Technical How often do you clean your tools/tool drawers?

searching for tools? Do you have that habit, syndrome or what ever to call it... You are working at X on Y problem. You carry a tool over to bench or tool box. Set the tool down. Walk back to X , then remember you left the tool and try to find it? I have a PHD in doing that little pain in the *** deal. In my 70s now and still a hard to break habit. dammit

 

HAHAHA…. Oh wait, you’re serious. I’ll wipe them down before putting them back in the drawer. I reset/ deep clean the drawer(s) when they get ridiculous.

 

In my case it's the drawer with pliers, side cuts, tin snips, water pump, slip joint, wire strippers, wire crimpers and on and on.

My vise grip drawer is almost as bad, needle nose, curved jaw, straight jaw, chain, big, medium, small sizes. Close to 20 pair in that drawer. Then the ones hanging on the wall. Back when I was replacing body panels all the time that drawer stayed mostly empty because they were clamped to some car. Now that ive gotten away from doing a bunch of panel replacement they are all huddled up in that drawer...

Need to get a bigger box, that's my plan before I retire in January.... Hopefully....

Once I retire then I can clean my shop, put tools away and have a big enough box to do it....

....

 

I would clean my tools but I'm too cheap to get my cleaning rags dirty.

 

I always wipe them down when done. When regularly wrenching I'll deep clean where grime still ac***ulates on stuff like flex head ratchets. I've also found if you at least give tools a decent wipe down before being put away the box drawers can go literal years without looking grimy

 

I hate rummaging through drawers to find a wrench. So I lined the back part of my garage in pegboards and I hung up all my tools so that I could spot just the one I needed from 10 feet away and instantly get it. I do not even own a tool box except for an old small one my dad had which I sometimes put tools in to take with me when I go bush hogging or helping one of my kids at their house. Plus, if someone wants to try to steal from me, it will take them forever to load all my **** up.

 

One of the A&P's I worked with years ago had a set-up like that. We weighed just the main tool box with its tools when we were getting ready for an AOG road trip once, 1600+ lbs. worth. All the other boxes that were usually attached to it probably weighed a like amount. All Snap-On, 15 years ago he said he had at least 60k invested in the whole mess.

I've always used Craftsman tools, though I've started buying Wright tools as they're easier for me to come by now.

 

Wright tools seem to be a good value.
Dan

 

I tend to work in a sort of happy chaos, but do occasionally have an attempt at tidying up.
One thing I did do, though was move my sockets. I had them in the top of the tool box. I realised my eyes were going and I couldn't read the sizes that close up. I now have the sockets in the fourth drawer down.

 

Put away clean after use
If your tools are organized in drawers you will notice immediately if anything misplaced.

 

I have peg board in my ba*****t also and try my best to put tools back. One problem with the peg board is I have a bad habit of hanging all kinds of **** on it the really doesn't need to be there.

 

I got quite a few shiny, originally expensive wrenches hanging from nails where I can see em. But seems about always just getting the old favorites in the box.

 

The second shop I worked in after they let me loose from school there was a small shop across the street from this one. He just seemed to work on VWs, had to sons that some two of the sharpest car and truck in town. One day I got the gumption to go over and introduce myself. This older guy always wore white uniform had a short leg and a tall sole on one shoe. He was setting the time on a bug and he had a rag wrapped around his timing light. When he finished up I noticed his tool box was spotless and everything in its place and shinier than the new stuff on the tool truck. We became friends, his wife was a lovely gal and I got my first taste of red beer. He had a keg in the shop. Nice guy and family and great memories.

 

Okay, so it’s not just me! Reading a lot of these responses particularly about setting a tool down to get something else, and then trying to remember what I did with the tool I just set down, now that’s where I spend most of my time in the garage these days

 

I clean as needed….

 

I've got the tools I use regularly up on a tool board over the workbench. More spe******ed stuff is in toolboxes on shelves — the shelves and most of the toolboxes and tools inherited from my late dad. I've got recently identified object permanence issues, so if I can't see my tools at a glance I forget that I've got them, or at the very least if I've still got them and/or in which of these eleven toolboxes they might be, labels notwithstanding.

I've also had energy issues all my life, so if a tool doesn't get wiped off and hung back in its place, or put back in its toolbox and the box put back in its place on the shelf, it's just going to stay where I left it for the next eight months, jobs getting deferred because I don't have the energy to find the tools, while I slowly sink into capitulation to my own powerlessness in the world. Some days something as small as someone leaving the vacuum cleaner in front of my workbench can persuade me to postpone a job, so I do what I can to avoid such situations.

 

Every time I start something this happens at least once. It literally drives me crazy.

 

I did clean a couple of files I used the other day. Was about to throw them in the drawer when I noticed they looked rusty in spots. So out came the WD40 and a SS wire brush. I’m proud of that moment. Haha!

 

You need to seek out some counselling. You have a REAL problem!!

 

LOL!
Ain't that the truth.

Ben

 

When you find your tools with lawnmower, you ready for rehab.

My Dad was horrible with tool box etiquette. I bought him a new tool box for helping get a hot rod build ***led thru NSRA. I Delivered, and arranged all his tools. Wrench Drawer, Sockets, Screwdrivers, Pliers, ...special piston ring, engine building tools. 2 weeks later going to NSRA Nationals Louisville.. I could not find a 9/16 wrench in the new to box..

 

I like a clean tool box.....at least once a month and more in salt season

 

I’m missing 2-3 10 mm sockets. Why is it that only the 10 mm ones go missing? Lol! Found a pair of large locking channel pliers in the gr*** a couple of years ago. I had bought a new pair of course because I couldn’t find the lost pair. Haha! I only bought it to open the cap on those stupid NATO fuel containers. Of course, I lost the purpose specific wrench for it one day at a gas station…

 

I don’t know what “mm sockets” are. I’ve heard of “mm donuts” though.

 

I often wonder in which old car my favorite long 3/4" combination wrench is hiding.

 

Time is money and I have big bucks in my tools at work so every thing has its place and always clean,tool box gets a spray wax every Friday.

 

I wipe my tools off with a rag before they go back in my roll around drawers. If I'm in a hurry I leave them in a pile until I can wipe them down and put them away.

 

Organized tool box = efficiency doing repairs. Working at CAT dealership for a few years... time based repairs... on warranty, you have no time to look for tools.

Clean is a given every time tools are returned to drawer. Agree with posts, cleaning drawers.. 40yrs ... probably never.

 

On the strength of this post I just did some maintenance on my 33 coupe and put all my tools away after, including wiping clean when necessary. I also made sure I limited the job to what I'd set out to do after reading the "mission creep" post.
Mart.

 

It’s nice when you find dead insects in your drawers! Lol!



Not sure what this “tool” was for. I seem to think it was to used to remove wiper arms. lol! It’s safe though…