exactly and evenly for you.