Field/Inspection Kit Contents

small pry bar

Safety Glasses. Bandaids.
Simple Calculator.
Paper, pencils.
Business cards.
Gloves.
Large Print scale/ruler to give scale to pictures.
Cell phone.

I checked my bag. Here are a few other items come in handy:

6 foot folding rule (I can't be with this!)
extra batteries for your camera
awl
duct tape
lumber crayon
ear plugs

I always keep some boots and a set of old clothes in my bag in case I have an emergency site visit that I wasn't dressed for.

Binoculars, magnifying glass, camera tripod. You'll always need what you don't have with you.

Does "calipers" mean a dial caliper? Or the divider-looking-thingies? Anyway, consider a micrometer or dial/ digital caliper.

I always have a
magnetic particle test kit
dye penetrant kit
100 ft electrical cord
GFCI adapter
multimeter
750Watt power inverter
fold-up ladder
claw hammer
engineer's mallet
marking paint
transparent packing tape (for paint adhesive testing)
Range of pencils from 2B to 6H for paint hardness testing
extra batteries
compass

Wow, thanks folks.... alot more responses than I had expected.

1. Digital Camera
2. 35' steel tape (If you can find it, the 35' tape is
great because it seems to extend farther without folding
than 30' or shorter tapes. I think they use a heavier
gauge steel for it.
3. 100' cloth tape
4. Dial caliper (by General, 6")
5. Binoculars
6. Small magnet (for checking out stainless steel)
7. Wood handled awl
8. Cold chisel
9. Mason's hammer
10. Heavy cloth work gloves and also latex gloves
11. Mag lites, small and large, with extra batteries. Also a
mag lite belt loop, very handy if you are going to be on
a ladder or scaffold. Keeps a hand free.
12. Mica pencil and grease pencil
13. Screwdriver with changeable tips
14. Two-cartridge respirator. (Usually store it a plastic
ziplock bag- the filters last longer that way)
15. Fluorescent spray paint
16. Ziploc bags for samples
17. folding make-up mirror (For looking sideways in tight
spaces!!)
18. 100' of mason's twine
19. Lock level (Topcon makes a decent one)
20. Earplugs
21. Duct Tape
22. Retractable utility knife
23. Prybar
24. CTL crack comparator gauge

Thats the basic load. It fits in a Contractor's satchel. Depending on where I'm going I may also carry other things such as a tyvek suit, hardhat, stud finder, digital thermometer or psychrometer, crack gauges, battery powered drill, etc. etc. I probably should also carry eye protection but the glasses always seem to get scratched and gummed up and thus useless.

Somebody should start a post about the worst place they ever had to go with this stuff ("Crawlspaces I have known and loved").

hand held tape recorder for note taking.

has anybody mentioned a dusk mask? sometimes were not 100% sure of what we are digging into, also have index cards with me so i can write a note and place it in the picture at times. in addition to a digital camera i always have a small 35mm camera (with date record) in case i feel a picture maybe required for legal reasons.

Depending on the application, you might also need:

undercut gauge
electronic DFT gauge (e.g., Elcometer)

Hg

I always carry a small squeeze bottle with water- good for soil id or cleanig off surfaces. Also if you get a 6foot rule, get the one with the brass slide on the front piece. Somebody already mentioned binoculars - they are great. Also don't forget a couple of good old screw drivers (std & Philips) - good for lots of stuff- not just screws

Depending on the project
- Psychometer
- IR temperature meter
- several clean small vials for samples
- small bottle of nitric acid to ID materials

I would add

target card found in most surveyor supply shops,

paint sticks (once dry won't come off and great for setting lines or tbm's) and the paint will fill rough surfaces like concrete to produce a nice smooth area to write on.

magnetic thermometer




Regards,
Qshake

Eng-Tips Forums:Real Solutions for Real Problems Really Quick.

Lunch - some of the sites are in the middle of the boonies.
Bottle of two of water
Roll of surveying tape
"Lead-chek" kit about 3USD at the hardware store.
Any PPE that you have been trained to use, fall protection harness, respirator et cetera.
Reference books, code standards ...

dental picks - for identifying cracks in steel. You can get them in Sears,
string level,
spark plug feeler gage (to measure cracks)
large pipe wrench and adjustable wrench,
section of pipe for added leverage,
36" bolt cutters,
"C" clamps (sometimes you don't have any one to hold the dummy end of the tape), vise grips,
hand cleaner and paper towels,

I pack in a few empty 35 mm plastic film containers for storing small samples. They have nice snap lock tops and I like the clear plastic ones, you can write on them with black markers.

Someone above mentioned zip-lock bags, they make great sample containers and the freezer bags have a place to write on them.

I also carry business card size lables for field samples and photo ID. You can leave them in place for future location of where samples were taken in the field.

And, yes I do still use a 35 mm camera, but I get a set of prints made at the one hour place and also have the pictures put on a CD. The 35 mm film to CD has about 3 times the number of pixels that the best digital cameras have, so you can magnify them in the computer much larger with out losing clarity.

I've found a laser range finder to be very useful, particularly where access is restricted (traffic, height, etc).

Holy cow, 3 foot bolt cutters, at that stage we're hiring a contractor to do the work, like the idea of having some lunch in my bag though. Yes the fall protection harness is a good suggestion we always have it in the trunk.