Art & Inspiration interesting/funny tool stories

I no longer loan out tools; here's why. This happened in about 1985. A friend, more of an acquaitance, asked to borrow my brass hammer, and I let him take it. Some time had gone by, and I needed it ; I used a regular hammer instead. A "zinger", sliver/piece of steel flew off the hammer, went right through my jeans, and into my right inner thigh/groin area. Could't get it out at home, and had to go into work that afternoon (X-Ray Tech). I was using a fluoroscopic X-Ray machine, with help from a coworker, trying to get it out. No luck, and we wound up recruiting an E.R. Dr. to help. We got it out finally. That little sliver of steel just missed the family jewels by about an inch.Next day I went looking for the guy who borrowed my brass hammer, and could't find him, anywhere. He had left for parts unknown, and to this day, I have no idea where he went. I NO LONGER LOAN OUT TOOLS!!! Not even to my nephew, who is more like the son I never had. Funny tool story? I am Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

A Customer of ours drives a bread delivery truck. Very attentive guy, notices a "Snap On" cardboard box on the side of the road. Circles back and finds the contents not far from the packing materials. A very nice portable scanner. He's happy to trade it for some brake work. We use it every day.

 

Butch, I never loan tools anymore either. The only tools I ever loaned out never came back again.
So "no, you can't borrow that.."

 

Its the same story as most of the stuff I have "found" Some of the best items are purely by accident. Found my mill and then pullmax while bored at work on a Saturday and decided to scan craigslist from far and wide.
I was buying small electric tools from an older women at the antique boat show flea market. After visiting her a half dozen times to grab this and that, bought out the whole basement of her late husbands tools.Three truck loads.He was a tool and die maker. jars and cans of everything from aluminum bolts to thousands of rivets. He worked at Bell Aerospace too. I have been using some of the multitude of tools and supplies from that buy for the better part of 20 years.I hope her late husband is looking down and approves.Sometimes having a pry bar up the a## is a very good thing.

 

lending tools ?
When I went into the service in '68, I left my set of Craftsman sockets and breaker bar at home for my Dad to use.
Well, my older brother thought that applied to him too.
When I returned, I noticed the breaker bar was..... broke! The square drive had sheared off.
Brother confessed he broke it. When asked how, he replied that he was attempting to change the wheel settings on his John Deere 70. He had it jacked up to lift the tire off the ground, and loosened the wedge bolts......that part was OK.
Then he put the socket & breaker bar on the pinion bolt and using all his strength, couldn't get it to move.
Added a 4' cheater pipe; still no go.
So he gets up on top of the cheater pipe/breaker bar and hanging onto the roof of the garage, jumps up and down on it. That's when it broke.
After looking it over some more, he finds out that there are 3 more bolts on the inside of the hub that are used to push the wedge out.

Well sh*t. Now what. No telling what Sears will say.
I go to the store and the guy says "we don't carry that breaker anymore" (oh, great)
Then he adds "this is the replacement" and hands me a new version that looks beefier.

Still got that one, and the visual of him jumping up and down on the breaker bar is still funny.

 

About 15 years ago, before Craftsman went Pacific Rim, I had to go to Sears to get something......forget what. As I was leaving the shop, I remembered an old Craftsman hacksaw that the plastic handle had broken off. It was very old and one of those cheesy ones with three notches in the frame for different blade lengths and a little wheel to set the tension. Basically, a POS, even when it was new. At Sears, the kid took a look at it and said, "Just a sec." He comes back and, almost apologetically says, "We don't carry that one anymore, is this one OK?". He hands me, probably, the top of the line, forged aluminum, lever action Craftsman saw. I casually look it over, acting very unimpressed, and say, "I guess it'll do". I got out of there quick, before his manager or some higher up arrived

 

Yea, lending tools will bite you in the butt. I let my brother's friend "borrow" a set of craftsman 3/8 drive shallow sockets to change a sbc water pump. That was 40 years ago! I've picked up a lot of Snap on and Mac tools over the years and if somebody asks to use them I say sure, as long as you use them here in my garage or give me the replacement amount in cash. Bring the tool back and you can have your money back. I was surprised when both my father in law and my brother thought my snap on 1/2 in rachet could also be used as a hammer. My wife said she heard me yelling all the way down the block !!

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I was doing alignments years ago and lost a good Snap On (owned by the shop) 3/4" box swivel and open end combo wrench. I figure I left it in a Mopar of some sort and it probably fell out from under the hood and into the street.

Fast forward 2 years. This Sebring comes in for a tires and an alignment. I say... no way, couldn't be. When it came down for an alignment, I popped the hood and the wrench was still on the eccentric cam, leaning against the valve cover. Which tells me that I was probably the last person to have closed the hood on the car 2 years earlier.

 

Another one. When I was at Sears as a kid, we had an old timer doing batteries and customers would clip tools from him now and then. One day he's cursing someone for stealing his battery pliers. A few days later the customer comes back, shows him the pliers and asks him if they were his. The old guy says yes, where did you find them? The customer pulls a fat repair bill out of his pocket and says "right in the middle of my radiator.". They must have been left under the hood and fell into the fan.

 

I once loaned my hedge trimmer to a neighbor a few houses down the street, when I needed it to trim my hedge I had to buy it back at his garage sale, LOL.

 

Believe it or not I split a 1 7/8" Craftsman deep well socket trying to remove a compensating nut on a Harley Davidson that some idiot must have installed with a impact wrench,possibly a bad casting but I darn near broke my fingers.

This was back when you could return broken tools for a replacement,the guy thought I had cut it down the middle. HRP

 

I blew apart an impact socket trying to get one of the struts off my O.T., unfortunately no replacement program around these days


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I went to a Pre-estate sale. The guy was a retired Navy machinist who went in in 1939.
After a couple of stories I told him I needed a drill press. He had a dandy. No prices on anything.
1957 South Bend bench model. I told him I only had $50.00. He said go get a bottle of beam and we'll talk.
He wanted $250.00, and at that, a bargain.
After a couple of drinks, he said if I could get in into the car, what was left of my 50 would be fine.
72 Suburban isn't low. I did it. He was impressed.
As I was recovering he came around the corner with an old wooden milk crate full of drill bits, from way back.
Same deal.
He was a hoot.

 

A friend was over the other day doing some work on his more modern van, and asked to borrow a 3/8 ratchet. I was happy to oblige, and told him all about my old Williams "Superratchet" that tool aficionados often call the best ratchet ever made, carefully handing it to him.

So I come back a few minutes later just as he is about to pull on it with a big ol' box wrench on the handle as a cheater!

 

I'm still missing a 1/2" beam type torque wrench that my bro loaned to someone decades ago... that grew legs.

 

sounds like it! how's it working now?
I would love a drill press, along with some where to put it.

 

I been looking for a sky hook for years now, ever since a buddy told me we needed one and to ask around.

Anybody have one I could buy or borrow?
.

 

A couple of Christmas' ago my mother thought it would be nice to get me a drill gun for Christmas, which I already had one. I take the receipt and the drill gun back to Lowe's and returned it. I'm guessing that the girl behind the counter gave me credit for everything that was on the receipt because I walked out of there with a tool chest, and a nice 1/2" Kobalt ratchet wrench

 

I found a Snap On 1/4" ratchet lodged in the front coil spring of the 57 Cadillac he just bought.

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I broke a Snap On 1/2" breaker bar. When the Snap On truck came by I asked for a replacement. The sales rep asked how I broke it. I told him I would tell him the story only after I had the new breaker bar. With the replacement in hand I started the tale. I was standing on a 6 foot cheater.....

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My buddy Greg came to my workplace about 8 yr ago to tell me his cancer was back and inoperable. We talked a good while and planned to do some stuff together. While talking I told him I wanted his special crescent wrench that he'd found and we always had a laff about it. He passed 3 weeks later and his wife brought me the wrench. I was honored that he'd mentioned it to her.

 

A few year ago I was headed home from a business trip and coming through a small town in southern Indiana. On the main street I spotted a small antique shop with some items out on the sidewalk in front of the store. When I walked up I noticed a 1/2 inch drive electric impact gun laying on the table marked $10. I picked it up and walked inside. The owner of the store explained that the price was so cheap because it only ran in one direction. He plugged it up and showed me that it worked. I said okay and bought the tool saying that maybe I could fix it when I got home. What he did not know was the trigger worked in different directions. It just had to be pushed the other way. I still use that impact all the time and it works great...in both directions.

 

Its fantastic. It needed some rewiring, all very basic and a new V-belt.
I've had it for 10 years and I love every minute I use it.
In addition to the box-o-bits, there were 2 drill press vices.
They needed lube, love and an occasional whack.
I had to use the cherry picker to get it on the bench.
I love having tools.

 

I got a Snap On box dated about then. Difference is I bought it new. Thanks for making me feel old!

Years ago I was helping my father in law do something and was digging threw his toolbox for a phillips screwdriver. Now his toolbox wasn't much, mostly junk and import stuff. Found an old wooden handled screwdriver but the tip was broken. Surprised me when I noticed it said Snap On. Took it to my snappy salesman, said warranty it. Like me he had never seen a wood handled Snap On, but lifetime is lifetime, gave me a brand new one. Turned out to be from 1923, tool guy never turned it in, was worth the cost of a new one to him just to keep it.
when my father in law passed away the family gave me the tools. Kept a nice old Snap On 1/2 drive ratchet ??? and that new screwdriver and threw the rest away. Never could figure out why a guy with such junk tools would have that ratchet, especially since I don't remember any sockets.

 

Lilblu82:
"i checked the date and it was made in July of 1976"

Is it just me that noticed that would make it a "bicentennial" tool box? Even made in July.

 

my brother loaned a die grinder to a friend of ours and kinda forgot about it. Moved to Arizona and visited back and forth over the years. One visit was at the friends house that borrowed the grinder 15 years earlier. Brother noticed the grinder with his name on it and said " thats my old grinder, why didnt you give it back". Reply was "you said i could use it till im done with it". Then says" im not done with it". Still got it, was funny

 

Very rare tool. Has standard on one end and metric on the other.

 

Back when I was "Pushing a toolbox" for a living (Industrial maintenance) we worked 3 eight hour shifts. We all parked our boxes together in the same area at the end of shift, and would pass on to the next guys what was fixed, broken, etc. If, and when, anyone would find another guys tool, we would politely lay it on the owners box. So it would happen once in a while that you would show up, and a wrench would be on your box. Cool, thanks guys.
One time I found this 7/16 combo wrench under a machine. It had "Ron H." engraved into it. I laid it on Ron's toolbox and went home. The next night I showed up and the same wrench was laying on MY box. I placed it back on Ron's box and worked the shift. (I was on 3rd, Ron on 2nd) the next day, I come in, Ron is mad as hell. "Quit putting sh!t on my box!" I said the wrench has your name on it...
"Bullshit!" he says and throws the wrench on the floor towards me, and walks off. I put it in my box, "Ron H." engraved in it. 25 years later I still have that thing, and since it was some off brand tool, it has become the bent, twisted, ground down nub of what it once was. I laugh every time I drag it out of the box!

 

Kinda neat story.When I was about 16,I decided to go fishing.Rode my bike instead of the taking car.Saw a big lumpy looking cloth bag beside the road.Was full of broken Craftsman tools.The bag weighed about 40 pounds.Cancelled the fishing trip.Went to the local Sears store and traded them in for all new stuff.Still using most of them today.Oh yeah.I`m now 71.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

 

In 1973 I had just purchased the house I still live in today. At the time I did not owe on anything except the house. I went to the bank, borrowed $3000 and spent it all on tools to stock my newly acquired garage. In 1973 that bought a lot of tools at Sears. $3000 then would be the same as $17,000 today. Of course I have added tools since then but I am glad I had the foresight to borrow the money and buy all those tools back then.