Tool Marking- Do you do it?

[Arne73]

As far as my own preference, my tools at work are marked. I work all over the plant and as careful as I try to be have lost a couple tools. Fortunately one was marked with my initials, and the other with my name and they were returned when found by honest employees.
My home tools are never lent and not marked.

I've seen comments both ways. It seems like used tools at the flea or pawn are less desirable when owner marked.

 

[stricht8]

You answered your own question. Perhaps you can paint them.

 

[selohssa]

I do the same thing. Work tools are marked, home tools are not. All of my work tools are purchased new, so I don't have to worry about others ID on them. My home tools are ALL used and some have others ID on them but it does not bother me. I don't plan on pawning my tools, so the price drop of them used is irrelivent.

 

[DARKSCOPE001]

Yes It has saved me many a time. Many of the tools I use Many of the other students also own. So it helps to be able to identifly my tools from theirs. I engrave them with my own personal marking and also I paint them with nail polish. It allows me to see my tools at a quick glance and tell wich are mine and wich are not mine. also I use screw extractors quite a bit. well they tend to get left places or borrowed. So I painted the entire extractor orange so that I can see it acrost the hanger. Or if it gets dropped i can quickly find it. It was by luck that a extractor from a fellow student was found on the hanger floor. if It had been bright orange like mine. Instead of Steel colored I would have found it in 1/4 the time. So yes I suggest marking your tools

HOPE THIS HELPS
Sean Scott

 

[Indy_500]

I don't work anywhere with my tools but all of mine are marked so they don't end up in my dad's toolbox. Plus, in case i lend a tool to someone, they remember it's mine. I think it's worth it. I have a little engraver, i take it out every time i get some new tools.

 

[supertooljunkie]

When I first started buying nice tools, I marked them with my initials. As I got older I started keeping my tools in a tool roll or marking them with paint to keep track of them. When I was doing field service work, I kept everything except sockets in a tool roll or bought industrial finish tools that the plant maintenance guys would not have. Now I mark them with different colored electrical tape if I need to differentiate between other peoples tools.

 

[mkirkpatrick]

I don't work anywhere with my tools but all of mine are marked so they don't end up in my dad's toolbox. Plus, in case i lend a tool to someone, they remember it's mine. I think it's worth it. I have a little engraver, i take it out every time i get some new tools.

Wow Indy, that is harsh if your Dad is taking your tools, tell him to get his own I don't mark them, I have bought used tools that are marked, they still work just as good. If the resale price is lower, well then lets deal, maybe I will get it for a song when I buy them.

 

[Displaced Hokie]

I've scribed some, but I've stopped as I don't use them at work anymore. I've never had any really high dollar tools (S.O., etc), but when I worked at a shop I'd always take a new set of sockets or wrenches and hit them on one side with some spray paint to mark them. It helped me keep track of them big time.

In a similar vein, I made up a "shared" toolbox in one of our shops that various groups used. This box would keep them out of our main boxes. I layed the tools out in the drawers and just layed down the green paint. It shadowed the drawer so you could see where things went, and definately made the tools stand out and less likely to walk away.

 

[jride200]

On one of my first days of A&P school, I was told emphatically, by our very wise retired instructor no less, not to mark any of my tools. His reasoning was that marking alone was not sufficient to keep you from leaving a tool in an airplane (a very serious offense) and that each of us had to develop tool accountability from the get go. I suppose that its different, in different industries.

 

[mkdive]

I personally don't owner mark my hand tools, but I do mark my power tools. My cordless tool batteries get scratched with my name on the tops of them. The only way I would mark my hand tools is with those nifty etching processes. I would even like to make a cool logo if I were to go that route.

 

[cortez]

I mark all my tools by painting them bright yellow. As a contractor I run across many job sites where many subs have the same tools and before I started to paint them yellow many would disappear. Now I just say "Thanks for finding my hammer!! (or what ever tool is yellow).

Before I used to drill a small hole in the tool but this is easy to overlook and painting has worked for me for over 25 years (Most are spray painted).

I do not worry about losing any resale value of the tools as I intend to go to my grave with them painted yellow.

 

[FoMoCoPower]

I was at a garage sale last week and there were a bunch of USA wrenches there,ALL of them had holes drilled through them....guess that`s one way to mark em!!!