Projects WHERE ARE MY TOOLS?

Ever go to your tool box and can't find that darn 9/16" wrench although have have at least 5 of them or that 1/2 inch socket, which again you have multiples?

Possibly you are far better at keeping your tools in order, picked up and cleaned up but for me If all else fails look inside the car.

A small sampling. HRP

 

It's in the other tool chest at the other house.

 

I finally found the 9/16" wrench a few months later, sitting right where I left it when I took the battery out of Almost Funny, to put in the bread truck.

And it took me a few months to find the 1/4 drive ratchet, where I left it after changing the heater core in the Lincoln.

 

A problem that used to plague me was the screwdriver drawer. when I needed a slot head the only drivers were phillips. If I needed a phillips the drawer only had slots. I thought about going back to being a drunk.
Now I've got two driver drawers.

 

Off topic tool. But there's a block plane sitting a top a tray compartment (void created between counter top and upper tray divider) of a kitchen I built and installed back in the mid 80's. Cheaper to leave it once I realized where I left it.

 

I think they should make that drawer with it's own lock and key since screw drivers are like disappearing socks in the dryer.

 

i found an axle spacer i made five months ago last week.
i remember looking for 45 minutes for it then just ended up making another one in 15 minutes.

 

"Way Back Story"
About those missing tools;;
Yup,
Well ,over time I decided my garage is infested with a lot of Joker mini invisible Gremlins ! Some times known by names not to be used around kids.
They hide things ,just to see me hunt in a lot of wrong places!! Must be like there fav. show!!!

So I found out,I do have a defence that works some times;
I have too keep my garage full of high piles of packrat old car parts.
As these little SOBs run around trying to keep from being stepped on by my big feet ,an hide in a nearby pile of old car parts,some times right near my foot is a landslide of parts. Must be set off by the little Devils bumping something!.
How I discovered this , I tried too clean up one of the parts landslides ,an at the bottom ,my secret trap had worked, an got one ,killed him stone dead< that's the only time they can be seen!!! . I have a photo to prove all this !! Making this a true hotrod story!!!!

 

I used to have that problem. I now have it handled. It only took six roll around tool chests and five file cabinets

 

Could not find a screw driver at work yesterday for most of the day,found it on a shelve and do not remember placing it there.

 

Seems like much of the time I spend working on something gets wasted on finding the tool or part I had in my hands a few minutes ago.
Also:
Every now and then, I have to dedicate some time towards putting everything back where it belongs. I try to do this before quitting but that doesn’t always work out.

 

tape measures...I'm always losing my tapes. You would think with having such a small works space I'd be able to keep better track of stuff like that, but no it just gets put into a big heap until I'm sick of losing my shit then I have to spend all weekend cleaning.

 

I’m the worst. A few months back I bought another set of SAE and Metric impact sockets. Also bought a set of SAE /metric 3/8th drive deep and shallow. Determined not to lose another I would take the whole set with me when I needed one or two.
Now I can’t find the set of SAE impacts nor the red plastic case that holds the 3/8ths sockets.
I’m doomed.

 

I have my tool chest and tools figured out. It is my beer I seem to lose all the time. Luckily I have a neighbor from Portugal who keeps saying- Here is your beer Davie! so I got that handled as well.

 

I have 3 roll around tool chest, but for them to be beneficial one must pick up the tools and put them where they belong.... and then try to remember which box they are in! HRP

 

One Saturday, years ago, I was working on one on my rides in the office parking lot. I came to a point that I needed to get an internal snap-ring out. Searched all the tool boxes I had at the office several times but could not find my snap-ring pliers. I did not have the skill to get the pesky snap-ring out with a pair of blade screwdrivers like my Dad could. I cleaned up, put a blanket on the seat of my employer's Mercedes and drove to the parts store and bought a pair of snap-ring pliers. When I got back to the office and walked in the back door. I saw my snap-ring pliers in the tray of one of my toolboxes from twenty feet away, a toolbox I had previously searched three times!

 

Ah yes, the multiplying tool boxes... LOL. I have five of various sizes from 58" x 58" x 22" down to a small Kennedy chest, could really use another larger one but don't know where I'd put it. A couple of file cabinets, and additional storage under all my roll-around stuff as well as my workbench. And doubles or more on all the 'common' hand tools like ratchets, extensions, wrenches and screwdrivers so I have a shot at finding at least one of 'em...

And I recently added another 50 lineal feet of shelving to the roughly 100' I already had and still don't have enough.

 

I find that I gotta put them back as soon as I am done with them. Otherwise I’m screwed. Snowman ⛄️

 

I have beat this problem by having all my tools on a shadowboard above the bench. This way I can't forget which tool I have to buy again until the original one turns up again- usually within 15 minutes of returning from buying a new replacement. This ensures I have at least 5 of every tool . I have tried welding all my tools to a length of angle iron, then bolting it to the side of the shed, but this was not very practical, as I would then be losing my angle grinder all the time . One real useful idea which I use is my "Who's got my bloody tools" book - I write down the name of who I loaned it to, and a date, and cross it off when it comes back. By the way " Herman," where is my Chrysler hub Puller???

 

One of my pet hates............ Years ago, some bright spark decided that they would manufacture their product in bright yellow so it would be easy to see in the tool box. It didn't take long before that became an annoying problem. These days, when you crack the lid open on your toolbox, all there is is a sea of bright yellow tools. It's even harder to spot what you are looking for than it was before......

 

Had to change the turn signal bulb in an OT 1982 Pontiac J2000, which required the use of a 7mm socket and extension because the lense was down low and recessed in the front fascia. Changed the bulb, put it back together again, and lost the socket when I put my tools away. After hunting everywhere, I gave up and bought a new socket. Two years later, I had to change the same bulb. First screw came out fine, but I couldn't get a socket on the other screw. Got on my hands and knees for a closer look, and there was my missing socket, still stuck on the head of the screw. How it stayed on there through Maine's crappy driving conditions I'll never know!

 

And how many of us have found tools and sockets in doors, under seats, under carpets, in the trunk
under the spare of cars that we have bought? Probably all of us...

 

Bad enough to look for a tool while it's resting comfortably in your back pocket.
How about looking everywhere for a tool while you're carrying it around in your hand?
Yeah.

 

It would be much easier to find my tools if I knew where my f##king glasses are........

 

It’s a disease, I tell ya.
I spend more time looking for, you name it, than I would if I only put it back where it belonged in the first place. I’m an idiot.

 

Changing a tire at a motorcycle shop, broke it down, and one of these was inside...

 

What I want to know is why does my screwdriver drawer smell like ass?

 

Back when I worked on the line, I was anal about my tools. Every tool had it’s place and it went back in it’s place as soon as I was done with it! Before the vehicle left my stall I opened the drawers checking to make sure every tool was there, just had to look for a hole where the tool is supposed to be. If I left a Snap-On wrench in the vehicle , it was gone and there went my earnings!

When I went to work in my own shop with my own fleet, I got more careless.

33 years later in my shop with my vehicles……..can’t find nothing!
My tools are scattered amongst my shop, the ranches shop, the motorhome, my house, my car, my friends, my Son, etc!
I can’t find anything anymore, so I just frequent the Beer fridge in the house garage…..where more tools are scattered!






Bones

 

I sincerely hope you are not finding the size of the handles just a little too convenient..........