Tools, I have one. just saw it yesterday.

Geo-TH,In

Well-known Member
Do you know someone who wants you to help them repair
something. So when you get there and need something as simple a
10 mm wrench, he will say I have one, I saw it yesterday. So
you wait and wait and wait until he says, I can't find it.

I learned don't ask him if he has a tool, I save time and go
straight to my truck and get what I need.

Some people need to learn to get organized. This guy has his
tools scattered all over the place. Leaves them out in the
rain. He can never find what he need, spends more time looking
for his tools.

He also one of these guys that starts a job and never finishes
it. He also a good friend and neighbor. So when he needs help,
I'll help him.
 
That's why I have them bring it my shop. Don't know how many times I have had to run home for tools.
 


My current pet peeve is my drawer full of wrenches. I mean a LARGE drawer FULL of wrenches. Gotta be 100 or more in there, and that's not counting the real big ones or the tiny ones or the Gear Wrenches and metric wrenches. Saw a guy in Farm Show that had all his on a vertical board so he could find them in a heartbeat AND they were outlined and ID'd by size so he could know when one was missing. I have the board, I have the desire to fab it up. What I don't have is any decent place to hang the darn thing!!! :twisted:
 
Most of the time I'll tell them to bring them to my shop too. There are times when it's easier for me to make a house call. My Truck is a tool box on wheels I use to make repairs at rental properties.
 
I use nails to hang my hand tools, impact sockets and
screwdrivers in pole barn and workshop. I know exactly where to
look. Where to put them back when finished. Can tell when
something is missing.

I hate spending time looking for a tool.
 
Sounds just like like my neighbor. Bet he has at least 15 unfinished projects he has started but not finished. When I start a project I have to stay with it till it is out of the way, can't hardly stand it if I get stuck and have to order something. I may start something simple while waiting or check to be sure I have everything for the next project which is what I'm doing now.

Am in the middle of upgrading my Grizzly lathe, VFD variable speed motor and DRO, have everything except hoses ordered for the hydraulic top and tilt addition to my Ford 3600 then a DRO on my mini mill.. Lathe must be finished before I start on the tractor, would drive me crazy to have both in pieces at the same time.
 
I envy those who are totally organized. And those who always finish a project before needing to start another. I am not that person. Some projects must be spread out over time due to budget constraints. Others popup as emergencies and must be dealt with right now pushing others aside. But my organizational skills are improving. I am getting better. But I am also getting slower so projects just take longer. An I do have my tools in one location, a 30x30 shop, there here somewhere. lol gobble
 
When I got my truck I also got a new contractors cap. I had the dealer paint and install it. Had it a week or two and was working in a manlift and noticed something on top of my truck cap. When I got down I found it was an open end wrench stuck to the paint from them installing the ladder racks. No, they didn't get it back.
 
When I was young, people used to go on and on about how fast I could work. I couldn't understand why they made such a big deal - I wasn't even trying hard! ....[i:1742fb5c5f]Now[/i:1742fb5c5f] I understand!! :roll:
 
I was helping a fellow St. Cloud resident with a VW based three wheeler. The shifting was out of adjustment and would not allow 2nd or 4th gears to operate. I asked him if he had a vise because I needed to bend a 3mm thick plate to clear a shift socket. He said Sure! and produced a Vice that was not bolted to anything. I used it on the garage floor, but not as well as could be expected. He also could not find a 13 mm wrench (all the others were there!) Jim
 
That's why I dont work on anything that cant be brought to me and I do not work on things while the owners are present. Remember the signs that used to hang in most repair shops??
Labor rate =X
Labor rate if you watch is 2X
Labor rate if you help 3X

There was, and still is a reason for it.
 
I use my truck as a tool box too.

Trouble is, it's not organized.

Some things, like hand tools, wrenches, screw drivers are in a box, but everything else is piled in the back of the cab. Amazing how something big as a Sawzall can disappear in that mess!

But my problem is what isn't in the truck, can be at home or at work. Once I give up looking in the truck, then it's assumed it must be at home, or at work, and out of frustration I usually end up driving to wherever I'm not, more searching, then go buy one, only to find it was in the truck all the time!
 
Steve,
My daddy always said every tool has it's place. I get mad at myself if I don't put my tools back in their place. I could tell anyone where they can find a tool in my truck. I have 3 boxes on truck. I HATE spending time looking for a tool.
 
Oh my neighbor had that beat. He had 2 drawers full of loose sockets. SAE and metric all churned together. I have no idea how many sets went into that mash but I estimate there were over 200 sockets! I always suspected that once he reached the point that he couldn't find the one he wanted, he bought another complete set and dumped them in too.
 
Fella called a few years back telling me his truck had died and could I tow him the few 100 yards up hill to his house. "Sure" I said, you have a chain with you? Yup, got one in the truck. So I hop in the Land Rover and drive over. I always insist the towee hook up their vehicle so I avoid getting stink-eye if something happens. This joker hands me a dog leash. A DOG LEASH. I was hot but went back to my place to get the chain I should have brought. He got hooked up and I start towing. Rover starts to bog down. This guy decided he'd try to roll start it while I pulled but, he I was pulling him backwards and he had it in a forward gear. I confess that my temper took over and I dropped into 4WD and gunned it. Dragged him all the way home hopping every time he dropped the clutch.
 
(quoted from post at 09:35:08 07/27/17) I envy those who are totally organized. And those who always finish a project before needing to start another. I am not that person. Some projects must be spread out over time due to budget constraints. Others popup as emergencies and must be dealt with right now pushing others aside. But my organizational skills are improving. I am getting better. But I am also getting slower so projects just take longer. An I do have my tools in one location, a 30x30 shop, there here somewhere. lol gobble

Couldn't have said it better! As soon as the missus see's me in the shop....it's "do you have a second?" time. :D
 
(quoted from post at 10:35:08 07/27/17) I envy those who are totally organized. And those who always finish a project before needing to start another. I am not that person. Some projects must be spread out over time due to budget constraints. Others popup as emergencies and must be dealt with right now pushing others aside. But my organizational skills are improving. I am getting better. But I am also getting slower so projects just take longer. An I do have my tools in one location, a 30x30 shop, there here somewhere. lol gobble


Sounds about like me Tom. We go from one crisis to the next around here. Some stuff gets put on the back burner. I have a rifle stock I've been working on for about 30 years now! But boy, do I envy those who can start a project and follow through with just that project to the end. Must be nice!
 


What really helps is if you have a couple of 14-15 year old budding mechanics "helping" you out by taking care of items they see need fixing. Pretty sure that's why I have not a single 3/8" or 1/2" drive socket between 3/8" and 11/16".......they fit bicycles very nicely I've found!
 
[i:654c4848f0] get mad at myself if I don't put my tools back in their place. [b:654c4848f0] could tell anyone where they can find a tool in my truck.[/b:654c4848f0] I have 3 boxes on truck. I HATE spending time looking for a tool. [/i:654c4848f0]

Exactly. Sometimes folks "help" me fix their stuff. I use them mostly for gofers.

"Grab me a T20 Torx bit, it's in the top box, right hand side, second drawer down, back/left corner."

I can do that for every tool I own.
 
This helps me ,I tell my son what I do , count the tools you take out and make sure same amount goes back into truck.
 
My oldest Uncle called me a little over a year ago. Battery dead in his car. He's hard of hearing and never was in the habit of taking the key when he left the vehicle, so the little Toyota went 'ding-ding-ding' until the battery died. Dead as a hammer, no way I was going to be able to jump start that thing.

No problem. He has a battery charger. we'll just put it on and it will charge up in a few hours. A half hour or more later, we still haven't found the battery charger, but we have looked in every shed and in every pile of junk on the place. So I eventually go home and get my battery charger.

Back in March of this year he got put in the rest home. About a month later I bought his tractor. When we opened up the shed, there was the battery charger on the platform, still hooked to the battery. still plugged into the drop cord. (I didn't check the other end of the cord.)

Getting the tractor was another story. it was a Farmall Cub. I bought it with a set of cultivators, a rear scrape and some other equipment. I have been back twice, and I still haven't found all the cultivator parts. But the parts I have found were in three different sheds.
 
I finally got some of my sockets organized.
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All things in moderation. Being overly obsessed with neatness and order can be as bad as being too sloppy. Two colleagues and I ran an antique print shop for several years at an old-days event. One of these guys drove us nuts because he couldn't stand to see a tool out in the open, even ones we were using to do work on the miscellaneous equipment. We'd walk away for a few minutes and come back to find our tools missing; he kept putting them into a desk drawer. We almost had to get nasty to get him to leave the darned tools alone until we finished with them. (He's OCD in the neatness category in all aspects of his life, but he's still a good friend; if I could have some his neatness and he could have some of my sloppiness, we'd both be better off.)
 
Couldn't resist one more story. I have helped a friend of mine with a lot of mechanical work. He always had plenty of tools. All I had to do was ask him what he worked on last, walk to that spot in the yard, and find all the tools he used in that repair. If the tool we needed wasn't in that pile, I'd ask him what he worked on before that, or even before that. Usually had 2 or 3 things apart, while he was shopping ebay or the salvage yard for parts. Hard find tools in the winter, because the snow would cover them up. Winter and spring were auction season though, and at almost every auction he went to, he bought boxes of hand tools to replenish his inventory. Always an interesting visit....
 

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