Lost tools conspiracy

[rooster59]

Ok, where do all the lost tools go? Hiding behind comet Hale-Bopp? Somewhere in Bulgaria? Werner Heisenberg’s garage? Getting tired of looking for stuff. Nobody in the house has even seen it / them before, no help finding. 330 million Americans, so 30 million or so good old boys out there fixing whatever. So that must be at least 60 million lost tools every year. Where does it all go? Somewhere there’s a vast warehouse full of 10mm sockets and 3/4 inch combination wrenches. I asked this guy, a professor of Industrial Technology down at the University of Science. He didn’t even want to talk about it.

 

[Beerhippie]

It's an alternate universe.

Some cosmologists and quantum mechanics (you can never really know where a quantum tool is anyway) believe that "dark matter" is actually a "shadow" of the mass of all the lost tools and small parts cast on our universe.

 

[Maddog3355]

I have 1 tool box and my son has 2. I “use” to have a full set of drill bits in mine and was needing them today and couldn’t find them. I told him I’m getting my tool box back in order and locking it!!

 

[Dave455]

It’s perfectly rational - gremlins take ‘em…!

They like 10mm sockets ‘cos they can store ‘em on the No.2 Phillips drivers they nick..,!

 

[FigN⋅m]

Never lost anything - I only buy boutique tools, take pics, and in the drawer they go.

 

[nadogail]

Sometimes I just don't ask some questions, because I can only be confident that if the person whom I asked knew the answer; they would not answer truthfully.

 

[mikey03]

Somewhere there’s a vast warehouse full of 10mm sockets and 3/4 inch combination wrenches. I asked this guy, a professor of Industrial Technology down at the University of Science. He didn’t even want to talk about it.

I prob shouldn’t share this publicly but I know a guy who knows a guy in the illicit tool laundering trade and they take all the 3/4 “ wrenches and rebrand them as 19 mm for resale in South America and they are untracable at that point

 

[Fedwrench]

Is your dog burying them in the back yard? I think whoever has the tools also has my missing socks

I don't know but, we tend to find various tools simply forgotten, left under the hood. Maybe the tech was in a hurry, shut the hood and realized later when they were looking for the 3/8 ratchet and socket, where it was found a couple of magnetic lights recently stuck to vehicles. Cleaned em up, Charged them and they were good to go. strong magnets

 

[tarmy]

My damn wifey takes them and tosses them over the fence. I will be damned, but both of my neighbors have full tool chests with exactly the same make as all my lost ones. Somebody better be gettin’ banged arou….err….wait a minute.

 

[woody 73]

8000 lost tape measures, better make that 8001 as of today, I swear I have no idea where they go to get lost? Dang i just opened up a drawer and found one, it is driving me bat **** crazy.

 

[fourjeepin]

no conspiracy, most are found and posted here: https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/threads/what-kind-of-tools-have-you-found-in-the-road.227120

 

[rancherbill]

They're not lost. I saw something from snap on the other day that you could order stuff Camo colored. They're concealed. Snap on is pumping sales.

The other thing is that the whole industry has made tools out of various forms and grades of iron - it corrodes (rusts) and goes back to basic elements. Get your tools wet and you can watch the process over night.

 

[Theronswanson]

The same place where lost socks from the washers and dryers have gone.

 

[RTM]

10-14 year old you lost them in the lawn and flower beds. Their spirits now wander the earth, waiting to be found and returned to their toolbox home.

 

[Kkmk]

I have a toddler. My stuff could be literally anywhere. Found a T25 torx key under my house today. Rattle gun? Fridge.

He’s just learnt that he can get into my top chest with the aid of a bucket. FML.

 

[txvwnut]

I think I accidentally threw away my, wait for it, 10mm gearwrench after installing a cold airbox in my truck. I remember seeing it in the empty box just before I put the box in the recycle bin, I just know I pulled it out of the box and put it in my roll cart.

 

[MiteyF]

Aside from guys at work borrowing tools... honestly, I really don't lose stuff. I might set it down, not move an inch, and spend 10 minutes looking... but I always find it.

 

[jessesandy]

Factor in the post about tools found on the side of the road to get adjusted numbers.

 

[Beerhippie]

The worst lost tool is that one I just had in my hand before someone distracted me for a minute. Where the hell did I put it?

 

[RMERR]

I've said this before and I stand by it, ALIENS! They get a huge kick out of teleporting tools out of the shop and laughing hysterically as we storm around cursing and swearing. They've even been known to teleport the tool back into the shop in some ridiculous place that I would never ever put it.

 

[Debcrow]

You do realize that tools are seasonal.......
I just looked in my tool box for a Phillips Screwdriver and I have 7 flat blades only.
So I realized it is Flat Blade season!
May have happened with the DST change (Daylight Screwdriver Time).

 

[rsparks64]

Ok, where do all the lost tools go? Hiding behind comet Hale-Bopp? Somewhere in Bulgaria? Werner Heisenberg’s garage? Getting tired of looking for stuff. Nobody in the house has even seen it / them before, no help finding. 330 million Americans, so 30 million or so good old boys out there fixing whatever. So that must be at least 60 million lost tools every year. Where does it all go? Somewhere there’s a vast warehouse full of 10mm sockets and 3/4 inch combination wrenches. I asked this guy, a professor of Industrial Technology down at the University of Science. He didn’t even want to talk about it.

They might be at our house. Over the years we have gained quite a few tools from various contractors and some when no contractors were around. One of my favorites is a really good fifty foot measuring tape. We have also wound up with screwdrivers, an electrical fishing tape, wrenches, one recently that a washing machine repair man left that has a strap attached to the end of something like a wrench, 2 sharpshooter shovels, a roof tile knife, and years ago we found an almost new finishing hammer in our side yard. The thing is, neither us nor our neighbor on that side had any carpentry work being done. I am sure there are others I have forgotten. Right now I am hoping that someone leaves a Dewalt blower for us.

 

[Semi-hole mechanic]

I replaced a lower ball joint and upper A arm on my stepdaughter’s Jeep last week along the curb. Somewhere in the grass next to where it was parked are an 8mm wrench that I needed to hold the tie rod end while I was loosening the nut and a 6mm that I used to put the grease zerk in the new lower ball joint. I have raked the leaves and grass from the area and have no idea what happened to them. I had a tool bag with me and I’m sure they got tossed back in there but when I put everything away in my box they were no where to be found.

 

[IRQVET]

Reminds me of a car I was working on with a friend. Crawled underneath to find a set of vise grips clamped onto a bolt. Vise grips were pretty rusty and looked to have been on there for a minute. He just laughed and said, "So that's where those went."

Then you have the 10mm thief, once I find that guy, we're going to have words. . .

 

[bwringer]

It's house gnomes, I think.

These gnomes have an unaccountable thirst for Phillips screwdrivers and tape measures, not to mention an unholy penchant for 10mm sockets.

The secret is to cover your environs with a carpet of screwdrivers, carpenter's pencils, tape measures, 10mm sockets, reading glasses, pry bars, and all the other bricabrac they obsessively collect. Just keep buying them and spreading them around, and eventually your house gnomes will be satiated, and slowly, very slowly, you'll be able to find one of these essential items when you need it.

Fortunately, they're usually not very picky. So what you want to do is hit Harbor Freight and bring home armloads of offerings of the cheapo tapes, screwdrivers, etc. Once the gnomes have reached their gnomish saturation point, then you can start buying the better stuff, and you might even stand a chance of seeing it again.

 

[PelicanPines]

Narnia...

 

[kerrynzl]

Ok, where do all the lost tools go? Hiding behind comet Hale-Bopp? Somewhere in Bulgaria? Werner Heisenberg’s garage? Getting tired of looking for stuff. Nobody in the house has even seen it / them before, no help finding. 330 million Americans, so 30 million or so good old boys out there fixing whatever. So that must be at least 60 million lost tools every year. Where does it all go? Somewhere there’s a vast warehouse full of 10mm sockets and 3/4 inch combination wrenches. I asked this guy, a professor of Industrial Technology down at the University of Science. He didn’t even want to talk about it.

It's not just tools, I'm convinced there is a secret hidden compartment in a washing machine for Left Foot socks.
Or it is some women's secret society conspiracy.

Also a pen is like a cocoons for a coat hanger
Have you ever noticed you can never find a pen, but the closets are full of coat hangers.

 

[Beerhippie]

It's not just tools, I'm convinced there is a secret hidden compartment in a washing machine for Left Foot socks.
Or it is some women's secret society conspiracy.

Also a pen is like a cocoons for a coat hanger
Have you ever noticed you can never find a pen, but the closets are full of coat hangers.

Who wrote that story? Pencils metamorphose into paper clips, which metamorphose into the adult form, coat hangers. The guy who was studying the phenomenon was found hanged in his closet--with a coat hanger.

 

[Bill Bowman]

Good friend (RIP Ralph) worked for a uniform company on a route truck his whole life. Unbelievable the number of 10mm sockets (among others), air blow guns, 1/4" ratchets, pocket screwdrivers, etc., that he had in his garage. SO, they aren't all "lost". Ralph had many of them.

 

[lolaetype]

Ok, where do all the lost tools go?

I'm convinced my garage is built over some kind of interdimensional sink or a ripple in time. I'll put a tool down, turn around and it's vanished. I'll look everywhere with no luck and then it will suddenly appear where I originally sat it down. I suspect the Tholians.

I'm still looking for this screwdriver.


If you find it let me know.

 

[scooby074]

Its Aliens

 

[PelicanPines]

I'm convinced my garage is built over some kind of interdimensional sink or a ripple in time. I'll put a tool down, turn around and it's vanished. I'll look everywhere with no luck and then it will suddenly appear where I originally sat it down. I suspect the Tholians.

I'm still looking for this screwdriver.


If you find it let me know.

I have that screwdriver ... with an eyebolt in it... attached to my Generator Cart... via a chain.

 

[lolaetype]

I have that screwdriver ... with an eyebolt in it... attached to my Generator Cart... via a chain.

Well, don't bother to send it back. I'm on my way to Ace Hardware tomorrow to pick up a long overdue replacement.

 

[toolfinder.us]

I've considered putting tile trackers on a couple tape measures just so I can find them when I actually need them instead of when the project's done. It's also always a good time finding the tool I set out in my daughter's play kitchen fridge etc.

 

[Semi-hole mechanic]

Reminds me of a car I was working on with a friend. Crawled underneath to find a set of vise grips clamped onto a bolt. Vise grips were pretty rusty and looked to have been on there for a minute. He just laughed and said, "So that's where those went."

Then you have the 10mm thief, once I find that guy, we're going to have words. . .

I lost a 6” crescent wrench working on my wife’s Jeep Liberty 4 or 5 years later when I pulled the front bumper cover off they fell out. How they hadn’t fallen out on the highway between the U.P. and central IL on the 5 or 6 trips, or bounced out on a pothole covered country road I’ll never know. They are completely rusted and frozen. I’ve soaked them in PB Blaster and they are still frozen.

 

[humber2]

Thinking about where all my missing tools are found.....


They all turn up in the last place I look for them.



YMMV

 

[driftpin]

I lost a 6” crescent wrench working on my wife’s Jeep Liberty 4 or 5 years later when I pulled the front bumper cover off they fell out. How they hadn’t fallen out on the highway between the U.P. and central IL on the 5 or 6 trips, or bounced out on a pothole covered country road I’ll never know. They are completely rusted and frozen. I’ve soaked them in PB Blaster and they are still frozen.

Electrolysis. That will help.

About the short Craftsman slot screwdriver, I call that length 'Shorty McNarf.' I have several of them, including one NIB w/a set of other screwdrivers.

 

[Retired Wrench]

Years ago I was changing plugs on my 75 Buick. Dropped the socket, and searched everywhere but could not find it. A year or two later the starter went bad, when I took it off, the plug socket fell to the ground. It rode there next to the starter for over 15000 miles.

 

[Semi-hole mechanic]

Electrolysis. That will help.

About the short Craftsman slot screwdriver, I call that length 'Shorty McNarf.' I have several of them, including one NIB w/a set of other screwdrivers.

It’s not really worth saving, an old KMart Pro

 

[GaryM909]

I am actually good about not losing or misplacing tools but with my kids thats another story. Last time my daughter's fiancé was using my tools he put an impact socket in the wrong place. It took me months to find it.