Am I the only non-pro who...

[posaune]

thinks it is just crazy that techs need to lock their boxes to go to lunch or even to just walk across the shop?

I can see those of us who have their tools at home keeping the garage doors closed most of the time (I do), but that is to prevent all kinds of strangers from seeing in. Pros at work are theoretically surrounded by other pros. I would have thought that everyone would sort of stick together and have respect for everyone else's tools. After all, those are the guys who should know best that you can't get your job done if your tools are stolen!

I suppose it is a bit of a naive view, but in my profession everyone is using a "tool" worth at least $5000 and most also keep laptops around too. As long as there is someone (anyone!) around who is working with me, I don't think twice about leaving all of my things in a room and going to lunch.

 

[arkangel06]

Nope its not crazy at all....

 

[Diesel-Mech]

I'm not nearly as worried about my coworkers as I am about some random person taking something so that's why I lock up when I'm away from my box.

 

[RbrtAWhyt]

I can understand it. Locked up tools keep honest people honest...

 

[Scooterfish]

I`m not a pro. If I were I would treat my tool box the same as if it were full of $100 bills. Pretty much that what you have.

 

[LoneGunman]

Yup, that's the way the military looks at it, well at least the Navy does. I got my azz chewed for encouraging theft because I left my locker open. I wonder how many lock their tools not so much because of theft but do tools being damaged due to borrowing without permission. I work out of a service van, there are 8 of us, on large jobs we all might be there or two or three of us, we are always in each others trucks. When it comes to clean up time two guys might be trying to finish and one or two guys might be cleaning up, if we pick up tools that are not ours we put them right inside the side van door, when the owner gets back to his truck he can put them where he wants them.

 

[66HertzClone]

I keep my cabinets at home locked, my wife the only tool she ever uses (4 way screwdriver) in a drawer in the kitchen. She has people coming and going from the house all the time, so why take a chance?

 

[Bruce Lancaster]

I'm an academic and used to a kinder and gentler workplace where neither the professionals nor the cleaning staff show any inclination to steal expensive electronics or books lying around...
But I do believe the tools are somehow different...shiny, clicky, complicated thingies appeal to people on a much more primitive level than books or computers or even $100 bills. A magpie effect on our characters...our whole evolution is tied to tools and weapons.
Also, in a real garage, people's livelihoods and earnings require instant access to more damn specialized widgets than anyone can keep track of or afford...so temptation driven by the economic stress that most people cannot escape. Let someone else pay for the %#$# special bit that is absolutely necessary for Hyundai ashtray brackets and nothing else...
On the defense team, real mechanics are perpetually dealing with the endless need to pour money into the Snap-on truck to maintain a modern and functional collection, and are in deep do-do when they lack the newest widget and have to waste time struggling with the latest trick drive size on a job. Losing stuff becomes deeply unacceptable, costing time and income, and just as bad as being the party with the second-best set of weapons in a war.

 

[Moose-LandTran]

I would have thought that everyone would sort of stick together and have respect for everyone else's tools.

You'd think so, unfortunately it isn't like that.

 

[posaune]

But I do believe the tools are somehow different...shiny, clicky, complicated thingies appeal to people on a much more primitive level than books or computers or even $100 bills. A magpie effect on our characters...our whole evolution is tied to tools and weapons.

Interesting. I suppose I hadn't thought of tools as being any different than anything else. Still though, I don't think a whole lot of evolution is required to figure out that you shouldn't take other peoples' belongings, no matter what they are.

Also, in a real garage, people's livelihoods and earnings require instant access to more damn specialized widgets than anyone can keep track of or afford...so temptation driven by the economic stress that most people cannot escape. Let someone else pay for the %#$# special bit that is absolutely necessary for Hyundai ashtray brackets and nothing else...
On the defense team, real mechanics are perpetually dealing with the endless need to pour money into the Snap-on truck to maintain a modern and functional collection, and are in deep do-do when they lack the newest widget and have to waste time struggling with the latest trick drive size on a job. Losing stuff becomes deeply unacceptable, costing time and income, and just as bad as being the party with the second-best set of weapons in a war.

I guess I'm the type of person who would gladly lend that specialized tool if I had it to a co-worker who didn't as long as I didn't need it at the same time. Maybe (obviously) I just have a very wrong idea of how things *actually* work at mechanic jobs.

 

[posaune]

I keep my cabinets at home locked, my wife the only tool she ever uses (4 way screwdriver) in a drawer in the kitchen. She has people coming and going from the house all the time, so why take a chance?

Heh- I don't keep mine locked at home (or even closed). If the dog wants to use something, she is welcome to it. My wife would NEVER bother trying to fix something, much less doing it with my tools.

 

[Nik_95Cobra]

The minute you give people enough credit not to take/borrow/lose one of your tools is the same minute before one comes up missing. It happens a lot easier when the public or even other corner lot dealers for example are within eysight of your tools many, many times a day. It's a lot easier to lock something than having to buy say a $500 electric impact a second time. Even being as careful as one can be it can still happen the minute you look the other direction. We've had an entire dealer scanner stolen before which was a mighty expensive loss, how that happened during work hours I have no idea but people are crafty and these are different times we live in.

 

[posaune]

The minute you give people enough credit not to take/borrow/lose one of your tools is the same minute before one comes up missing. It happens a lot easier when the public or even other corner lot dealers for example are within eysight of your tools many, many times a day. It's a lot easier to lock something than having to buy say a $500 electric impact a second time. Even being as careful as one can be it can still happen the minute you look the other direction. We've had an entire dealer scanner stolen before which was a mighty expensive loss, how that happened during work hours I have no idea but people are crafty and these are different times we live in.

Please don't get me wrong- I am not saying that things don't get stolen or that you are crazy FOR locking stuff. I am saying that it is crazy that you NEED to do it. I just think co-workers in a specialized profession requiring specialized tools should have more respect for everyone else's livelihood.

 

[HoosierBuddy]

I used to work for a large automotive manufacturer (rhymes with Heneral Votors) in a factory of theirs. Everyone there was making good money, but I found out fast that you'd have been safer leaving a $100 bill on the sidewalk then leaving a pair of Channel Locks in an unlocked box.

I caught a guy stealing a pair right out of my locker one day. I was like "Bill...what are you doing with my channel locks in your back pocket?" He just smiled and handed them back to me.

There wasn't a damn thing I could do about it. The shop steward would have taken his side if I made a big deal out of it and I would have been the a-hole as far as everyone was concerned. So...I started locking my locker at all times. Intolerable, uncivilized, but the only way to not get ripped off all the time.

People in that environment considered anything that wasn't locked down fair game. They fired two guys one time for stealing semi-loads of aluminum sows and selling them. Semi Loads! They'd been doing it for years by the time they figured it out.

Phil

 

[autobody]

If I am gone for a day my box gets raided and tools are left all over the shop, which makes me have to go around and find them all. Even if they aren't lost or stolen, it ***** for me to waste my time looking for them because the other guys dont buy the right tools.

 

[Nik_95Cobra]

I am not saying that things don't get stolen or that you are crazy FOR locking stuff. I am saying that it is crazy that you NEED to do it.

Oh gotcha, I absolutely agree. It's such a same, I wish it were different .

 

[Brookesy]

Not worked as a pro for years but back then you I still had to lock up my box. You would go on your break & end up coming back to find the trainee had been in there using your tools or your boss just beacuse your box might be nearer to a car than theirs so yours would handy for them instead of walking across the workshop. Had a Teng tools socket set go missing when I left it unlocked 1 afternoon needless to say my box never got left unlocked again.

Mate of mine has got a toolbox alarm inside his to stop tools going missing.

 

[Bruce Lancaster]

I was just reading a memoir of a woman teacher who spent her summer vacation in 1943 as an assembly worker in the Consolidated B-24 plant in San Diego...
She describes working on something high in the fuselage of a B-24 and dropping her socket into a little swarm of workers in a gun turret way below. A hand flicked out and grabbed the socket, no one looked up, and no one slowed down the pace of work...just socket instantly gone. Lots of people like tools much more than they really should and always have.
Leave out a $100 wrench, a $100 book, a $100 bill, etc. and record the action. People differ, but the objects will not disappear in the same order all the time and the tool will likely be an early disappearance with many otherwise respectable citizens out there.

 

[GDA]

You need to realize all the traffic that takes (could) place at a shop. There could be customers/suppliers/delivery guys and who knows who all else could be walking around in the shop at any point in time.

If you had that kind of traffic at your house I'm sure your wallet, checkbook and jewelry items would be well kept and not sitting out for everyone to grab on the kitchen counter.

Just my .02 as a customer

 

[gilbo]

thinks it is just crazy that techs need to lock their boxes to go to lunch or even to just walk across the shop?

I can see those of us who have their tools at home keeping the garage doors closed most of the time (I do), but that is to prevent all kinds of strangers from seeing in. Pros at work are theoretically surrounded by other pros. I would have thought that everyone would sort of stick together and have respect for everyone else's tools. After all, those are the guys who should know best that you can't get your job done if your tools are stolen!

I suppose it is a bit of a naive view, but in my profession everyone is using a "tool" worth at least $5000 and most also keep laptops around too. As long as there is someone (anyone!) around who is working with me, I don't think twice about leaving all of my things in a room and going to lunch.

"i trust every person around, but i don't trust the devil in a person"

so lock it up !!!!

 

[Scout Driver]

Leave out a $100 wrench, a $100 book, a $100 bill, etc. and record the action. People differ, but the objects will not disappear in the same order all the time and the tool will likely be an early disappearance with many otherwise respectable citizens out there.

If I find a ten dollar bill in a parking lot, I pick it up and I'm happy. If I found a tool in the same spot, I'm real happy and excited and I show everybody at home. I'm what I condsider a respectable citizen, but I also can really see the point that Mr. Lancaster is making....everybody has something different that motivates them to do what they do.

Scott

 

[Old Donn]

I can understand it. Locked up tools keep honest people honest...

Precisely.

 

[petty4243]

I guess I am lucky... I work at a small town ford dealership with 3 techs... been there 2 years now and my box has not been locked yet and neither have the other techs.... (kind of an exception to the rule)... same token, we have 7 other locations in different towns with similiar staffing and they almost all lock up.... at other stores the tech are more competitive each wanting to out do the other and their tools are like there trademark to getting their jobs done as quick as possible so they can get on the next one....

 

[srmofo]

I also work at a smaller shop. The only time I lock my boxes is at night when I leave. And the only reason I do that is because we have 6 large glass doors that worry me. The other 2 techs dont lock theirs. It kinda goes back to the saying" you dont have to be faster than the bear, just faster than other people around you. aka if someone breaks in hopefully they take the other techs tools first because theyre easier to get to <that sounds wrong when typing it, but it is what it is.

 

[Lookin4'67Galaxieconv]

With the amount of money techs spend on tools, I can perfectly understand it. Though if you have to lock your box to go to the other side of the shop, there's something wrong with that shop, IMO.

 

[supertooljunkie]

I am not a pro, but at home I always lock my boxes. I also travel quite a bit and I lock them before I leave and take the keys with me. I have one friend I trust with my tools and I leave him a set of keys. He always calls me if he has to borrow anything. My wife has her own tool box and her own tools. If she needs something out of my box when I'm gone she has to call my buddy.
I have to much invested to have tools walk off.

 

[adam728]

I've worked at a few shops in the past, everyone that had their own tool boxes locked em. One shop provide tools, but that was a cluster, nothing was ever put back. We probably had 5-6 of every size socket and wrench, because at any given time there might be a half inch socket in 4 different boxes next to whatever project different mechanics were working on.

I now work at different factories all over the place, and am told the same thing everywhere : Don't leave it out if you want it to be there when you get back.

 

[LGMechanical]

I remember when I was just getting into engine jobs. I was doing an oil cooler on a Cummins ISX and another young tech was pissed because he wanted that job. I broke 3 exhaust manifold bolts and had to drilll them out. It was the bolts on the last 2 exhaust ports so they were really hard to access and a right angle drill was needed. I asked that same tech to borrow his drill and he said no. The boss had one but it was ****.

Good thing it was Monday which means Snap-On day. I bought the blue-point right angle drill and told that tech to go f*ck himself. I never helped him with anything from that day on.

And as for locking my box, I eat lunch downstairs in the shop, right next to my 2 boxes. I dare someone to try and steal something.

 

[lawfarm]

I remember when I was just getting into engine jobs. I was doing an oil cooler on a Cummins ISX and another young tech was pissed because he wanted that job. I broke 3 exhaust manifold bolts and had to drilll them out. It was the bolts on the last 2 exhaust ports so they were really hard to access and a right angle drill was needed. I asked that same tech to borrow his drill and he said no. The boss had one but it was ****.

Good thing it was Monday which means Snap-On day. I bought the blue-point right angle drill and told that tech to go f*ck himself. I never helped him with anything from that day on.

And as for locking my box, I eat lunch downstairs in the shop, right next to my 2 boxes. I dare someone to try and steal something.

Yes, but there's a big difference between someone asking to borrow a tool, and someone stealing. Occasional borrowing of an incredibly rarely used tool makes sense, provided that you use it appropriately, don't beat on it, and return it clean and serviceable. Back in the day when I worked at a Sears Auto, I had to borrow an impact driver (the kind you smack with a hammer) to get some screws holding a center hub on out of an aluminum wheel. It happened once, and I borrowed the tool. The second time it happened, I borrowed the tool again to get through that job, and never returned the tool. I went in the store and bought the guy I borrowed it from a new one, and I kept his old one. He was a good guy--the kind that I would lend my stuff to when he needed it. I think some people just have a sense about when it is and is not appropriate to borrow / lend tools.

At that same shop, there were guys that would constantly steel stuff. There was a set of 'shop tools' with a big X engraved in them. Those tools turned up missing, and one of the guys in the shop turned up with a set of somewhat worn Craftsman hand tools, all with a big grinder mark where the X had been. And he was surprised that anyone figured it out!

And there were also guys that would borrow tools and ***** about not being able to afford to buy their own...and you'd see them going to Hooters and blowing their wad on beer and wings after work.

Anyhow, back to the original story, in that environment, I kept my tools locked up. My favorite place to work, however, is at the farm, where the tools are all communal. Separate boxes, but you grab whatever is closest, and use it as if it is yours. That includes maintaining it, replacing when worn/broken, etc.

 

[diogenes]

Am I the only non-pro who... thinks it is just crazy that techs need to lock their boxes to go to lunch or even to just walk across the shop?

Your exposure to the fine folks here has warped your perspective on the "professionals" in the shop. There are a lot of guys who have some mechanical aptitude but no intelligence out there. You don't see them here.

A lot of guys work for a short period in the mechanic biz and then move on because they are incapable of being good employees, let alone good coworkers. These are the cats who get behind in their payments to the tool truck guy because the case of beer, bag of weed or new toy is a higher priority than their obligations. If you work in a big shop, there is sure to be one around (for a while).

As other's have said, any high traffic area is likely to be visited by a scumbag at some time who will avail themselves of any unsecured property... And that doesn't even mention the jerks who borrow and don't return tools. They don't MEAN to lose your stuff, but they do it just the same.

 

[Garage_Mahal]

Didn't someone sell a proximity locking system for toolboxes? You kept a transmitter on you so that the toolbox only unlocked when you were within X distance of it.

 

[TheCarbideRat]

I've had things stolen at work [garage] and sometimes my equipment was used without my knowledge. I'm done with all that, too much invested to let anyone even be able to touch my stuff without me knowing.

I pity the fool I find with any of my tools.

 

[Keep]

I suppose it is a bit of a naive view, but in my profession everyone is using a "tool" worth at least $5000 and most also keep laptops around too.

Well look at it this way, how long is it before your tool locks itself up? My computer locks after 2 minutes. Its still there but not usable to anyone else. Laptops have serial numbers and can be tracked, most tools do not have any markings so its a bit harder to trace.

I would never leave my desk without locking it up, all it takes is one ****** to send out an email using your account when you are not looking to ruin your day.

Just a different perspective.

I never lock my tools up at home, but I know that no one in the house would go out to use them as she does not like getting her hands dirty

It does **** that some folks work in environments where you cannot trust your gear will be there when you return :|

 

[poprockcrusher]

only saw one guy do that
you guys must work with total dirtbags

 

[Theo]

My box is locked unless I'm standing in front of it. That way if something goes missing I only have myself as a suspect.

 

[Joe B.]

I have worked in the offices of two Fortune 50 companies. Both had problems with laptop theft. It only takes one bad person to to cause a lot of problems. The larger places are, the eaier it is to get away with things like that.

There is not larger office building on earth in which it is safe to leave a laptop sitting on your deak overnight. Even if is has a locking cable.

 

[Lookin4'67Galaxieconv]

Only the guilty will be upset when they see someone locking their box. The honest ones understand.

 

[posaune]

Your exposure to the fine folks here has warped your perspective on the "professionals" in the shop. There are a lot of guys who have some mechanical aptitude but no intelligence out there. You don't see them here.

A lot of guys work for a short period in the mechanic biz and then move on because they are incapable of being good employees, let alone good coworkers. These are the cats who get behind in their payments to the tool truck guy because the case of beer, bag of weed or new toy is a higher priority than their obligations. If you work in a big shop, there is sure to be one around (for a while).

I guess that is true. I like to picture the trade as a bunch of GJ senior members working together.

Well look at it this way, how long is it before your tool locks itself up? My computer locks after 2 minutes. Its still there but not usable to anyone else. Laptops have serial numbers and can be tracked, most tools do not have any markings so its a bit harder to trace.

It does **** that some folks work in environments where you cannot trust your gear will be there when you return :|

My instruments don't lock themselves obviously (nor does my computer for that matter), but fewer people would know what to do with them than tools. I imagine that they'd be far more difficult to quickly unload as well.

But yes, it does **** that some here can't trust people with tools for even a few minutes.

Only the guilty will be upset when they see someone locking their box. The honest ones understand.

I see your point, but that isn't entirely true. I'd be upset if I saw someone locking their box only to walk a few feet away, but it would be because I feel bad for the guy *because he needs to do it.*

I guess my already low opinion of people needs to be lowered. I'm going to go lock my boxes...

 

[nissan_crawler]

I'm not nearly as worried about my coworkers as I am about some random person taking something so that's why I lock up when I'm away from my box.

Bingo. There's an outside group of contractors at work that have so far stolen:

1. Somebody's keys and their new vehicle to go with it.

2. Suspected of taking tools off of a guys box.

3. A set of Snap-On magnetic coat hooks off the side of a guys box.

If they're around, my box gets locked. Otherwise, I don't worry about it so much. Once I found a customer looking in my box because he "needed a screwdriver quick". I had to contain myself not to rip him a new *******. I asked him to get out of my box, locked it, and went to my supervisor and told him to get the guy out of the place.

It's always locked when I leave, though. Hell, I lock my toolboxes inside my locked garage.

 

[TheCarbideRat]

For some reason tools are fair game for people to use [in their mind anyway] and as most of us know many people do not [for another unexplicable reason] take the same care of others things that they do their own.

The morons who painted my apartment building used my 100 ft. extension cord without saying one word about it, I just came home from work one day and they had it ... play with your life much? [lol] Needless to say that paradigm was unsuccessful for them

Another thing I have noticed is that even co-workers who supposedly understand and respect others tools will STILL use and act as if certain objects are "finders keepers" type stuff. Wood blocks and 5 gallon plastic buckets come to mind. I use both where I work and I have to either put them on top of my box or even lock them up in order for them to be there when I need them.