A pipefitter's tools list starts with hand tools — pipe wrenches, adjustable wrenches, pliers, tube cutters, a reamer, a level, a tape, a hammer, a striker.
Beyond that documented core sit squares, wraparounds and fit-up wedges and clamps — the layer our research found no published pipefitter list for — so who buys which is set shop by shop, and by the union agreement where one governs the job.
Required hand tools: the documented list
The clearest published answer to "what tools does a pipefitter need" comes from a required list, not a catalog.
UA Local 469 in Arizona writes one into its 2024-2027 agreement: every journeyman and apprentice it dispatches to work must have the tools on its Exhibit 2 list at the work site.
Every item is a hand tool:
- 18-inch toolbox or canvas bag
- Two 14-inch pipe wrenches
- 12-inch and 8-inch adjustable wrenches
- #15 and #20 tube cutters
- Pencil reamer
- Side-cutting pliers
- 6-in-1 screwdriver
- Torpedo level
- 25-foot tape
- 20-oz hammer
- Striker
- 8-key Allen set
- Chalk box with plumb bob
- 440 and 420 Channellocks
- 3/8-inch ratchet with 9 sockets
- Tin snips
Read as one kit, it is built around pipe: two 14-inch pipe wrenches, 12-inch and 8-inch adjustable wrenches, 440 and 420 Channellocks and side-cutting pliers, #15 and #20 tube cutters and a pencil reamer, a 6-in-1 screwdriver and an 8-key Allen set, a 3/8-inch ratchet with 9 sockets, a torpedo level and a 25-foot tape, a chalk box with plumb bob, a 20-oz hammer, a striker and tin snips.
Power tools are not on the list — the required kit is hand tools only, which puts everything with a cord or a battery into the who-supplies question below.
One local's contract is an example, not a national standard — but it answers the practical question behind a "tool list for pipefitter" search: what to have in the bag on day one.
For the craft these tools serve, start with the pipefitter career guide.
The plumbing side of the question — the hand tools plumbers carry — is on our plumber tools list.
Squares, levels and wraparounds
The measuring layer is on the documented list: a 25-foot tape, a torpedo level, and a chalk box with plumb bob.
Squares and wraparounds are the instruments behind the search for a "pipefitter square", and the honest answer about them is shorter: neither appears on the Exhibit 2 list above, and our research did not surface a sourced pipefitter-specific square or wraparound list.
What sizes and styles to buy is supplier-catalog territory, and which instruments a job expects is a question for the contractor at hire.
Fit-up tools: wedges and clamps
Fit-up tools — the "pipefitter wedges" and "pipefitter clamps" behind their own searches — are the layer the documented list does not touch: the Exhibit 2 list names no fit-up hardware, and our research did not surface a sourced fit-up tool list for the trade.
Who buys them therefore lands on the who-supplies question below.
For non-union shops we found no published norm: it varies shop by shop, which makes it an interview question — ask what the contractor furnishes and what lands on your tab before you buy.
What the contractor supplies
The only written who-furnishes rules we can cite are union agreements, and the two documented examples run in opposite directions.
The Chicago-area Plumbers Local 130 UA agreement with the Plumbing Contractors Association (2024-2028) says journeymen furnish only small pliers and a rule — all other tools are furnished by the employer.
UA Local 469 in Arizona (2024-2027) runs the other way: every journeyman and apprentice it dispatches must have the Exhibit 2 hand-tool list above at the work site, while the employer furnishes a secure lock-up and replaces tools lost to fire, flood or forced-entry theft.
For non-union shops we found no published answer — it varies contractor by contractor, which is why what the company supplies is an interview question, not a given.
- Which tools does the contractor furnish, and which do I bring?
- Is there a tool allowance or reimbursement, and how does it work?
- What happens if a tool is stolen off the truck or out of the gang box?
- For apprentices: is the list staged over the first months, or expected at once?
The federal rule that protects your paycheck
Tool bags: what you carry it in
The container is on the list too — Exhibit 2 starts with an 18-inch toolbox or canvas bag, so the "pipefitter tool bag" and "pipefitter tool box" are the same slot on a required list, a choice of box or soft bag.
However you carry it, the working pattern is the same: the tools you reach for hourly ride the top or the side pockets; wrenches stack by size so the right one comes out without a search; the cutters, reamer and striker get their own pouches so edges do not chew the bag or your hands.
Organization is a safety habit as much as a speed one: BLS lists cuts from sharp tools among the common injuries for plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters, which is the case for sheathing cutters between uses.
Where the bag lives between shifts is a real question too — Local 469's agreement makes the employer furnish a secure lock-up and replace tools lost to fire, flood or forced-entry theft, and for your own shop the storage and theft questions sit in the interview checklist above.
Career information, not legal advice: the tool-cost rule above is federal wage law — confirm how it applies to you with the U.S. Department of Labor, and check your own contract; a union agreement or your employer's written tool policy is the authority for who buys what.