(800) 853-2651
SHOP NOW

Lost tools

J

JML755

Well-known Member
Last Friday, used my set of Xcelite nut drivers (purchased in mid '70s) to tighten a clamp on a hose at the barn where I do some work. Threw my tool pouch and a few other tools I used that day onto the front seat of my p/u, went home and unloaded them onto the garage floor. Sunday, needed to fix a sprinkler line and went to get the nut drivers in the garage. Not there. Looked all over, in the truck, in the basement, retraced my steps at the barn. Nothing. Drove me crazy but I just used my 1/4" socket set to do the sprinkler job. I've probably wasted 3 hrs over the past few days looking for them periodically.

It just bugs the heck out of me. It's around $50 to replace them (not insignificant) and I do have another newer set, but these were like an old friend.

Same thing happened a while ago when I couldn't find the original 1/2" socket from my Crafstman socket set that I bought back in '72. Looked all over and finally found it stuck between the seats of my p/u. I remember feeling a great sigh of relief. Now, I've got other 1/2" sockets, but that was from the first set of tools I ever bought.

What made this even more relevant is that I've been thinking about the estate auction I went to on Saturday where there were tons of things and you could almost see the guy's life as you walked through the yard and barn. Fishing gear, horse tack, guns, farm equipment, tools, etc. Was there for 3 hours and they were only about halfway through it. Wonder what the guy would be thinking watching people pick over his stuff.

Anyway, am I nuts? (wife thinks so) but I gotta imagine there are others out there who have a sentimental attachment to some of their tools.

ps. on the bright side, I HAVE made a dent in cleaning up my workshop and garage while searching for the nut driver set. :lol:
 
Agreed. I hava a miscellaneous collection of tools, from many sources. Some even have names,like, "Uncle Paul"s green screwdriver." Others specifically acquired for a specific job. Some just fit my hands better, etc.
Nope, I hate to loose or misplace tools. Costs a bunch to replace, and some are irreplacable.
 
I try to keep a neat organized shop with the emphasis on the word "try" but a tool or two will still slip away. There is no emotional attachment. A lost tool means lost money and wasted time from not having the proper tool for the job and lost time during the search. The shop tools don't leave the shop. For any fixit job outside the shop I use a box full of old junk tools that aren't worth anything. Heck of it is, the old worthless tools never end up getting lost. Jim
 
Maybe they are beside the Channel Locks I lost the other day. I know I set them on the rather cluttered bench. I could not find them for anything and I searched. This morning I set a vacuum cleaner I have to repair on the bench and had to move the Channel Locks. Sometimes you cannot win for losing.
 
As I"m getting older I find it"s getting even worse .I"ve lost some nice items . Maybe my girls will find them when they clean out my estate .I won"t need them anymore anyhow .God bless
 
I have a serious attachment to my tools. About half are my Dads and Grandfathers (both gone now) and about half I have purchased. I could not replace them, and I would not want to. I lost a 9/16 mac extended reach combo wrench under a truck in the back yard a couple of years ago. The wrench was my dad's, and I still look for it.
 
(quoted from post at 09:26:47 09/29/10) If you see my 9 mm combination wrench or the phillips screwdriver with a blued hex shaft there, send them my way.
Click to expand...
:lol: :lol: Ken, funny you mention that. I DID find a 9mm combo wrench under the seat of the p/u while looking for the nut drivers. Don't use it much, so I probably would have gone awhile before I started to miss it. In fact, I can't remember what I used it on for it to be in the truck in the first place. Also found a spring loaded center punch that I haven't seen in months.
 
My 1/2 and 3/8 drive 12 point sockets are more or less the same "sets" that have been around since my boyhood less the broken and lost items. Dad bought them a piece at a time as needed. Not a china or other cheapo in the bunch but about every old line tool brand is included, Proto, Plumb, Snap-on, Craftsman, S-K.

Ya, you aint the only one, if your nuts there is two of us at least.
 
When my hand tools leave the shop, I like to take a couple of empty buckets with me. I try to throw tools in the bucket the moment I'm done with them. Floorboards and truck seats, and even dashboards are tool losers. Not wanting to sound like a neat freak, 'cause I have to clear a hole for the defroster to work.

I've lost and found enough tools to be an expert on lost tools. . .

Paul
 
Thought I was the only one loosing tools. NOW I feel much better. THANKS so much for all the comments gg.PS. Had to copy this and give it to my wife , who looses nothing in her kitchen ???
 
I do that all the time. Saves time and worry about where the tool went.Heck I probably have ten 5/8 spark plug sockets.
 
Yeah, getting more sentimental all the time. Have most of my dads blacksmith tools, anvil, one leg vice and a set of craftsman tap and dies bough in the 1920s for him by my grandad. Get teary eyed every time I use them.
Joe
 
Lost my battery charger for six months or longer. I looked high and low every few days. I have one here at the factory so I would take it home. Last month I found it. I had set it on top of my old Lincoln welder then put an empty box on top of it. It is in plain site and I should have been able to spot it under the box. I wasn't looking for the battery charger at the time. I was looking for something else that I had lost and was going thru looking in boxes and picked up the empty box not even remembering it was empty. Right now I couldn't even tell you what I was looking for when I picked up the empty box.
 
I am 64 and at a time I want to slow down, organize my things and live a more simple life. We have one son and I don"t want to leave a mess for him. I get so frustrated trying to go through things. It is not worth the effort to take things to sales any longer and yard sales are a nuisance. I found 5 circular saw, 7 framing squares, 18 adj. wrenches from 4 to 24 inches, 16 pipe wrenches, 3-4 inch grinders, boxes of plumbing and electrical supplies and all good brands. 20 plus tractors, and a whole lot of everything else. I am finding tools lost forever and replaced yrs later. I always accused the GREMLINS that are ever present for hiding my tools when they are not tying my extension cords, ropes and chains in knots. I felt better about things after reading these comments and knowing I am not alone when it comes to tools.
 
Some years ago Snap on man comes into dealership sporting a new set of screwdrivers. They are on sale today, yaa right. He says you will never have to buy another screwdriver as these are guaranteed for life. I asked, you replace them when I lose them, no he says, well, then that doesn't help me, no sale.
 
I"m the same way about my original Craftman set I got 30 years ago. I"ll look all over the place if I misplace or lose something from that set.
 
It can be a pain at times trying to locate a tool.
Damn handtools should have a beeper on them like on a cordless phone.
 
I'm 62 now, and my dad bought me a 1/2" drive S-K socket set for Christmas when I was 16. Just lost the first socket a few years ago- really pained me. I check out the boxes of loose sockets at swap meets and garage sales- have found one that's very nearly the same, but will keep looking until I find an exact match.

Yeah, I'm a silly old fool, but some things, you just cling to.
 
Thieves stole a heavy box of tools out of our garage about 20 years ago. Still miss the set of 1/2" S-K sockets that I bought when I was a sophomore in high school with the first money that I made from my FFA project.
 
I know about buying tools when you cannot find what you know you had. Recently I bought a set of Torx sockets to do a brake job. I know I had a set in the box but could not find them no matter how many times I looked. I bought another set, did the job, and tossed the new set on the box. You can easily guess what they bounced off in the box, the missing set.

At one time I could blame my sons as the oldest is a good mechanic but a terrible tool dribbler. You could follow him around by a tool trail but he has been out of my shop for almost 20 years now with his own tools. I notice that he dribbles tools a lot less now that he is buying them.
 
My "primary" tool box goes everywhere I go if any
further than just to a field. It is an older
Craftsman set, with 1/4, 3/8, and 1/2 sockets.
Where the combination wrenches are supposed to be
I have other odds and ends, like extensions and
torx bits.

The other "on the road" set I take is one each of
combo wrenches from 1/4 thru 1,1/4 and metric from
8 thru 14. That is enuf to fit all but the rare
problem.

I would be lost without the "primary" set, even
though I have duplicates of everything in it in
the rollabout boxes. So much handier just to have
it all right there instead of getting up and going
to the big box. DOUG
 
I am always glad lost tools don't have teeth. They always end up being so close to hand that they could take a good chomp out of my keester if they had teeth!
Just takes me weeks or months to notice them there...
 
Some do , ever set down on an air impact wrench and your weight pushes the trigger WHEOOOW !!!! That will get your eyes open. ;-)
 
I was walking from the shop to the house. Across a mowed yard. I had my "OLD Timer" pocket knife in my hand cleaning my finger nails. I dropped the knife and it hit my boot as I stepped forward. I stopped right there. I looked before I moved another step. I could not see it. I got down on my hands and knees crawled around, still could not find it. I left my hat there and went into the house and got my metal detector. Looked for two hours more. ( It had became quite the challenge) Finally gave up. Two days later was mowing the yard. Found my knife stuck into a tree ten feet from where I dropped it. I walked right by it twenty times, never saw it. I was determined that it was in the grass.
 
I have found the easiest way to find something is to stop looking for it. I found an old pocket knife under my bed that I guess I kicked there by accident a year ealier.
 
Your not Crazy I very Raely Loose a tool for some reason I have always been a Bloodhound on a lost tool and find it before the car leaves my shop.
I have tools that i brought when I was an apprentice 30 plus years ago I have a strong attachment to my 460 channel locks that I brought when I was a second year apprentice I use them as Channel locks not a hammer
I keep beater screw drivers for lock rings on conduit
and I engrave all of my tools so there is no argue when someone has one of them.
When ever I start with a new crew member on a job I make it very clear that we do NOT keep any tools that we find untill we exhaust every possiable way to find the guy who lost it.
It has always paid off because when they find out we return theirs they return ours.
I hate a tool theif about 5 years ago one of my second year apprentices had his brand new Cordless drill set stolen from where he set it down for a minute when he retured it was gone???
I was going to my Van and saw it in the back seat of a car half coverd with a t-shirt the car was locked but I could see his name on it I called him out side he said it was not his car which I all ready knew he had a Company truck so I went to my van got my 3 pound no bounce smashed the window and took it back that was the last tool we almost lost on that job, even took time to write "Tool Theif" on his new replacement plastic window every time he changed it. LOL
 
Engraving tools is a good idea. I did some welding at a golf course several years ago and the mechanic kept tools for himself that were left in the TOOL box's on the machines. They belonged to the golf course. I think he figured if no one notices, it's not a big deal. He also took gas from the big gas tank when no one was around the shop. If I would have been the boss, he would be fired on the spot for stealing a screw driver. My sister dismissed her very first and only(at the time) employee(who'd been there for a couple years) for lying about taking $5 out of the till for lunch. My sister probably would have bought her lunch but when she outright lied, with no explanation, about taking the money, my sister couldn't trust her anymore. Too bad for her, my sisters salon is a going concern now grossing well over a million a year. Dave
 
Uncle Paul"s screwdriver was in the tool box of his tractor when my son brought it home for restoration. Uncle Paul is no longer with us. Hope he knows how much we treasure the memories.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

MarkB_MI
No individual tools at HF
2
Replies
26
Views
2K
710ltd2002
710ltd2002
Ultradog MN
Drywall taping tools
Replies
7
Views
896
Ultradog MN
Ultradog MN
D
Get a load of this deal !
2
Replies
25
Views
676
Jegs
Jegs
Keith Williams
  • Locked
Electrical Question - Everybody loves them!
2
Replies
38
Views
3K
Keith Williams
Keith Williams
C
Blackhawk tools
Replies
9
Views
986
M-MAN
M-MAN
Tractor Parts Tractor Manuals

We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today.

Copyright © 1997-2024 Yesterday's Tractor Co.

All Rights Reserved. Reproduction of any part of this website, including design and content, without written permission is strictly prohibited. Trade Marks and Trade Names contained and used in this Website are those of others, and are used in this Website in a descriptive sense to refer to the products of others. Use of this Web site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy TRADEMARK DISCLAIMER: Tradenames and Trademarks referred to within Yesterday's Tractor Co. products and within the Yesterday's Tractor Co. websites are the property of their respective trademark holders. None of these trademark holders are affiliated with Yesterday's Tractor Co., our products, or our website nor are we sponsored by them. John Deere and its logos are the registered trademarks of the John Deere Corporation. Agco, Agco Allis, White, Massey Ferguson and their logos are the registered trademarks of AGCO Corporation. Case, Case-IH, Farmall, International Harvester, New Holland and their logos are registered trademarks of CNH Global N.V.

Yesterday's Tractors - Antique Tractor Headquarters
Website Accessibility Policy

Back
Top