Disappearing / evaporating tools

[Cmjl67]

Why is it that the tools you one have one of and need right that moment grow little legs and run away?

Wrenches? Loads of them, so they stay put

Sockets? As above

Pliers? Well, they breed anyway as I seem to have accumulating numbers and versions without buying any recently

Screwdrivers? More fertile than pliers

Torches? Loads, but afraid of the light so hide

My one set of terminal crimps? Evaporated, emigrated or disappeared into another dimension!! I'm now scared to go and try and hunt my soldering iron down, but know that if i find it, the solder will have decided to elope with my crimps

I'm reasonably sure Douglas Adams wrote about a galaxy inhabited solely by ballpoint pens that had escaped from drawers, only leaving empty members of the species behind - is there a 'one and only version of the tool you need first thing on a Sunday when all the shops are shut' galaxy?

chris

 

[jim1987]

"Immigrated" not "emigrated"

But not here. Ever since buying my own tools, I know where they all are.

 

[Cmjl67]

Definitely emigrated - emigrate is to leave, immigrate to arrive - pliers and screwdrivers may be immigrating to my toolbox, but my feckin' crimps have emigrated to parts unknown

Still haven't plucked up the nerve to go and hunt down soldering iron or solder - one or other, or more likely both, may not have emigrated but will have gone on an extended vacation to parts unknown

And I too always know where my tools are - if they're not where I left them either SWMBO, the cats or the teddy bears have them - I must have the only cats in the world that eat pinstriping tape, and the only bears that 'borrow' police helicopters (that seems to be the price you pay for allowing bears in that followed me home from the belfast beer festival)

I'm now even more worried! Where is Jackie bear and why do I have a very annoyed looking chief constable banging on my front door? Wonder if he has a set of crimps I could borrow?

chris

 

[illmatyk]

I have had 2 rolls of solder disappear on me and right when I needed it.

 

[colin39]

Torches/ led inspection lamps.

They have a timer, im sure of it, and on and once ya times up they evaporate and vanish, never to be seen again.

 

[monomach]

Can't say that it happens to me. I'm pretty OCD about returning things to where they belong.

Sometimes I'll check three times to make sure. :/

 

[Cmjl67]

My most explainable disappearance was when I had the jag stored up in a barn - the family that owned the house had just got a rottweiler puppy (from long experience, despite the bad reputation rotts have, they're generally just big pussycats - no such thing as a bad dog (apart from basil, my better half's mother's terrier - he IS just bad - tries to fight everything despite being a third of their size, delights on jumping on my 'sensitive bits' at very opportunity, causes trouble wherever he goes), just bad owners)

But, back to the story - I'm happily esconsced under the jag, working away on the brakes with led flashlight on head - up comes puppy - starts by licking face which is very distracting under two tons of solid steel - 'yes, you're lovely small doggy, now beggar off cause I'm working' - so he does, for about 5 seconds, then reappears, grabs led light off head and clears off, laughing all the while. Now I know he had only a matter of seconds before I wriggled out from under car, but there he is, sitting looking innocent, and how long to find the light? An hour and a half, including multiple goings of outside the barn, shaking head and going 'No way, he couldn't have got it that far'

He hadn't - tossed under old sofa and bounced up into inside it - would never have found if it wasn't still switched on

Our cats were nearly as bad (and cats seem to like jags) - i'd be cleaning interior of windscreen and nibbs would appear on freshly polished bonnet and be waving in 'You missed a bit', cleaning interior and he would bounce in through sunroof 'to help', or he was especially good at sitting on front of bonnet like the jaguar leaper while i'm underneath struggling with foglights or brake ducts - wee head would appear over the front of the bonnet, and always with the 'you're doing it wrong' expression

The worst of it is he was normally right - I WAS doing it wrong

Crimps still not found - considering new mission - where's that bottle of brandy?

chris

 

[Canadian Charlie]

Tape measures, I have bought a few cheap ones now

 

[ecotec]

The rules for this are the same all over the world. You cannot find a lost tool until you buy another one. Then you will find every one you ever owned, and some you have never even seen before?

 

[BK13]

Stolen from a favorite shooting writer:

Tools are like sheep, they don't like to be alone. A good excuse to buy more!

 

[Davefr]

Torches/ led inspection lamps.

They have a timer, im sure of it, and on and once ya times up they evaporate and vanish, never to be seen again.

^^^Definitely. I've must of bought 20-30 of them to have everywhere. However whenever I need one, there's never one close by.

Same thing with reading glasses.

 

[Pumpman1968]

"Immigrated" not "emigrated"

But not here. Ever since buying my own tools, I know where they all are.

Correcting another's grammer.......that's low.....



Just meant to be funny.........

 

[Thumper]

Damn.......that just ain't right......

 

[AP514]

Missing tools = the KIDs........the Answer...I Don't know or the other favorite...It wasn't me

 

[zkling]

Tape measures, I have bought a few cheap ones now

The only tool I have a problem locating at times is the tape measure.

 

[eschoendorff]

Don't know about you guys, but my wife is the reason many of my tools evaporate.

They seem to relocate to, well, let's see: in the couch, under the bed, on the floor in her car, on her dresser and even in the dishwasher.

Sheesh.

 

[jakemac]

Check your other hand. I spend WAY too much time looking for a tool I just had, only to find that it's in my other hand.

 

[zcbauer89]

I liked your overview of the cats helping. I can sadly say I know all to well what your talking about. Lol

 

[NUTTSGT]

I prefer to corral my tools in my tool box only letting them out when I need them. Keeping them on parole allows me to keep a close tab on them.

 

[jwh]

Missing tools = the KIDs........the Answer...I Don't know or the other favorite...It wasn't me

AMEN TO THAT! And my little guys favorite response: "I didn't did it."
His grammar has improved, that was when he was 4, is now 19.

 

[Bigplum]

Tape measures and pencils just cease to exist , 10mm spanners and sockets can slip in and out of this dimension too , I think they are part of a time travel experiment

Years ago whilst working on my fiat 500 , tools were just disappearing , when I finally came to a standstill for the want of something , I saw my old naughty dog up to mischief in the the rose garden , he'd dug a hole and was happily burying everything he'd stolen!

 

[Tinner]

I've lost very few tools in my lifetime, 45 years since I bought my first socket set. When I work on a vehicle, I always start and finish with all tools in the box. When I work on smaller projects I keep the tools in a tray on the bench. When the tray gets too full I put back what I don't need.

I have one of those rolling tool tray/stand things I use a lot. It keeps me from laying tools in and on a vehicle where they can fall into those black holes we've all lost something to. Good at the bench, too.

Nothing worse than the frustration of being unable to assemble something because a tool was lost during disassembly.

 

[cosmik binturong]

cats mostly... had a Stronglight 23.35mm crankarm puller disappear in a small closed room with only a cat and a couple bikes inside. never found it to this day.

them damn kitties!

 

[CJM8515]

I lock the toolbox when Im not using tools, its nice cause then no one but myself is to blame. Ive lost a few tools over the years, but usually cheap stuff from my road service box like 10mm wrenches, a pair of dykes and a 1/4 ratchet with 10mm on it.

 

[BearCuda]

I hate it the most when I just used a tool and then it disappears right in front of me.

 

[jeff000]

I hate it the most when I just used a tool and then it disappears right in front of me.

This. I go through about 15 terminating screw drivers a year.

I use these ones

They are bright red. So I have no idea how I lose them. Although I am sure I leave them in plc cabinets and on top of boxes all the time.
I have had more than one go missing without having taken a step.

The greatest losses are still to abuse though.

 

[Fretters]

I spent hours searching for a screwdriver the other day which was in the toolbox I'd checked first. I'd got it into my head that the handle was a different colour than it actually was, and I'll be damned if I could see it in there until the penny dropped. The blatantly obvious can be completely overlooked on occasion.