The Panic, Over lost tools???? share your stories.

[dirtmister16]

hello all,

i am not sure if this has been covered i did try to search but came up empty handed.

ok now we all have our tools, we more or less hate to be without them. well yesterday in my garage i needed a 5/16" socket 1/4" drive shorty. go to my craftsman box, hmm not there. ok look all over and can't find it, so i go to my misc. sockets spot that i have and grab a no name crappy 5/16" socket to do my job.


now all the while that i was installing this hose clamp and working with a plastic cover that i needed that socket for, i was trying to determine where the socket was. it drove me nuts, when the job was done i started looking for it again and i dig into a mag tray i have for a job im doing and its in there! i was so relived that i didnt' have to go out and buy a new one or something!

i kinda felt a twinge of guilt putting that no name junk socket on my new snap on ratcheting screwdriver, i know it doesn't matter but it felt wrong. craftsman is at least respectable lol


share your stories and the panic or thoughts at the time.

 

[Murphy4570]

I don't panic. I just get pissed off.

 

[dirtmister16]

haha, yah that happens sometimes too. it just bugs the living hell out of me untill i find the lost item. it rarely happens but i just can't stand it when it does.

 

[Hootbro]

Working aircraft, lost tools is a cardinal sin. That being said, I misplaced a 6" machinist ruler one time and was to the point they were going to x-ray part of the aircraft I was working on and then someone found it in the tech manual that was being used for the job at hand.

Dodged a bullet there.

 

[JKady]

Managed to misplace a 35mm socket for part of the day yesterday. I was walking to the job at hand after dislodging the nut that was stuck in it, foreman asked me to fill out an incident report over me lodging a rather large chunk of rust/metal in my eye the day before and leaving early as a result. I set it down on the desk where we do paperwork while I filled out the form and walked away... wasn't panicked as I didn't need it at the time but I wasn't happy about it being missing.

 

[davesnothere]

I thought I lost a brand new gt72 to the frame of a something or other while fooling blindly above the fuel tank. I lost some blood, but got my new ratchet back.

 

[supersteve]

Many years ago I panicked over a lost 36" Snappy prybar, looked for an hour, finally gave up.

Found it the next day when I lowered a car down off a lift, was using it to prop up a hood.

Now I don't panic, i just figure it'll come back or not. 98% of the time it does.

 

[PAPERMAKER]

No panic here, I keep a back up of the important stuff so I can finish the work order. Then I tell my Grainger Rep what I need and a brand new one shows up in a few days. The worst was the set of Blackhawk ratcheting flex head wrenches I had for 3 days before some operator thought he needed them more than I did. I'm 99% sure he got them off the top of my box, but I get my payback every time I turn a wrench on his machine.

 

[HaroRider]

I HATE loosing things, especially tools.

The only time I really loose anything is when I am working on a car and drop a socket.. and for that one moment *holds breath* you wait for it to hit the ground and it hits metal instead... **** lol

Since I work out of my garage and not a tech I will pull a car apart to get my socket back no matter how long it takes..

 

[Outlander]

My impact sockets are now mismatched set. Drives me nuts every time I look at the set, even though the slot is filled with a flea market temporary replacement until it shows up again. Annoyed, not panicked.

I can understand the aircraft mechanics, or other professionals, panicking though.

 

[dirtmister16]

must have a spree of memory loss lately. today i almost lost the keys to the shed at work. i started to go to the shed realised i didn't have the correct set keys on me, go back get them. open door set keys on mower, open hood and check oil. i start it up, head to the shop to put gas in. i got all done mowing and go and put away the mower, start to close the door and check for keys, hmmm no keys! yikes!

found them on the ground close to where i we park the trucks! thank god i didn't run them over with the blades on! i was getting a bit worried cuz we don't have a spare set at all, so i was happy to have found them!

 

[Toolhorder]

For last couple days I been looking for a socket rail with a mismatch of C-man/Snappy/Mac torx sockets. Also had a mixmatch of about half a dozen snap ring pliers I misplaced at the same time.
I had bought a new set of SO snap ring pliers and a new torx set and was taking home the old stuff. I remember it made it into my home and I moved it somewhere so the kids wouldn't play with them. Looked all over even drive to work on my day off to re-check my box.
About 9pm last night I look in a box in the garage on my press and under my buffer was the rail of sockets and pliers.
Happy and relieved but annoyed it consumed my mind that long!

 

[Kevin54]

I didn't lose any, but while I was off work, some ******* picked my lock on my box and I ended up missing some important machinist tools. I have a good idea who it is and who it isn't. I spoke with my old boss about it and he said he'd keep an eye out. ********. As soon as I pulled out he forgot all about it. It amounted to a few hundred buck missing in tools. The thing is that it's not the tools missing that pisses me off, but it's the fact that someone picked the lock to do it.

 

[nine4gmc]

I go to the auto salvage yard often to pull parts and one day my good friend wanted to ride with me. We get out there and find a car I want parts from, I get under the car and ask for a wrench. He gives me the wrong size so I hand it back(thinking he will put it back where he got it from) and ask for another. After I get the part off, I get out from under the car and always check my bag before I move to make sure all my tools are put back(I'm kind of OCD and have a place for everything). The first wrench he handed me was not back on the wrench ring organizer, I ask wtf happened to the wrench... He replies, "IDK, it's just a harbor freight, whats the big damn deal?" and offers to buy me another one. I blew a freakin gasket in that junkyard yelling at him over a $0.50 wrench he lost. Needless to say, he has NOT been back to the yard with me and I do NOT loan him tools.

If I see a man has his tools all organized and I borrow one, you bet your *** when I get done it will be back in the same spot, facing the same way and just as clean or cleaner than before I borrowed it. Some people have no ******* sense...

 

[Fast LT1]

Well the other day i was working on a Honda CRV and i had the hood up and was using my Streamlight stinger Circa early 90's, that i inherited from my dad. Well after i pulled it out of the shop i noticed my light wasn't in my tool cart so i ran out there as the customer was getting in the car and asked if i could look under the hood, he let me and my flashlight wasn't there. I was so pissed off that i lost that thing i didn't work for 20ish minutes. I was about to call my snap on dealer and tell him to get me a new stinger DS LED, then i walked into the break room and one of the other techs had taken it and hid it there to mess with me. I learned two things, watch my tools with other techs and i went out and bought a bright green Icon Rogue 2 Flashlight, so i can't miss it when i check under the hood before i pull a car out.

 

[318fekim]

Talk about panic, I work on overhead cranes and hoists, I left a job site late one night and got about an hour towards home and realized I'd left a 12" Cresent and a hammer on the trolley of the crane I had adjusted the brakes on. (Adjust, test, adjust again etc....) Lock out tag out can be a pain! Well I return to the customer site , all locked up, slept in my company truck for 4 hrs blocking the gate till customer returned in the AM to open up. Better than having it fall hit a worker .
mike

 

[theoldwizard1]

Wait till you start to get older !

I frequently miss place a tool (or more accurately forget where I laid it down) in the middle of a job. Sometimes they just rolled out of sight. Sometimes I will be carrying them when I go to get something and I left them in an odd place. Those are a REAL challenge finding !

I needed my pickle fork the other day to get the inner ball joint off of a pitman arm. I know I have one. I used it just 20 or 30 years ago ! Borrowed a set from Advanced Auto which came with an impact adapter. If I thought I would use it again in the next 20 years I would buy that set.

Although I did come across my KD brake shoe/drum meausre

and a couple of distributor wrenches when looking for my pickle fork !

 

[osborn.ozzy]

Wait till you start to get older !

I frequently miss place a tool (or more accurately forget where I laid it down) in the middle of a job. Sometimes they just rolled out of sight. Sometimes I will be carrying them when I go to get something and I left them in an odd place. Those are a REAL challenge finding !

I needed my pickle fork the other day to get the inner ball joint off of a pitman arm. I know I have one. I used it just 20 or 30 years ago ! Borrowed a set from Advanced Auto which came with an impact adapter. If I thought I would use it again in the next 20 years I would buy that set.

Although I did come across my KD brake shoe/drum meausre

and a couple of distributor wrenches when looking for my pickle fork !

I have one of those tools for measuring drums/shoes. A guy at work was messing with some drum brakes, he thought that thing was batter than sliced bread!

 

[KinzeMech]

I took the hood off a John Deere 7810, and found the 10mm gearwrench still standing (vertically, no less) on the last bolt head I had tightened the last time I worked on that machine, some 6 or so months earlier. I looked everywhere for that wrench that day. I even drove back into town and looked in the mcdonald's parking lot where I ate lunch that day, thinking it could have fallen through the small hole in my back pocket of the jeans I had worn that day.

I had given up and bought an individual replacement. 10mm is a good size to have two.

 

[FunkyfullWidth]

I've left a few of those magnetic chordless lights underneath drump trucks. The same one was returned to me by the driver after being run over twice. First time it worked still... Second time, not so lucky. I leave it hanging on the wall as a reminder.

When replacing the tarp on a dump truck i left my craftsman chordless in the back. That is right now part of a parking lot...

The 2 worst things I've ever dropped working on a vehicle happened to both be on ford diesels. Replacing the fuel manifold on a van, i dropped one of those little bolts, heard tink tink tink, dunk... It hit the bottom of the oil pan, half hour later I had it out with a couple of nicely bent magnets...

The other one was one of those pesky injector clips. Flung off, i spent about 45 minutes searching for that ******... Landed right in front of me... I try to hold on a tigther these days.

 

[ndoran]

i have or had a snap on #2 phillips with the old black triangular hard handle. I cherished that thing it was my go to. I have put it down somewhere and I can't find it. I have had to buy a new one but it is not the same.

I have on this before but always find the tool again - this is why I have 4 snap on #3 phillips and 4 of the flat tip 5/16 screwdrivers. Best not to ask anymore questions. I hate losing tools

 

[Toolman12]

Was doing a communications project in a prison in Florida we had to keep an eye on our tools because the guard would come around about every half an hour and do a tool count well one of my crew lost a 6" awl the guard went nuts and put the prison in lock down until the tool was found it took about an hour to locate the awl and we almost lost the contract because of that but we learned a very good lesson about keeping track of our tools

 

[theoldwizard1]

Wait till you start to get older !

I needed my pickle fork the other day to get the inner ball joint off of a pitman arm. I know I have one. I used it just 20 or 30 years ago !

Although I did come across my KD brake shoe/drum measure and a couple of distributor wrenches when looking for my pickle fork !

HEY, I found my pickle fork !

The sad thing is, I was looking for my chalk line (used it only 5 or 10 years ago; found the bottle of chalk), which I did not find. Worse, the pickle fork was in the same drawer as the KD brake shoe/drum measure and distributor wrenches.

Getting old and forgetful I still beats the alternative

 

[flashman]

Being a former Aircraft mechanic in the Air Force sucked with lost tools. There would be times we would look for the mandatory 2-3 hours and never find it, or we would eventually have someone say they checked their pockets, only to be found in their pocket a few hours later. I do not miss those times at all.

 

[ovilla]

Hootbro - What steps do aircraft mechanics take to make sure they don't misplace tools? I have found more tools in my cars, from dealership's warranty work, than I can possibly count.

Okay, here's my story. I was driving my 914 at night during winter and the heater flapper box wouldn't open, so I of course was freezing in my car. I pull over on the interstate and start pulling on a cable with a pair of pliers, under the car. After about 5 min I switched over to a pair of vice grips and then to some other tools. Anyway I put everything away and drive home, WITH heat now.

Next day I couldn't find my favorite needle nose vice grips which I really like since they are the old USA ones. Guess what? I actually drove about 40 miles to look for them and after walking about a 1/4 mile of interstate, with people looking at me weird (and honking), I found them.

 

[Bikes&Bowties]

I have some hand me downs I've never miss placed. Kept in the shop box. I've lost little 1/4 drive sockets in the dirt and it's not worth worrying. If I can't find them in a timely manner I chalk it up to be more careful in that situation next time... Working on tractors if you mis-place a tool you can retrieve it 90% of the time cause you know the customer...

 

[jdcompman]

The only time I really loose anything is when I am working on a car and drop a socket.. and for that one moment *holds breath* you wait for it to hit the ground and it hits metal instead... **** lol

Man I'm sure we can all relate to this scenario.

The other day I was trying to find the source of a clunk on the front end of my car and had stuff all ripped apart. Long story short, I threw it all back together, cleaned up and threw my big ratchet on the floor of the car to go take a test drive, just in case the lugs needed tightening. A few days later I couldn't find that damn ratchet anywhere. I was in a panic for half the day, until it finally dawned on me that I hadn't taken it out of the front seat of the car.

 

[theoldwizard1]

The sad thing is, I was looking for my chalk line

Found my chalk line while clean up my work bench, 10 hours after I wanted it. Why was it even out ?

 

[rmchrgr]

Left not one but two of my ratchets in a car the other day, my 3/8 flex and my 1/4" flex and the corresponding 13 mm sockets. I use these for basically everything that requires a ratchet. I think I set them on the cowl or in front of the radiator where I often put stuff. Went to do something else and closed the hood and drove the car out of the shop. Didn't realize they were gone until the next day. Had the service writer leave a message with the customer but they didn't call back. Still pretty upset about it, I've had that 3/8 flex ratchet for years it's like a part of my arm.

 

[jeffmoss26]

I spent a half hour trying to find my Dremel yesterday, only to remember that I had lent it to a buddy. I needed to cut a lock housing and didn't want to use a hacksaw, but that's how it ended up.
It's now safe and sound back in my basement!

 

[PowerGenGuy]

I always seem to misplace 10mm sockets, so I keep a couple in the toolbox! It is a temporary misplacement cause I always find it again. Have lost two 3D maglites. Had a co worker leave a 3/8 ratchet on a genset that ran 24/7. The genset was on top of a mountain at a radio tower. He left it wedged between the injection pump and the block. It was there for 2 years!

 

[PowerGenGuy]

Oh ya, years ago I worked as high rise electrician, and my Klien needle nose walked. I could not find them and in those in enviroments it will not be found. I replaced them with another pair of Kliens, 2 weeks later, they walked. So for a while i did without a pair of needle nose and just used the leatherman. I was always afraid to buy a pair of Klien again, so then I bought Channellock brand (risk is lower b/c they are cheaper), have had both pair 10 or so years now, never lost them.

 

[NUTTSGT]

My MIA story.

http://garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=153319

 

[dirtmister16]

time for a this thread to get kicked in the pants.

sadly i have a story to tell. now i have two sets of ratchet wrenches in standard sizes, they hang on my bench. i use them alot actually, well anyway i took the hood off of one of the tractors so i could charge the battery while i did some cleaning and organizing in the garage.


now i set it on the edge of my bench next to the fasteners, then i moved it but at the same time i wondered if i really moved it all. so i dig through the bench, the box next to it in case it fell down in the box, no luck. then i pull everything apart from the corner and under the bench sweep and clean, nothing! i go back outside again double check things and nothing there. i kept checking pockets and places i was at. '

so now three days have gone by and im half ready to buy a replacement cuz its bugs me, after cleaning half my garage out in search of it.

well the next day i gather up a bunch of stuff to help dad pull a trans in a 56 gmc 2 ton truck. jack,road box,bars,battery and charger. so on to the job we go, after crawling around getting stuff out im looking for i think it was a 5/8" socket, well low and behold my ratchet wrench was in between two of my socket rails! oh how i was glad i didn't buy a new one! I had even looked in the box during my search, but it just blended in all too well!

so now i got it back and ready for its next task!

 

[skruft]

I have lost many tools temporarily but have had the most trouble working on boats. There are too many places for tools to fall out of reach, and there's the overboard problem too.

 

[bobcatdan]

I can't complain too much because I think I'm ahead in stuff I have found ve lost. That said If I see I'm missing something, I turn the place upside down. My worst trait is thaT I'm a carrier. I will carrier something around instead of setting it down when I get pulled away and set it down somewhere not paying attention. Then the fun begins.

 

[padronanniversary]

The best I have was when I had down warranty work done on one of my vehicles. All done, and I started my drive on vacation. Driving with the music cranked for a few hours. Going through a drive thu turned it off order and drive off but hear this rattling under the seat. Pulled over to see what it was, one of those expensive snap on scan tools.

I call the dealer and ask for their service manager. Tell them I assume its one if their techs. He had the balls to tell me I stole it and if I do not return it immediatly they would report me. After that I told him he can find it at the McDonald's where I am at. A few minutes later I get a very apologetic tech calling. Had him arrange a shipment box from one of those ups places. Manners go a long ways

 

[JoeyMitch]

My 7/16" Snap On shallow socket. Had it on my speeder. As I was cleaning up I noticed my socket was missing off the rack. Look everywhere in the garage and come to find it was on my speeder in the bottom drawer!!!!

 

[91bronc300]

I lost a line level the other day. I know, I know, just go buy a new Chinese one for a few bucks, but I don't want a Chinese one.

 

[metaldad]

Years ago,late 80's, doing a a/c startup, in a penthouse apt. of a rental hi rise. This apt. had to belong to an old snowbird, the furniture was like out of the set from 'I Dream Of Jeanie'. Going between the roof, and the air handler in the apt. That night, we had a severe windstorm. Noticed in the morning, that my Fluke 27 was missing. Went back to the job, could only remember using it on the roof. Wasn't there. attributing it to the wind storm, figgered it somehow got blown off the roof. Bought another 27, @ $350ish.
Went back to the same place, same job, same time, a year later. Went to kitchen sink to wash my paws........... there was my old meter, on the window sill.