lost and later found tools

[jd_1138]

I am glad I found my little Pittsburgh Pro 1/4 swivel head ratchet ($15 at HF). I probably made $500 off this ratchet for various repairs for people -- cars, HVAC, general repairs. Plus countless projects for my relatives, friends and myself.

The new version looks different. It may not be as good as mine which I bought about 5 years ago. I love this thing, as it gets into tons of hard to get to spots especially with extensions (if needed), and you can swivel it into a linear driver like a screwdriver for quick fastening/defastening. I am sure other major brands have an equivalent.

I had to use my Craftsman and Powr-Kraft 1/4 fixed ratchets for the last year. I should have gone and bought another HF one. My CM, SK, and PK ratchets are all fixed head.

Any super useful tools that you lost that you regretted not having around?

 

[fourjeepin]

I lost my Bosch laser tape for about a year. Now I have two. I don’t use it enough to justify having 2.

 

[The Cobbler]

I searched high & low for my tile nippers only to be forced in to buying a new pair. and low & behold, I set them in the cowl of my van... right beside the pair I was looking for

 

[Meursault74]

I misplaced a Leatherman multitool (the original one) for about 5 years. It was underneath the seat of the car. I can't remember why I had used it there. All I know is that I hadn't seen it for a long time. I went to put on a seat cover and got underneath and WOW! I remember that tool.

I really lost another Leatherman out somewhere as I failed to close the sheath on my belt. That one I'm not getting back.

I currently have 3 Leatherman tools. Different ones though. I wear one always and the other two are in the house. Maybe saves me a trip to the garage to get the real tool if it's just something small to do in the house.

 

[oldschoolcraft]

I found my late 90s era craftsman robopliers recently. I really wish they just stayed lost.

 

[gizardlizard]

Lost my favorite Phillips head screwdriver working up in an attic with 20” of insulation. Second or third time I’ve done this. You set a tool down and the insulation eats it. I now take a 5 gallon bucket up with me. Fast forward 6 years later. Up in the same attic and moving insulation to fish romex thru a too plate and discover my screw driver I lost. It was like seeing a long lost friend.

 

[BlakeTheCarGuy]

Kept losing the Toyota oil filter tools at the house because I don’t have room in my toolboxes for them. So they just float around my basement now I found all three of them because I kept buying them when I couldn’t find one lol. Now they are just all three sitting on a table in my basement hopefully don’t lose them again.

 

[kaymccampbell]

I found an extension in the scrap pile, and wondered why it was there. Then I tried to use it. Oh, yeah that's why I recycled it. Then, not a day later, I was thinking about why it was in the bucket, and that I should put it away. Then remembered as I was wiping it off. So, I bent it in half. That should stop that silly cycle.

 

[930dreamer]

After cutting through a live romex wire while in a scissor lift, I found my wire cutters across the shop.

 

[KnurledNut]

I didnt lose this, but I found this air drill.
It fell on my head when I was tearing out a mobile home bathroom ceiling:



It was sitting right next to the stack vent where it was last used to punch the hole in the roof. The mating plug was in the holesaw. It had been there for at least two decades, and still worked.

 

[LS1-IROC]

Lost my favorite pocket knife for about a year and a half. Was convinced some POS stole it off my toolbox at work. Found it laying in a stack of micro fiber towels I had folded when I washed them last.

 

[rust in the eye]

Lost my favorite Phillips head screwdriver working up in an attic with 20” of insulation. Second or third time I’ve done this. You set a tool down and the insulation eats it. I now take a 5 gallon bucket up with me. Fast forward 6 years later. Up in the same attic and moving insulation to fish romex thru a too plate and discover my screw driver I lost. It was like seeing a long lost friend.

ME TOO! Almost. A Klein lost when I built my house.
Never found mine though, still somewhere presumably under a couple feet of blown insulation. Care to come by and fish some cable?

 

[WWheeler]

I'm not sure long-term, but just about every job have I ever completed I haven't done so without losing and then finding many of the tools I needed to get it done.

Now where's that damn socket? I just had it!

And no matter what it was when I do find it it's always in the last place I looked.

 

[Pig_Pen]

I lost a set of Channellock side cutters a few years ago. Finally replaced then with a set of Kleins. Two weeks ago I was using some zip ties and noticed something blue way down amongst the zip ties and pulled it out and there they were.

 

[ZRX61]

Lost a favorite CK Classic stubby screwdriver. Ordered a new one a while later.
Shortly after it arrived I found the lost one in the center console of the ShitBoxHonda.

 

[Skyman]

Too many to recall or to list. One that does stick in my mind, for whatever reason, is a good diagonal cutter that I lost when working as a gas station mechanic in the late-70s. I found it a couple years later, exactly where I'd left it, in the bed of the station's tow truck. I still have it, and the one I bought to replace it.

 

[Houdini5150]

I was doing some projects around the house. Had stud buddy, put it somewhere and lost it. I was putting up some shelves and mirrors one day and I could not find it so I bought another. Ended up finding the stud buddy on the metal legs of my work desk.... Guess who only knows where 1 of the 2 are ? HAHA

 

[subroc]

I lost a hammer in my truck for years. I found it wedged under the passenger seat years after losing it. It is just a 16oz curved claw Stanley. Nothing fancy. Just a basic metal handle. Glad it is back in the mix.

 

[threewood]

Most recently, a new set of Knipex needle nose pliers. Looked high and low in the shop, out around the minisplit I was working on. Everywhere. Bought a new pair. A month later I moved the couch in the shop and there was my original set.

Years ago a #4 Craftsman Phillips head screwdriver went missing. Several weeks go by and I'm chasing a rattle in the cowl of my car and there is my screwdriver. Left it there after replacing my wiper arm bushings.

 

[ecotec]

There was a thread about pliers or plier storage a while back.

I went to take a picture and realized one of my pairs of cannon plug pliers was missing. I found them way later in a canvas Klein zipper bag. I did not even remember what I packed up that bag for.

 

[ForrestT]

I rarely lose a tool. Haven’t lost one since I was a kid 30 some years ago. I found a nice Carlyle #2 Phillips at the flea market 2-3 years ago. It’s been a great screw driver. I was working on something that I can’t remember what I was working on a month ago. Used it in a pinch. Set it down, and have been looking for it for a month. I have no idea what I did with it! Waiting for it to turn up. I’m worried I mailed it in a package to a member here that got busted open and lost by the PO.

 

[freudianfloyd]

I bought a brand new dead blow hammer, my kids took it out of my garage to play Thor, and I never saw it again. I never even got to use it. I'm sure it wound up in the bushes or back in the woods somewhere, but we have since moved. I'm sure the new owners will be happy to find it.

And just last night I found my water meter tool that I knew I had, but started to think maybe I just borrowed one from my dad, when cleaning up the barn. It was in a bucket that I have no idea where it came from.

 

[kaymccampbell]

After cutting through a live romex wire while in a scissor lift, I found my wire cutters across the shop.

I've found myself across the room after cutting into a live wire that I'd tagged and locked out.

 

[jd_1138]

I've found myself across the room after cutting into a live wire that I'd tagged and locked out.

Wow, you're lucky to be alive. Did you find the person who turned the circuit on even though it was tagged? I'd have been pissed.

Here's another tool lost and later found story. A former neighbor showed me some tools that he "found at the wrecking yard sitting in the passenger floorboard". It was a nice set of Husky tools (150 piece set or so) that was in good shape and someone's name and phone # was on it. It was typed out on a label and placed in a luggage tag thingy attached to the handle.

I said "um, you didn't call the guy to tell him you found his tools?" I asked.

"Hell no, finders keepers!", he replied. I guess his conscience isn't worth the $125 or so the tools were worth. The guy may rely on those tools to put food on his family's table. Heck even if you don't want the bother of calling a stranger and meeting them somewhere, at least turn 'em over to wrecking yard management before some other lowlife scumbag finds them.

 

[kaymccampbell]

Wow, you're lucky to be alive. Did you find the person who turned the circuit on even though it was tagged? I'd have been pissed.

.

Oh yeah. He wanted to power up something, and didn't want to run a cord, so he took a bolt cutters and just chopped off the hasp and ripped off the tag. Then he slammed every breaker in the box on. He was unrepentant.

At lunch, the next day, he went off with buddies for liquid lunch. I asked the backhoe operator if I could use his machine for a minute or two. He said sure. I flattened the ahole's pickup to the floorboards. What goes around, comes around.

 

[Skyman]

I would have enjoyed watching that karma chicken come home to roost.

 

[jd_1138]

Oh yeah. He wanted to power up something, and didn't want to run a cord, so he took a bolt cutters and just chopped off the hasp and ripped off the tag. Then he slammed every breaker in the box on. He was unrepentant.

At lunch, the next day, he went off with buddies for liquid lunch. I asked the backhoe operator if I could use his machine for a minute or two. He said sure. I flattened the ahole's pickup to the floorboards. What goes around, comes around.

That idiot should've been fired. That's attempted murder at least gross negligence.

 

[Outwest]

I think we could be friends Kay…. I don’t care to get even, I much prefer to get ahead…

 

[TRLKC]

Well, I lost my smallest Blue Point ratcheting box end while installing a new stereo in my daughter’s car. I’m sure it’s somewhere in the dashboard. But, there’s no way in heck I’m pulling that thing apart again to look! Ended up finding a like new one on eBay for $19 shipped. SOLD! Arrived yesterday. My OCD is back in check now that the tray slot is filled again. I fully expect it to now fall out of the dash onto the floorboard!

 

[Fav Onefour]

I know a pretty good place to look.

When I was a kid we had a neighbor farmer that was quite the character. He was a big grizzley bear kinda guy that liked his booze.
Dad sent us kids were sent over there to borrow a couple hayracks from the guy. We found him by the machine shed working on a piece of equipment. As we walked up, he must have smashed his thumb or finger with a hammer. It was an impressive sight to us kids. The guy was good at cursing and he really went to town. He also flung that hammer over the shed into the grove behind the building. It was one heck of the throw and he didn't even bother watching it fly. That hammer was gone for good in his book.

As we drove home my brother was incredulous. How could someone throw away a tool? He commented that the hammer looked like it was brand new. I commented that he probably had a lot of new tools in the grove behind that shed.

They're probably a little rusty now.

 

[Firebrick43]

I always carried a 9/16 SO ratcheting combo wrench and a 9/16-1/2" deep offset in my back pocket as I could do a lot with those two wrenches.

One day I lost them, and I was lost. I also was missing a 3/8 ratchet with you guessed it, a 10mm socket.

I searched but to no avail.

Bought some new ones and moved on. Low and behold almost a year and a half later I had to work on one of the big Mazak mill turns and took off the the back panel and walked into the back of the machine. FIrst thing I noticed was two wrenches and a 3/8 ratchet setting on top of the ball screw chiller motor.

I said to my self, "What ******* left tools in the machine" Picked them up and realized they were mine.

 

[WisJim]

Years ago, I was sure I had a set of jumper cables but couldn't find them even though I searched quite a bit. We ended up moving without a lot of warning, and when unpacking tools etc., I found 4 pairs of jumper cables. Not sure where they all came from as I hadn't thought I had more than 2.

 

[no704]

Lost a case pocket knife for about 5 years. TSA found for me it in the bottom of a side pocket on a duffel bag.

 

[2mJps]

One morning at work a coworker piniched his hand with a pair of channel lock pliers . The shop sat on a hill with a big ditch between it and the highway maybe over 200 feet away he went and through then over in the ditch. Not 15 minites the boss pulls up to the shop and gos walking down in the ditch caring the pliers back. He said he saw something shinny in the ditch when he drove buy. I couldnt hardly hold my laughter . The boss went in the office and the guy cut them up with a torch and tossed the parts back in the ditch.

 

[Mikeske]

I have a wife that boxes everything up if it sits for more than a hour. When I retired 6 years ago I took three years to rebuild my Bonney tool set. All my metric wrenches had been MIA for a good 20 plus years. I searched all over the house the garage and my old car. Last month I was in the water heater cabinet but had to move a couple boxes and I hear this clink of metal to metal sounding like a tool. I open the box and lord be praised I found all my metric wrenches plus lots of other Bonney tools that had been missing all those years.

 

[finn]

Found the pocket knife that I lost about two years ago early last week. It was nestled in the plastic bolt bin among the 3/8” grade 8 bolts, with the blade flipped open.

Cleaned it up and started carrying it again, replacing the cheap replacement from Menards.

The tradeoff is that now I can’t find my Milwaukee M12 3/8” drive high speed ratchet.. Hope it turns up in less than the two years it took for the pocket knife to expose itself.

 

[jd_1138]

I have a wife that boxes everything up if it sits for more than a hour. When I retired 6 years ago I took three years to rebuild my Bonney tool set. All my metric wrenches had been MIA for a good 20 plus years. I searched all over the house the garage and my old car. Last month I was in the water heater cabinet but had to move a couple boxes and I hear this clink of metal to metal sounding like a tool. I open the box and lord be praised I found all my metric wrenches plus lots of other Bonney tools that had been missing all those years.

Sounds like my GF. I will need something and it will be nowhere to be found. Turns out she "packed it away because you leave s--t all over and it looks terrible!"

Um, it was a flashlight on top of the fridge for you know emergencies.

 

[2mJps]

I worked in a shop were the tools were furnished long story but every one used tools out of this shop that worked there. Alot of stuff started disapering . We had a new guy but never thought or blamed him. The main tool box was tall you couldnt really see what was in the top of it one day after the new guy got canned for some other reason i was standing buy the tool box and put my hand in the top there was every thing we were missing he had got stuff out and just laid it back in the top instead of putting it away.