Projects Who needs a toolbox?

As I was reading Rocky's recent post I saw a photo that showed tools in the floor of his coupe and that reminded me of a photo I had of the wagon.

When you are working on a project it's amazing how many tools end up in the floor when your in just a weekend. HRP

 

I know just what you mean. I got to the point of just throwing all of the tools on the floor At the end of the day in the trunk. That way I would know where everything was the next time I got out there.

On the other hand, after not getting back out there for awhile and not being able to find my tools in their normal places, I was forced to clean out the trunk and the cycle started over.

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I don't have a garage so I do all my work next to the house, next to the only outlet outside, and the shed with all my tools is on the other side of the property. So I've been keeping the tools that i use the most in a plastic footlocker in front of the car

 

While working with my Dad , when he spotted a tool or two laying next to my job , he'd stop and say " if you're through with that , put it away ! " He passed away in 2009 , but when I use a tool out of his toolbox , it goe's right back where it came from . sacred stuff there

 

Am anal about it. Drives me nuts to go to my sons garage and dig through tools on the floor looking for a darn wrench.

 

I generally wipe off the tools and put them in the proper place when I can't find what I'm looking for.

I usually clean up when I am done for the week. HRP

 

That's a cool memory...

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Used to be anal about cleaning up/ putting tools away at the end of the day, but not quite so anymore. If the job's not finished, the tools stay out (as long as it's not a safety issue). When done, tools are cleaned and put in their proper place so I can find them (most of the time)! Do any of you know about the ''garage fairies'?!

 

I have the same problem,dont know how many hours ive wasted playing hide and seek with the tools?.they are usually right where i left them,have even been looking for something ive had in my hand,bet no ones ever done that. Harvey

 

Gremlins,I can pickup every tool I own but you can bet your last dollar when I need a 9/16" socket I can't find one to save my life but, when I don't need one they are the first socket I pick up. HRP

 

When I was a punk kid, my Dad would find his tools, that i'd been using to work on my bicycle with, with his lawnmower.
Sorta like a gas powered metal detector.

 

I used to be anal about it myself, not anymore. Tools lay with the job until done now.

Talked to an older gent a year or so ago. We got on this very subject, he said after 5 or 6 yrs he's couldn't take it any more. Walked into his garage with tools everywhere. Spent the entire weekend cleaning, rearranging tools and tool boxes. He said by Sunday night all was properly cleaned and put away.

Next weekend him and the wifey head away for 2 days, comes home and his garage is cleaned out. He said he was p#ssed off after all the work. Said insurance paid to replace the tools and that those tools are spread out all over the shop and gonna stay that way and the next person to break in will have to do the picking up and cleaning themselves.

 

I used to be real anal about it when I made my living with them. They were organized well enough that I could roll over to the tool box on the creeper, reach in grab the end wrench I needed and roll back under a car. now I am in the where the hell did I leave it club and spend more time looking for tools than I do actually working.

Years ago I worked with a guy in Waco that had worked all over town and was notorious for leaving his tools lay under a car or on the bench until he was done working on what he was working on or until he packed up and moved to another shop where there was more work. He told a story of working in one shop where he left a lot of tools under the car he was working on and the shop got robbed that night and his tools under the car were the only ones that didn't get stolen in the shop.

 

I used to use the running board for a bench. One day I was using my favorite 1/4" drive set of Protos in their own little metal box. Job done time to test drive & forget about the wrenches on the running board. Get back from the test drive & all is good so time to put the wrenches away & clean up. WHA HAPPENED ??? No Proto wrenches !! Retrace my tracks & can't find them damn I am pissed at Bob for being so stupid & forgetful. I made a lost tool sign & planted it on the corner where I thought they would have fallen off. What do you know the neighbor just happened to be coming home ,saw some neat collectable wrenches & picked them up. When he saw my sign he returned them. I thanked him & told him that the next time he had me do work ,for free, on his car that I would have some wrenches do it for him . Beings I had a shop & lift & tools & parts I was the neighborhood mechanic. Never charged (only had 4 neighbors ) for anything unless it was spendy.

 

Not quite as bad, but I can relate. If I don't finish this floor today, those tools will be right there waiting for me tomorrow! Once done, I do put everything back where it belongs.

 

Been there, done that. I've also found "lost" tools (mostly sockets) in my pockets when I'm emptying them out at the end of the day.

 

Dad no madder if I'd use a tool or not,would always say I lost the one he was looking for,were is it !! So with $ from mowinglawns around the block,went an got my own tools, in my own box by 13 Years old,they were not Craftman,like Dads,mine just cheepy WestrenAuto. But good enough when Dad needed one he could not find"That I had also lost" LOL, with out using it ! So as a kid how do you learn MM tools? from USA sizes,? if ya need just close? 1/2in. comes up lost the most,there for the unlucky 13 is the match for that,an 7/11 is EZ= 7/16 is 11mm for starters !!! Now fact is,every used car I get{never owned new} gets its own small tool kit. Being I've own 18 stationwagons over the years,most I used for towcars for my racecars,under the rear floor were they came with rear seats<removed in fav. of tool an spairparts space/ It's amazing how much I had in them,kept my racer going an even few a competors cars as well.

 

Bob, can relate to your story. Working on my 67 Chevy stepside and for some reason left my small toolbox on the pass. side step. Left my parents for home and guess what happened on the first left turn?! Back then my hearing was pretty good, so I heard the result and was able to get them picked up without getting run over. Those were days my friend..................

 

Now I feel like we are birds of a feather! HRP

 

I don't have a problem with misplacing tools or anything else. When I can't find the wrench or whatever I just put down I just ask my wife to look. She usually comes to the garage, takes a quick glance around and says "you mean this?" Yesterday that was a tiny set screw I'd dropped on the floor, I asked help after I'd spent a half hour looking. Honestly, she walked into the garage, looked at the floor and pointed to it ... sigh.

 

My plan was to clean out my 12 x 16 mini barn today but decided to do some work out there instead. I don't think it is the worse it has every, been but it is still crazy. My Daughter got me a small roll around tool box and about a month ago I filled and organized it. It is still some what organized but already a couple sockets, 9/16, 1/2, are missing. My Dad was a millright at a brake manufacturer and my Father in law worked on helicopters transmissions, and when they passed I was left with many many tools. My Dad passed 2 years ago and has 2 footlocker size chests I have not evened opened yet.
Here is a list of Metric/ SAE sockets comparisons. Jim
https://www.sears.com/articles/tool...kets-socket-sets/socket-conversion-table.html

 

I worked my whole working life as a mechanic. At the end of the shift we'd wipe all our tools down and put them back in our toolboxes, roll the box to the tool cage and lock up the cage.
It stuck and at the end of my day working on my car, my tools get wiped down and put away for tomorrow. That photo is of my car's floor in mid-thrash. At the end of the day it looks like this for tomorrow...............

 

That's why I've accumulated several 7/16, 1/2, 9/16, and 5/8 sockets and box/open wrenches at swap meets over the years. And some others as well. They all match all my other tools. If I forget where I laid one down it's not a big deal. I just get another one out. They all get put away as they are "found". Works for me anyway.

 

Rocky, love the warning sticker!

 

Prior to retiring, I was a mechanic. My tools were always put back at the end of the day. While i was doing a repair, I had a roll cart that I kept the tools that I was using close at hand. That has carried over to today. But, sometimes, my woodworking tools tend to gravitate to the workbench until the next day. Now, sometimes I just work until I'm too tired to put them away when I'm done.

 

I don't waste my valuable time putting tools away when I'm working in the garage, my basement, outside or wherever I happen to need tools.

I also don't waste my time searching for the tools that I didn't put away. I just go buy new ones - it takes less time and I now have about ten to twelve complete sets of tools to pass on as part of my estate. Most of them have only been used once - twice at the most....

 

It's not so much needing a tool box. I just need another work bench since the current bench became the tool box thus leading to having no where to set the part down so it can be fixed. Which then leads to fixing up the tools so I can fix the part is kind of how it works.

 

Funny how time changes so many things. Tool's and working on cars or anything have become an "experience' for me, for years, I was a very organized person in everything I did, not so much anymore. Now I can go out to garage, forget why I went and then was I coming or going, LOL. When I work on my junk, it always amazes me on how many duplicates of wrenches, sockets, etc. laying everywhere, I will have so many tools to put away, the positive, I'm fortunate to have too many tools, a lifetime of accumulation. I use glasses for reading, have several pairs everywhere in different strength for different uses and they always seem to disappear just like screw drivers, must have bought 200+ by now and still never have the one I need. Someone said, " Growing Old is not for Sissies " Thinking this is true as I'm trying to laugh at myself to offset the frustration of doing things that were so simple and now they are not. ANOTHER Positive, still reading/typing and making sense to me, Life is Good, Everyone have a Great Day !

 

Aint that the truth. I bet you and I aren't the only ones on here that do/have done that.