Projects WHERE ARE MY TOOLS?

Then the tool you need will have found its way under you.

 

An old carpenter I worked with threatened to break one of the legs on his square so it couldn't walk off.

 

Every time I crawl under someone's house to do some plumbing work, I find a some kind of tool - water pump pliers, crescent, screwdriver, pipe wrench, etc. Makes me feel better about all the screw drivers, wrenches, sockets I've left on the back bumper of the truck on a test ride. Then spent 20 minutes driving around looking for them, to no avail.

 

I have a bad habit of setting wrenches on the intake manifold of my roadster. Luckily, I usually see them before they fly off, but I did lose a half inch wrench last year and still look for it when I am walking the dog.

 

Mine are usually right where I left them. It's just that sometimes I don't remember where I left them.

 

I'm relieved that we all suffer from some form of this. My best one was losing a 13/16 snap-on wrench and having it returned over a year later. We were building feed hauling trailers in North East Texas and I lost a 13/16 wrench. Over a year later a trailer returned from Guatemala for some repairs. One of the guys removed a hydraulic tank bolt and a wrench fell out that had been jammed while holding back up. My initials were engraved on it.

 

I've had occasional good luck asking my wife to take a quick look for whatever tool it is that "I just had it in my hand a few minutes ago". She seems to have a totally different filter on her eyeballs than I do. So what hides from me can be in plain sight for her.
My garage is so cluttered that walking through it looks like I'm doing a complicated, ethnic folk dance. I've tried organizing and opening up some "free space"......... but like one of Newton's laws, that just creates a vacuum that sucks up a fresh pile of bulky items. It's science. You shouldn't even try to fight that.

 

I frequently find tools at the junkyard so I guess it makes up fro all the tools I lost in them.

 

Don't pay the ransom. I'm still out here tryin' to get my MoJo back. One incentive is the Beer of the Day because if I don't doa any work, I don't drink the beer either.

 

With an attached garage, and a separate shop, plus several traveling tool boxes, or bags; I am constantly trying to figure out where tools are. I have multiple of numerous tools just because I want the same tools in each location, and don't want to keep walking around. But more expensive or specialty tools I try to only have in one place. Of course if the tools costs very little, I don't mind buying a 2nd one to keep in two shops, just to save time.
Recently I was getting ready to fire up my '39 Chev's engine after a head swap, and went to grab my remote starter switch so I could be at the engine when it fired. I knew exactly where it was, but couldn't find it. Looked in every roll around toolbox, bags, etc., but no luck. Irritated I ran to Harbor Freight and bought a cheap ass replacement to get back to work.
After getting the engine fired, and completing the tune up, I rolled the wires up and dropped it into the top tray of my roll around.....right beside the one I had looked for and couldn't find!

 

At least I'm not the only one who has tools apparently sourced from Klingon Surplus with the "Intermittent Cloaking Device" still activated....

 

My neighbor just tossed a bunch of stuff in the trash .. Included was a Proto breaker bar .. I’m happy as shite.. Gremlins are everywhere.. Beware the Tool Gremlins.. Funny …

 

All my hand tool are in the appropriate drawer in my box….I still open all the drawers looking for the appropriate drawer

 

Same with my wife... she has a photographic memory, whereas I have a pornographic memory. Opposites attract, you know!

 

I too have a pornographic memory but I believe it's starting to go. I can't reconcile the memory of my wife when I met her to the naked 82 year old woman getting out of the shower this morning.

 

It's a daily, frequent occurrence trying to remember where "something" is in the shop. I'm closer to 80 than 75 so I try to plan ahead when it involves getting on the floor or crawling into the "doorless" T roadster I just started. Yesterday I wanted to tack up the brake lever so I moved the welder close to the car, got the helmet, whelper pliers, extra light so I can actually see something before pulling the trigger, the car is up on blocks so it takes a step stool to get in. I finally get myself set up, have the piece to be welded properly positioned, pull the trigger and nothing. Forgot to plug in the welder
Note...after I got the brake lever/pedal tacked, positioned the steering shaft I find I have more room for the brake pedal than I thought, but......have to pull the engine and modify the engine mount for a steering shaft to gain about a half inch of clearance.

 

When someone in the family gets a tool from my tooolbox they have been instructed to put them on my work bench when they are through with them. That way I put the tool in the proper place back in the tool box...........

 

I usually don't have much problem with missing tools, unless Sue or one of the grandkids use them. I generally wipe them down and put them away when I'm done using them. My biggest problem is going out to the shop and wondering why I'm out there to begin with!

 

somebody will do a rehab years from now and be ecstatic about that antique tool. locals on FB (youngsters) can't figure out why people used to deposit worn-out razor blades in the bathroom wall!

 

LOL! Maybe we should ask your wife the same thing! I don't look in a mirror when naked any more for the same reason.

 

I lost a set of feeler gauges while doing a tune-up, had to dig out my spare set to finish up. Never found them until I moved the rubber strip that seals the top of the firewall to the back of the hood. Little sucker was in there, but had turned into a lump of rust after 10 years.

 

I think you mean clear ass-n-taint handles

 

My last puppy, Sam, would "teethe" on loose tools on the garage floor. I had to keep her leashed to the side of the garage opening or she'd slip away. Funny thing, if it was a socket, one would occasionally roll down the driveway to the gutter where I'd eventually find it. Before I discovered the first one down there, I thought she was hiding them on me. Then I started getting her bones from the butcher. She never chewed on anything else after that, no shoes, clothes, record albums, sofa legs, nada.

 

Can you tell this youngster why?

 

id like to know...was it a safety issue,,thats my guess....

 

Years ago I bought Brenda a small assortment of tools for the house, before that I kept missing hammers, pliers and screwdrivers, that was one of the smartest things I ever did. HRP

 

I know we all have mulitple tool boxes packed to the gills but one of these come in real handy for 95% of what we do on most jobs. Put the damn things back in place and it'll save time in the long run. Then I pull up about a 3 foot folding rubbermaid table and use that as a temp work bench right where I need it. Once I cant fit anything else on that table its time to do a quick clean up and get things back in order. At least thats the way I was taught to do it.. In reality I could lose a wrench still in my hand. Or my other favorite throw it in my back pocket only to hear it beating around inside the clothes dryer couple days later...

 

I have made up numerous tool sets for the wife, which manage to dissappear and be replaced by junkie rusted bits and peices. How does that happen?

 

Some old houses use to have a razor blade disposal box on the bathroom wall, the old blades just dropped between the studs behind the drywall. It was a surprise to me back when I was new to laying tile and doing bath remodels. Seen a few of them over the years now.

 

Many of the built-in medicine cabinets of the time had slots built in the back for blade disposal as well.